From left to right: onions, potatoes, three kinds of squash, green beans, tomatoes, cantaloupe
This is the time of year when there is much hand-wringing and pessimism about the garden. I'm normally an optimistic person, but when it comes to plants I'm trying to grow, I automatically get all doomsday. "They're never gonna grow! Bugs are eating them alive! Nothing's going to happen...this soil is terrible! Why aren't they growing fast enough! It's all my fault...I'm a horrible gardener!"
New potatoes and onions
All this is followed by a nasty case of Garden Envy, wherein I go around comparing my garden to any other garden I see.
"Look at that garden! Their squash is, like, three times bigger than ours!" I whine. The bratty teenage girl rears her ugly head. "Their tomato bushes are three feet tall and bushy, and ours are short and whimpy! It's not fair!!!"
Celebrity tomato plant
I'm not afflicted with false modesty. You see, the fact is: I do not like gardening. It gives me feelings of inadequacy and helplessness that are in sharp contrast to my status as a control freak.
What I like is fresh vegetables. What I like is going out to the garden, picking my dinner, and cooking it. I do not care for soil preparation, fertilization/food ratios, and bug identification. All that smells vaguely of math and science, two subjects I vowed to avoid ever since declaring my English major.
Cilantro, basil, chives
I'm well aware that I'm four to six well-pointed Google searches away from all the gardening answers I need, but the thing is I'd rather use that time to bake some bread. Gardening just doesn't interest me. I wish I could just plant the seeds and return six to eight weeks later to some lovely, full-grown, and fruitful vegetable plants.
Red bell pepper plant
I'm open to suggestions. If you see something in these photographs that I'm clearly doing wrong -- like that it's scientifically proven that bell peppers won't grow in a red pot or that since moss only grows on the north side of a tree, cantaloupe can only be planted on Tuesdays -- please let me know. It may as well be Greek to me.
This one looks like she might have some gardener in her
And I'm sure you're wondering what happened in my quest to straighten out the errant baby squash. I attempted to replant them, but they didn't make it. Turns out errant squash are meant to bloom where they're planted. In their honor, I'm choosing to leave the new errant squash that popped up in between rows alone.
My son started riding a two-wheel bike at the abnormally young age of three-and-a-half. It's a skill that I'm proud to say I taught him all by myself; a feat that stands second only to potty training when it comes to motherly pride.
It wasn't too long before I realized that running after your son on his bike while trying to tote a little sister is as fun as a stick in the eye, so a couple years ago Zach and I invested in bikes of our own. I was your average bike rider as a kid -- I sported the ten-speed that I rode back and forth to friends' houses and occasionally jack-knifed on the curb. Then in college I rode a $18 second-hand Huffy to get back and forth to class.
We aimed a little higher on the bike chain this time and got some pretty nice mountain bikes with the thought that maybe we'd try to hit some trails one day.
My bike: a Fuji Odessa
Zach's bike: a Jamis AL6061
Last summer we left the kids with their grandparents to try out a mountain bike trail, and it took about 2.5 minutes before I was hooked.
Now, I should say that I'm no adrenalin junky. As sacrilegious as it sounds to most people, I've only been skiing a handful of times despite growing up in Colorado. This is the result of my dislike of a) being cold, b) being out of control, and c) spending six months' worth of babysitting income on ski rental, lift tickets, and transportation. For me, skiing was a wicked combination of all three. So I wasn't sure how I'd feel about the mountain biking.
Turns out it's just the right amount of crazy. It's definitely not cold out there, and I feel in control enough of myself and the bike that I'm not going to careen into a ravine. (I hope this post is not tempting fate...I've not had a terrible fall yet. After a good tumble the title of this post very well may be changed to "Mountain Biking, You Miserable Hag.")
This weekend we went for our third mountain bike ride of all time, the first for the year. All three times we've ridden the DORBA Trail at Cedar Hill State Park. DORBA stands for Dallas Off-Road Bicycle Association, and I could kiss the members of this group for their dedication to creating and maintaining such an awesome mountain bike trail.
Much of the Dallas Metroplex is flat and tree-less, but the Cedar Hill area is blessed with a forest of cedar trees (obviously) and "mountains" (I am contractually obligated as a former Coloradan to put the term mountain in quotation marks when referring to any hill in Texas) made of limestone. At 850 feet above sea level, Cedar Hill has the highest elevation between the Red River and the Gulf Coast.
The bike trail has an awesome mix of hills and flat sections, forested areas and open areas next to Joe Pool Lake. It didn't take me long to get back into the groove this year of using my legs and body to balance my bike and guide it between trees and over the skinny bridges that terrified me just a little last year.
Never been mountain biking before? Here's a taste of it from a guy who filmed himself riding the trail at Cedar Hill State Park. (I should note that I think he rides much faster than me. I'm generally the one in back of the group, taking my time.) This video looks exactly how it feels to ride the trail:
It's kind of like riding a roller coaster, right? But mountain biking is better exercise -- in our 8-mile, hour-and-a-half bike ride my average heart rate was solidly in my target zone at 135, and I burned well over 500 calories. My legs felt strong throughout the course, and I think next time we get the chance to ride we'll attempt the 12-mile route.
I am so glad that my fitness level is such that I can take on a new sport at 32 (now 33) years old. Powering through the sharp turns, rocketing down the hills, hitting rocks and skidding out, and taking the occasional fall is so exhilarating. It makes me feel like a kid again.
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Workout of the Day
RevAbs: Power Intervals and Pull Ups. This Fifty Pull Ups thing is no joke, man. It's getting hard! I had to do sets of 6, 6, 5, 4, 3 today -- Zach's was 10, 10, 9, 7, 5. I was out of gas pretty quickly and it got ugly.
WFAA Channel 8 in Dallas has a segment on their morning news called "Money Saving Mom" with Laura Thornquist. Most of the time Laura tells you how you can get a free taco from Jack In the Box or that wearing a purple polka dot shirt on Thursday at Ben & Jerry's will get you free sprinkles on your ice cream cone.
But a few months ago she called out a deal from a company called Zaycon Foods. They were offering natural, hormone-free chicken breasts for $1.99 a pound; the only catch was that you had to buy 40 pounds of it. "$1.99 a pound!" I thought. "That's incredible! The chicken filled with raging hormones at Walmart is, like, at least $3.99 a pound!"
So I got on the Internet immediately and started checking out this Zaycon company. Turns out they are based out of Washington state, and they are like the Groupon of meat sales.
Here's how it works:
(table from the Zaycon Foods website)
COMBINED
BUYING
POWER
2) DIRECT
FARM-TO-
CONSUMER
3) SOLD BY
THE CASE
4) SELECT
PRODUCTS
5) SALES EVENT
MODEL
We combine the buying power of many families together, enabling us to negotiate huge savings on food purchases for your family
We bring products direct from the farm / processor (or as nearly as direct as possible). The products are as fresh as if you had your own farm, but without all the chores
We sell food products only by the case. No extra costs for handling. And no more empty shelves in your pantry
We sell only what we eat ourselves—high quality, healthy food. Our focus is on a select number of commonly consumed food items such as fresh meats like chicken, beef, turkey, pork and fish
Our unique sales event approach turns traditional food purchasing on its ear. Convenient, quick, organized—about 2 minutes and you never even need to get out of your car
I placed an order for the chicken, showed up in the specified church parking lot at the assigned day and time, and a 40-pound box of chicken breasts was placed in my car by a nice man who checked my order confirmation. I went home, opened the box, and was greeted by heaps of positively gigantic chicken breasts.
(Funny aside: it was at that time I sent Zach a text that said: "I have big, beautiful breasts...Chicken breasts, that is!")
I played amateur butcher for about 45 minutes that night, butterflying the breasts and putting them in Ziploc bags so that they could be frozen. When it was time to eat the chicken, I ended up cutting the breasts horizontally because they are so big and I wanted them to cook quickly. I grilled them up, and they were delicious.
A few weeks ago I got a message from Zaycon indicating that they were having a ground beef event. I placed another order, this time with the intention of splitting it with my sister (we still have some venison in the freezer, so I don't currently need 40 pounds of ground beef).
I picked it up Saturday, and it looks great. It's certified to be "pink-slime" free (which is a nice bonus), and the meat is about as fresh as it gets.
If you're not happy with what you're getting at the grocery store, search for other options. There are farmer's markets, you can grow your own garden, you can hook up with companies like Zaycon who are committed to bringing people good food at good prices.
I highly recommend getting on Zaycon Food's email list so that you know when they are coming to town. I've been really pleased with their service and their products. Here is a special link that indicates that I referred you!
"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." -- Lao-tzu, Chinese Philosopher
Susie Johnson is my friend, neighbor, and partner in clean eating crime. She is intimately aware of the havoc that a lifetime of poor eating habits can wreak on a body. More than 30 years of indiscriminate fast food, soda, chips, and sweets resulted in a tumor in her small intestine and a host of other gastrointestinal problems that nearly took her life. The warnings she had before her major medical episode two years ago -- chronic constipation and occasional headaches -- were annoying, but not enough to trigger the realization that her nutrition was acting as a slow toxin in her body.
After a long recovery -- one that included nearly three months with an open wound in her gut -- Susie began to change her diet and saw amazing changes in her health and recovery. Since that time she has become a distributor for Juice Plus, a whole food supplement, and a champion for clean eating. She shares her story and educates groups, particularly moms, about how to introduce fresh fruits and vegetables into everyday living.
It was at one of her meetings that she got a request from an audience member to please come to the grocery store and show her how to shop for healthy food. The overwhelming sentiment of the audience was that the task of sorting through the "bad" and the "good" was overwhelming and confusing.
That request has turned into a burgeoning business for Susie, who has started regular meetings with small groups at Sunflower Farmer's Market in Dallas. I was lucky enough to tag along on one of her classes yesterday as she took the three of us through each area of the store and discussed how to make healthy choices in each department.
In the bread aisle we talked about how "whole wheat flour" needs to be the first ingredient on the label, and to avoid anything that says "bleached" or "enriched." In the meat department we talked about avoiding nitrates and sodium, and ammonia-treated pink slime in ground beef. In the vegetable department we talked about being adventurous, trying new things, and learned about "the dirty dozen." She encouraged us to make baby steps to gradually introduce good habits and drop bad ones.
Her students took notes and asked questions. We shared tips and promised to send recipes when we got home.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, but sometimes we need a little nudge to start the trip. Susie is helping each of her students start down the path to clean eating, and after attending the class I am convinced more than ever that this is how the obesity epidemic will be solved -- by one on one interaction and genuine concern about how our neighbors and friends are feeding themselves and their children.
Not everyone has the time or interest level needed to research the foods that will promote optimal health, so those of us that do need to make every effort to make that information simple to understand and easy to digest (pun intended).
We need to make smart choices for ourselves and our families, and be an example in our communities. This weekend is Easter. Take the opportunity to share a healthy dish with family at the potluck dinner, and then take a walk or a bike ride after the meal. Let's get started on the long journey.
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Workout of the Day
RevAbs: Power Intervals, then pull ups. 23 for me, 41 for Zach (in five sets)
The May issue of Oprah Winfrey's "O" Magazine features an article about Darin Olien's journey across the globe searching for the exotic ingredients that go into Shakeology. It's an in-depth, 11-page article that chronicles his journeys, his relationships with the indigenous farmers, and the benefits of the ingredients that they are only beginning to understand.
Now before Oprah releases her legal hounds on me, I should note that Oprah doesn't endorse Shakeology, nor does she drink it, as far as I know. (But she should! Hi Oprah...Call me! Place an order through www.shakeology.com/CoachSusanH and I'll throw in a free shaker cup...minus a small shipping and handling cost of a billion jillion dollars.)
The article, entitled "Good Morning World," underscores the primary reason why Zach and I choose to drink Shakeology, which is the ability to put a plethora of healthy ingredients into our bodies with one easy shake. "Shakeology contains more than 70 ingredients itself," Susan Casey writes. It's a "...crazy cornucopia of good."
Casey travels with Olien to Peru, where she samples maca, a relative of the radish that is thought to boost endurance and balance hormones. Then they find aguaje, cacao, granadilla, yacon...each with its own properties that feed the body in unique and amazing ways.
Sacha inchi, another superfruit
Olien began working to find the ingredients for Shakeology back in 2008, when Beachbody CEO Carl Daikeler asked him to develop "The Healthiest Meal of the Day."
"Daikeler gave Olien no limits on quality, no cost/revenue restrictions; the goal was to shoot the moon, to seek out and combine the most extraordinary plants, fruits, nuts, herbs -- nature's secret weapons...Since hitting the market in March 2009 more than 400,000 bags of Shakeology...have been sold."
Here is a Beachbody-produced video about Olien, a.k.a. The Ingredient Hunter:
It's a great article, and a great shake. I highly recommend both!
Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution: Observation of the Week
In last night's episode, Jamie teamed up with 10 students for a culinary arts course. One of the students, 17-year-old Sophia, had parents and a 13-year-old sister already suffering from Type-2 Diabetes. Reality TV show dramatics aside, Sophia really did seem like someone perched on a railroad track with a train barreling toward her, powerless as to how to get off.
Even if Sophia wanted to eat healthy, she doesn't know how -- and she's not the one buying the food. Have we strayed so far that we don't realize what's healthy and what's not? Once the "bad" food is out of sight and in our bodies, we don't give it a second thought as to the havoc it wreaks internally.
Every week I see three- and four-year-old kids wandering around the ball field with Dr Pepper bottles and radioactive orange cheese nachos. Then those parents wonder why they have trouble getting their kids to sleep at night. Maybe it's the 14 teaspoons of sugar and caffeine they just drank...you think? We have got to be smarter than this.
Today I want to share two recipes with you that are on opposite ends of the sophistication spectrum. The first is a snack I've been enjoying lately that is on par with something a three-year-old might like to eat -- well, not my almost three-year-old, but maybe one with a normal outlook on food. The second recipe is a fancy dish I whipped up for dinner last night.
Ever heard of "Ants on a Log?"
That's a sneaky mom code name for "celery with peanut butter and raisins." And it's, as my kids would say, "deewishus." I can't get enough of it lately! It's the perfect amount of crunchy, salty, and sweet.
Now for some food that three-year-olds would look at disdain. (And five-year-olds, too, I can confirm.)
It's Peppers Stuffed with Cinnamon Bulgur (actually, I used cous cous) from the faithful red-and-white-checked Better Homes and Gardens cookbook.
I had never eaten or made stuffed peppers before, but while I was perusing my cookbooks during my menu making last week, I saw this picture and recipe and was intrigued.
I think that normally peppers are stuffed with some combination of cream cheese and sausage, but this is much healthier. Here's the recipe:
Peppers stuffed with cinnamon bulgur
1-3/4 cups water
1/2 cup shredded carrot
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 teaspoon instant vegetable or chicken bouillon granules
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 inches stick cinnamon or dash ground cinnamon
3/4 cup bulgur or plain cous cous
1/3 cup dried cranberries or raisins
2 large or 4 small sweet peppers, any color*
3/4 cup shredded Muenster, brick, or mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons sliced almonds or chopped pecans, toasted
directions
In a large skillet stir together the 1-3/4 cups water, carrot, onion, bouillon granules, salt, and cinnamon. Bring to boiling. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 5 minutes. Stir in bulgur and cranberries. Remove from heat. Cover and let stand for 5 minutes. If using stick cinnamon, remove from the bulgur mixture. Drain off excess liquid.
Meanwhile, halve the sweet peppers lengthwise, removing the seeds and membranes.
Stir shredded cheese into bulgur mixture; spoon into sweet pepper halves. Place sweet pepper halves in skillet. Add the 1/2 cup water. Bring to boiling. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 5 to 10 minutes or until sweet peppers are crisp-tender and bulgur mixture is heated through. Sprinkle with nuts. Makes 4 main-dish servings.
I felt so fancy eating these! While I didn't take photos of my peppers, I will say that they looked just like the picture in the cookbook, which is always gratifying. Another bonus was that it only took about 30 minutes from start to finish.
So my tip of the week is: be adventurous! Don't be afraid to try new things, and also don't be afraid to embrace your inner child when it comes to cool snacks.
The exciting news around here this week is that I got myself and new pair of shoes. Yes, new shoes qualify as "exciting news."
My two previous pairs shoes were Asics running shoes, and while they were great and really comfortable, I have come to the realization that I don't run much anymore. Maybe a couple times a month in the spring and summer; I'm a fair-weather runner, you see. If it's the slightest bit cold or windy, I won't do it. This is kind of weird considering running used to be my primary choice of exercise. P90X will do that to you!
So I had been looking for several months for a cross-training shoe that was nice and light, and didn't have a giant sole. Here's what I found at Academy for the very reasonable price of $29.99:
In the past, some of my favorite shoes have been Adidas trail runners, so it's nice to go back to my roots. I really dig the pink shoelaces, and if you look closely you can see some cute flowers on these, too! Functional and girly -- a winning combination:
What kind of shoes are you rocking these days? Reebok? New Balance? Nike? I've never been a Nike fan; their shoes always seem to have too little arch support and cushioning for my tastes.
Here's the shoes my daughter prefers nowadays:
A true Texan.
And because it's Friday and this cracked me up, here's a random picture of Kate at nap time this week. She is wearing socks on her hands. I have no idea why.
Have a great weekend, everybody! Tomorrow morning I'll be hosting a Shakeology table (with samples!) at the 4th Annual Raider Pride Booster Club 5K in Sunnyvale. Race starts at 9 a.m. Come by and see me!
Zach and I have signed up for the Survival Race that takes place in our town this April 30. It looks like a spectacular, muddy mess, and I am super excited about it. Check it out!
You can still register if you want to join in the fun! Let me know if you decide to join up.
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I tuned in for the first installment of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution last night, and I wasn't disappointed. The most striking thing about the episode, in my opinion, was Jamie's interaction with the fast food restaurateur. Despite his best efforts to come up with semi-healthy alternatives, Jamie was roundly rebuked for his efforts because the owner, much like the rest of America, does not believe there is a problem!
There were only a handful of people at the "bus full of sugar" demonstration because people do not think it is a problem! Until we collectively decide that being fat and unhealthy is not a way to live, the Food Revolution is destined to flounder and possibly fail. I really hope that's not the case.
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OK, people, only one day left in the Shakeology Snap Your Success contest. I have no idea how I'm doing on votes, so I still need your help! You can vote once per day, so try to hit it today and tomorrow!
Here's a little incentive for you: the prize is a bag of Shakeology and a workout program of my choice. I do not need an extra bag of Shakeology, so there is a very good chance that I will be giving it away in a contest of some sort. They are giving the prize to the top five entries, so be sure to vote!
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I never told you guys how the prom turned out! It was really fun, and the girls wore so many pretty dresses. Here's a photo of Zach and I before we left for our big date.
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Workout of the Day
RevAbs: Power Intervals and Pull Ups. I did 19 today...not in a row, but in sets. I think I'm getting stronger!
I don't watch as much television as I used to. The 5 a.m. workouts necessitate an early bedtime, and I have been known to geriatrically declare that "9:00 is just too late to be starting a show." Couple that with bath time/story time from 7 to 8 p.m., and it just doesn't leave much time for T.V.
Last year the "Naked Chef" crashed Huntington, West Virginia in an effort to clean up the diets of America's unhealthiest city, and this year he's heading to Los Angeles. It's on ABC at 7 p.m. Central time, so I won't be asleep yet.
While reality shows aren't generally my thing -- I've never watched American Idol, and Dancing with the Stars baffles me to no end -- the Food Revolution show is right up my alley. Jamie is all about cooking fresh food and enlightening the masses about the crap that's in crappy food.
My favorite episode from last season was when he attempted to gross out a group of school kids with the reality of what goes in a processed chicken nugget. Witness the epic failure:
Here's hoping Los Angeles goes a little better! Tune in tonight to find out.
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In other exciting, but not at all fitness-related T.V. news, Friday Night Lights is back this week, too! If you haven't been watching this show, go to Netflix and rent it. It is the best, I love it, and I am sad that this is its last season. It's not just about football, and the acting is absolutely great. Tami Taylor is my fictional Mom hero.
My other rousing T.V. endorsement goes to Shark Tank, the ABC show that puts entrepreneurs seeking investors in front of a panel of five millionaires. Between the sometimes brilliant, sometimes ridiculous ideas the entrepreneurs pitch and the raging egos of the millionaires, this show is never boring. Bonus points for airing at a sensible hour! 7 p.m.Central time.
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Workout of the Day
RevAbs: Total Strength and Mercy Abs
One of the most sage pieces of nutrition advice I ever read was "Count Ingredients, Not Calories." The idea behind that statement is that the fewer ingredients a food contains, the healthier it is, and in turn, the healthier you will be.
Last night I wondered if I could go a whole day eating items that only had one ingredient: spinach, apple, banana, tomato, etc. Then I thought I should throw that challenge out to you, too.
Can you go one whole day eating only "whole" foods?
I should clarify a few things: first, you can mix foods. For example, a salad can contain spinach, eggs, chicken, carrots, tomatoes, green peppers, even an olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing...anything that "is what it is." All of those things have no additives, no preservatives, no triple-gluco-dynacellulose-gooseberrylicious-hydrocephalyde-with-a-twist.
What you can't have are most things that come in a box (with a few exceptions; oatmeal comes in a container, but the ingredients are only oats).
Here are a few options if you're considering this challenge:
You might think that you'd have to avoid bread completely, but I'd argue that you can have bread...if you make it yourself. If you were to mix all the "single ingredients" such as flour and milk together and they came out to be bread, you'd still be golden!
I guess the main point of this challenge is to embrace foods that don't have to be released from a vacuum sealed bag in order to enjoy them. Does the food even have an ingredient list? Then it probably won't be approved in this challenge.
Could you do this? What would you miss? I know I would miss my Kashi GoLean Crunch and Cheerios cereal that I snack on throughout the day.
So what do you think? Pick a day over the next week or so and make it a "Single Ingredient" day.
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Remember a couple weeks ago when I put on my 17-year-old prom dress to see if it still fit?
Beachbody is running a contest called "Shakeology Snap Your Success and Win," and I entered my side-by-side prom photos for a chance to win a free bag of Shakeology and a Beachbody exercise program of my choice.
Will you help me win? Voting takes place on Facebook, and you can view my entry here:
My picture is on the second to last row, last on the line. You can vote once per day until the contest ends on Thursday. (Edited to add: OK, I'm not on the second page anymore, I'm on the first. Just look for the gal in the same black dress side by side...there are only 2.5 pages of entries.)
A few months ago I noticed McDonald's started offering oatmeal alongside its usual McMuffin breakfast fare.
When I saw the commercial, I wondered aloud to Zach how badly they could have screwed up something as wholesome as oatmeal. Well, turns out it's pretty bad.
Here is an informative and enlightening editorial from the New York Times' Mark Bittman.
February 22, 2011By MARK BITTMAN One “positive” often raised about McDonald’s is that it sells calories cheap. But since many of these calories are in forms detrimental rather than beneficial to our health and to the environment, they’re actually quite expensive — the costs aren’t seen at the cash register but in the form of high health care bills and environmental degradation.There’s a feeling of inevitability in writing about McDonald’s latest offering, their “bowl full of wholesome” — also known as oatmeal. The leading fast-food multinational, with sales over $16.5 billion a year (just under the G.D.P. of Afghanistan), represents a great deal of what is wrong with American food today. From a marketing perspective, they can do almost nothing wrong; from a nutritional perspective, they can do almost nothing right, as the oatmeal fiasco demonstrates. Oatmeal is on the other end of the food spectrum. Real oatmeal contains no ingredients; rather, it is an ingredient. As such, it’s a promising lifesaver: oats are easy to grow in almost any non-extreme climate and, minimally processed, they’re profoundly nourishing, inexpensive and ridiculously easy to cook. They can even be eaten raw, but more on that in a moment. Like so many other venerable foods, oatmeal has been roundly abused by food marketers for more than 40 years. Take, for example, Quaker Strawberries and Cream Instant Oatmeal, which contains no strawberries, no cream, 12 times the sugars of Quaker Old Fashioned Oats and only half of the fiber. At least it’s inexpensive, less than 50 cents a packet on average. (A serving of cooked rolled oats will set you back half that at most, plus the cost of condiments; of course, it’ll be much better in every respect.) A more accurate description than “100 percent natural whole-grain oats,” “plump raisins,” “sweet cranberries” and “crisp fresh apples” would be “oats, sugar, sweetened dried fruit, cream and 11 weird ingredients you would never keep in your kitchen.” The oatmeal and McDonald’s story broke late last year, when Mickey D’s, in its ongoing effort to tell us that it’s offering “a selection of balanced choices” (and to keep in step with arch-rival Starbucks) began to sell the cereal. Yet in typical McDonald’s fashion, the company is doing everything it can to turn oatmeal into yet another bad choice. (Not only that, they’ve made it more expensive than a double-cheeseburger: $2.38 per serving in New York.) “Cream” (which contains seven ingredients, two of them actual dairy) is automatically added; brown sugar is ostensibly optional, but it’s also added routinely unless a customer specifically requests otherwise. There are also diced apples, dried cranberries and raisins, the least processed of the ingredients (even the oatmeal contains seven ingredients, including “natural flavor”). Since we know there are barely any rules governing promotion of foods, one might wonder how this compares to real oatmeal, besides being 10 times as expensive. Some will say that it tastes better, but that’s because they’re addicted to sickly sweet foods, which is what this bowlful of wholesome is. Others will argue that the McDonald’s version is more “convenient.” This is nonsense; in the time it takes to go into a McDonald’s, stand in line, order, wait, pay and leave, you could make oatmeal for four while taking your vitamins, brushing your teeth and half-unloading the dishwasher. (If you’re too busy to eat it before you leave the house, you could throw it in a container and microwave it at work. If you prefer so-called instant, flavored oatmeal, see this link, which will describe how to make your own). If you don’t want to bother with the stove at all, you could put some rolled oats (instant not necessary) in a glass or bowl, along with a teeny pinch of salt, sugar or maple syrup or honey, maybe some dried fruit. Add milk and let stand for a minute (or 10). Eat. Eat while you’re walking around getting dressed. And then talk to me about convenience. The aspect one cannot argue is nutrition: Incredibly, the McDonald’s product contains more sugar than a Snickers bar and only 10 fewer calories than a McDonald’s cheeseburger or Egg McMuffin. (Even without the brown sugar it has more calories than a McDonald’s hamburger.) The bottom-line question is, “Why?” Why would McDonald’s, which appears every now and then to try to persuade us that it is adding “healthier” foods to its menu, take a venerable ingredient like oatmeal and turn it into expensive junk food? Why create a hideous concoction of 21 ingredients, many of them chemical and/or unnecessary? Why not try, for once, to keep it honest? I asked them this, via e-mail: “Why could you not make oatmeal with nothing more than real oats and plain water, and offer customers a sweetener or two (honey, the only food on earth that doesn’t spoil, would seem a natural fit for this purpose), a packet of mixed dried fruit, and half-and-half or — even better — skim milk?” Their answer, via e-mail and through a spokesperson (FMO is “fruit and maple oatmeal”): “Customers can order FMO with or without the light cream, brown sugar and the fruit. Our menu is entirely customizable by request with our ‘Made for You’ platform that has been in place since the late 90s.” Oh, please. Here’s the thing: McDonald’s wants to get people in the store. Once a day, once a week, once a month, the more the better, of course, but routinely. And if you buy oatmeal, they’re O.K. with that. But they know that, once inside, you’ll probably opt for a sausage biscuit anyway. And you won’t be much worse off. ***********Workout of the DayRevAbs: Fire Up Your Abs
I, too, was once firmly in the "I hate yoga" camp. Zach and I begrudgingly did the yoga for our first 90 days through the program before bagging it altogether for about the next year and a half.
What's with the yoga, anyway? You're contorted in weird positions, holding yourself stationary, breathing in and out, in and out. You're not jumping, you're not lifting something really heavy, you're not covering ground. Pointless, right?
Wrong!
Last September when we went to see Tony Horton live, we did two workouts with him, one of which was yoga. He harped on yoga virtually the whole day, and said that if he had to choose only one workout to do for the rest of his life, it would be yoga. Why? Because it builds strength. It increases flexibility. It helps you recover faster. It quiets your mind and helps you focus.
"Gah! I still hate yoga!" I said when he was talking. But that day planted a seed in our mind about maybe giving yoga another chance.
Don't wish it was easier, wish you were better!
After that meeting we put yoga back into the workout rotation and started actually applying ourselves. I stopped grumbling about it, and started trying to get better at it. And lo and behold, I started looking forward to it...a little. Then we would occasionally do a bonus yoga workout on the weekends. My transition from chaturanga to upward dog went from a hurky-jerky mess to a smooth movement. I could hold the plank positions for a little longer. I could hold "Crane" for 30 seconds...then 40...then 50. I found myself incorporating the deep breathing throughout my day.
On Valentine's Day this year, I surprised Zach with a visit to a yoga class at a local gym. Even though we had never done a formal class, we held our own just fine with the rest of the participants.
Maybe you think yoga isn't fun or isn't for you. But before you give up, give it a fair shake. Give it a chance to do the things it's designed to do. If I can't convince you, maybe Tony Horton can:
(Video courtesy of superstar Beachbody Coach Monica Ward from Phoenix.)
This weekend I had the pleasure of hosting a Shakeology table at the Lion's Dash 5K, a small charity run for a Christian school in Rockwall, Texas. It was a great morning for a run, and about 40 people gathered to raise money for the school.
I met some really nice people and was able to tell them a bit about Shakeology, P90X, and some other Beachbody products.
It was super windy!
After the runners crossed the finish line, they were directed to the hospitality table, where there was water, oranges, bananas, and...about 15 Cici's pizzas. Wah waaaaah.
"Seriously?" I thought. "Cici's pizzas? At 8:30 in the morning? Pizza?" All those people got themselves out of bed, drove to the race, ran 3.1 miles, and then quite a few of them ate a slice or two of pizza, negating any good they may have done by exercising that morning.
Over the past few years I have learned that fitness is about 20% what you do and 80% what you eat. You can exercise till you're blue in the face, but if you shove a few pieces of pizza down your pie hole when you're done, you may as well have just sat on the couch.
We have a long way to go in understanding good nutrition in this country, but you would think a 5K event would give credence to the importance of healthy eating. I guess it's time to go back to the drawing board.
Yesterday we kicked things off with Total Strength and Mercy Abs, and this morning was Fire Up Your Abs. So far, I really like this program. Despite its ab-centric title, this is a full-body workout. Total Strength had lunges, squats, and cardio. Today we were holding a lot of planks, doing some interval cardio work, and some ab work.
The one thing this program doesn't have is pull ups. Zach and I don't want to lose our pull up muscles while we're on the RevAbs Challenge, so we found an online program called 7 Weeks to 50 Pull-ups.
The program consists of five sets of pull-ups of varying number performed three days per week. Do I really think that I will be able to do 50 pull-ups at the end of seven weeks? Um, probably not. But maybe I could do 20? Who knows...I'm going to give it a try and see what happens. If Zach or I get into the 25 to 30 pull-ups at a time range, I will be posting a video as proof of our feat!
