The shape of things

Pretty much every day at work when 2:30 rolls around I get a little bit of a sweet tooth. Nothing decadent, but just a small desire for some sugar. Normally I satisfy it by either running out to the coffee shop, grabbing some fro yo, or digging around in my very small fun-sized candy drawer. Obviously none of these are very smart or fulfilling choices - they won't ruin my diet - but they won't help it either.

I've tried my fair share of granola bars, whole wheat crackers and chips, nut mixes, craisin mixes, etc. All of these were yummy - but nothing to really keep me coming back for more and more.

I was reading through the December issue of Shape Magazine and saw their annual healthy snack feature. They outlined tons of snacks from your savory, to sweet, to creamy, etc. etc. I read through the list and one item in particular caught my eye - the fiber one oats and chocolate bars.

These bars have 35% of your daily fiber in them (9 grams!) and according to the test tasters, they're deliciously sweet and decadent too. And if you're not sold on the benefits of a high-fiber diet, read why you should be!

I bought them yesterday at the store, and today when 2:30 rolled around I pulled one out. Let me just say - they're delicious! Really, and I'm extremely picky about these things. They are chewy and chocolate-y and sweet and savory all rolled up into one - and all for 140 calories.

I'm really excited to have this healthy snack for my sweet tooth break. The best part is that it's extremely portable, so unlike chopped fruit and peanut butter, I can just shove it in my handbag in the morning and go. Love it.

Read more about the bars here. Tell me what your favorite sweet snack is and why.

Hope everyone had a great and relaxing weekend. Here are some interesting articles I've found in the health-news world that I thought you may be interested in:

Don't use the D word to overweight teens - a new study found that teens who are overweight and are told to "diet" or who are teased by family and friends resort to eating disorder tactics like bingeing and purging. The researchers suggested that parents of overweight children should not tell their kids to diet since it's a stigmatizing word - instead they should promote a balanced lifestyle and start cooking some healthy family meals.

Confused about what to eat to lower cancer risk? Read this! - Self put together a list of tried and true foods that will lower your cancer risk (and won't change every other month with new research). Want to lower your risk? Eat HIGH fiber anything, a lot of Vitamin D and calcium and cruciferous veggies (like broccoli, brussel sprouts and kale).

Which jobs rank highest in rates of depression? Child care workers and elderly-care workers. Coming in at a close second is food-service workers. Another interesting finding was that those people who worked full time (in any industry) were less likely to be depressed. Read the article for some more interesting information.

I'm a huge advocate of counting calories for weight loss. It wasn't until I fully understood the concept of calories in needs to be less than or equal to calories out that I started actually losing weight. I did it the old-fashioned way. I got a notebook and wrote down every single thing I consumed - food and drink - and tallied up the calories to make sure I was meeting my goals.

I saw this article today on MSNBC about how sometimes counting calories doesn't add up. At first I was skeptical. But then after reading through the article I realized they were right.

The whole point was that if all you do is count calories then you'll most likely consume very "low-fat" foods and possibly (probably) miss out on many of the nutrition powerhouses (think olive oil and almonds).

I'm not sure if any of you are in the process of trying to lose weight - but if you are I'd encourage you to read the article and take their advice. They have simple tips like "pile on more produce" and "eat every meal" so it's not like these goals are unobtainable.

Also, my advice is to go to mypyramid.gov. Type in your information (age, gender, weight) and follow their tips! They tell you how many servings of fruit/veggies you need, how much protein, how much whole grains, etc.

It will look like this:

 

That was another important part of my food-journaling notebook - a little chart I'd create each day that had tally marks for each category of the "food pyramid"

Here's an example: 

Yes, it takes a little bit longer. But if you're already in the habit of counting calories, it's just one small thing to add. When you  finish your meal you count calories and then put marks under the food eaten. This meal the person had a whole grain ham sandwich (two grains, two meats) a serving of cherry tomatoes and a small apple (1 veg, 1 fruit) and then a glass of milk (1 milk).

Not too difficult.  

Going along with yesterday's "Don't Judge" theme - an article I found today on MSNBC talked about 7 secret healthy foods. They go over seven foods that are usually judged as unhealthy, high in cholesterol and get an all-around bad rep. BUT, they talk about how with certain modifications, these foods are actually quite healthy.

Intrigued?

1. Eggs - great source of protein, low calorie (75 for a medium egg) and contains 13 essential nutrients! How should you eat them? As natural as possible, scramble, boiled or poached mixed with veggies work well.

2. White Potatoes - ever since Atkins deemed these carb-evil, potatoes have had a very bad rep. But despite the fact that they are filled with carbs - they are filled with the good-for-you carbs, the ones that our bodies and brains need for energy! And they contain a lote of vitamen c and other minerals. 

3. PIZZA - this one made me smile. Pizzas can either be a health-nightmare OR a well-rounded meal. Made with whole-grain crust, minimum cheese and lots of veggies it can be a meal that touches all food groups. 

4. Beef - just one 3-ounce serving contains half of your daily protein!! And it also has zinc, B12, selenium (which helps with belly fat) B6, and Iron. It still is what's for dinner.

5. Sugary Cereal - I'm a sucker for these, having grown up eating it every morning. Most of these cereals actually contain a lot vitamins and minerals and fiber from whole grains. Just make sure the one you buy has few ingredients and the first one is whole  wheat or rolled oats.

6. Canned Fruits and Vegetables - These are not worse than fresh produce, and they last longer! Did you knowthat if you rinse beans or canned veggies under water you can actually wash away a lot of the sodium? Awesome.

7. Oysters - Perfect timing since the season just opened, oysters are a good source of protein and omega-3 fatty acids. Six oysters have about 1/3 of the daily recommendation of Omega-3s.  

Read the full article here to get more great tips on how to eat these 7 healthy foods and to learn more about why they're so healthy. (Tip, once you click on the link, you may have to choose the "print" option to view the full article, don't know why, but just a heads up!)

A few weeks ago I posted about Fitday.com's incredible nutrition report feature. Brief recap - once you enter all the food you've eaten into the online journal, you can generate a report to see how much of each vitamin, mineral, etc. you've had for the day and whether or not you've met the daily recommended guidelines. (Read more about it here)

So when I saw this WebMd article about the most commonly missing nutrients in the American diet, I decided it's a great add-on to the previous post.  The typical diet is lacking in these nutrients:

• Calcium
• Potassium
• Fiber
• Magnesium
• Vitamin A
• Vitamin C
• Vitamin E

But don't run out and fill up your medicine cabinets with supplements - WebMD also gives you great advice on how to get these nutrients with some tweaks in your diet.

Here's a sample of the advice for the first three:

1. Calcium - The easiest way is to eat more dairy - nonfat plain yogurt, skim milk, swiss cheese. But did you also know you get calcium in salmon and cooked spinach?

2. Potassium - We all know bananas, but also try sweet potatoes, yellowfin tuna, and nonfat plain yogurt.

3. Fiber - Black beans, baked sweet potato, bran cereal, whole-wheat english muffin.

Read more of the article to find suggestions for the last four missing nutrients. 

I've mentioned the Website Fitday.com before in a few other posts. Basically it's an online food journal - free - but so much more. In addition to recording the food you ate, you can log your exercise and create physical and nutritional goals for yourself (even with deadlines! i.e. lose 5 pounds by Sept. 21).

I've been using it all summer - just because I'm a little OCD about food/workouts journaling and I hated carrying a notebook around all the time (AND wasting paper). 

The feature I'm so in love with right now is the "nutritional report" section. If you have a fitday account (if you don't go get one, they're free) log in and on the right side click on the "Reports" link. Once you are on that page go to the Nutrition link, and click to generate your report. It will look something like this. 

As you can see the report analyzes all the food you've journaled and lets you know how much of each vitamin and mineral you've had that day and what percenatge of the recommended dailly allowance you're at. The numbers in red mean that you haven't met the RDA yet. So as you can see, for me today I haven't had enough Vitamin D, E, K. I'm a little low on iron and zine (89% and 95% respecitvely) and I'm low in calcium and magnesium.

It may seem like a bunch of random numbers to you - but look at it this way. I see that I'm lacking in some vitamins and in calcium so I know in a few minutes I'll go to the fridge and grab a glass of milk and a banana.

So perhaps you're an avid multi-vitamin taker, well with these reports you can try to get all your vitamins and minerals using the food you eat instead of relying on a pill.

Here's a close up of this detailed information:

I'll tell you the truth, at first using the journal can be tedious because you have to search for all the foods and what not, but with this feature alone it's worth it!

Other great features? Calories burned by workouts, percentages of fat/protein/carbs, weight goals, nutritional goals, etc.