Watching your weight through the holiday season can be like watching the Titanic maneuver around ice burgs: full speed ahead and hope we don’t crash! If you’re looking for a little maneuverability with your menu (ie a way to cut calories but still enjoy your meal), consider these Sweet Potato Cubes. No added sugar, no butter, no marshmallows, and yet they’re still sweet and delicious. (Imagine that!) Click here on Sweet Potato Cubes for the recipe.
Laugh your way to better health!
Author Archives: Katie Robles
Biking the Washington DC Memorials
Biking is my new favorite way to tour Washington D.C. You can rent bikes for a few dollars (that’s for the day, not per hour) and the bikes allow you to see more memorials in less time. A great place to start is the Tidal Basin.
The 2 mile loop Basin is surrounded by the Franklin D. Roosevelt, Martin Luther King, and Thomas Jefferson Memorials.
Half a mile away are the World War 2 Memorial and the Vietnam and Korean War Veterans Memorials. One more mile gets you to the White House to the north and the Smithsonian to the east.
I could go on listing memorials, but the point is that there is a LOT to see in D.C. and a bike makes it easy to see most of them in a day.
Take my family, for example. We’ve been to D.C. for the day a few times (we live 2 hours away), but we’ve only managed to see one or two sights per day maximum. We have little kids who get sooooooo tiiiiiiiirrrreeeeeddd when we walk from place to place. But bikes are beautiful. With bikes, we covered more than 10 miles in one afternoon. (We brought along 2 kid bikes for the seasoned child riders and a bike trailer for the wee kiddos. The rent-a-bikes are adult size only.)
Washington D.C.’s memorials are beautiful places to remember our Veterans. If you can’t make it to D.C., try biking around your own town’s center and see what you can discover!
Images courtesy of: www.wwiimemorial.com (WW2), roadtrippers.com (Korean), www.flickr.com (MLK), www.panoramio.com (FDR), http://www.tclf.org (cherry trees with Jefferson)
Truly Addictive Foods and Voting Results
The winner (by a narrow margin) is cartoon ending B! Thank you to everyone who voted!
The scientific study that led to the “Cheese is Crack” headlines did not prove that dairy’s like dope, but it did come to an important conclusion that was mostly ignored by the media. The study had 500 people rate foods from least addictive to most addictive and yes, cheese ranked high on the list, but the top of the list was dominated by processed foods. The more processed the food, the more fat added to that food, the more addictive it felt. See why they went with “Cheese is Crack”? “Manufactured Munchies are Meth” is a mouthful.
The addictiveness of processed foods is what should have made headlines! (Or the felt addictiveness; remember, no one was probed, prodded, or even fed during the study; they were asked for their opinion.) Companies know that processed foods are addictive and even test their products for “cravability” (ie addictiveness). If they can get us to eat a little, they know we’ll want more.
This is important for weight loss. If you’re trying to eat less, avoid highly processed foods as best you can. The more processed the food, the more addictive it is, so do yourself a favor and stop buying the worst of them. You might crave them for the first few days, but they’re not crack cocaine: you can resist and you can handle any withdrawal symptoms (like irritability, nostalgia, or desperately cleaning out the back corners of the cabinets) at home.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/cheese-is-not-addictive-like-crack_562ad63de4b0443bb5641eb1
http://www.latimes.com/food/dailydish/la-dd-cheese-crack-science-20151023-story.html
Images courtesy of: www.shadylabib.com (processed foods), trinityriverfitness.com (quote)
Cheese is Crack Cartoon: Vote for Your Favorite Ending
What do they say next? It’s up to you! Vote for your favorite ending to the cartoon by typing “A” or “B” in the comments section below. (If you don’t see a comment button, scroll down to a bunch of words in a box and click “leave a comment”.) I’ll announce the winner next week!
Pastor Appreciation Month
October is a time to focus on boobs (Breast Cancer Awareness), candy (Halloween), and spiritual shepherds (Pastor Appreciation). I don’t envy pastors having to share their special month with pink Ta-tas and costumed children, but hopefully appreciating our pastor is something we do all year long. Since October makes our Appreciation official, I’d like us to take a moment to ponder our pastor’s health.
Pastors spend much of their time sitting and studying or sitting and talking or sitting and listening – all necessary for preparing sermons and caring for their flock, but these are not exercise-rich work hours. And how do we often show our appreciation? With baked goods. Baked goods are a natural choice: most people like them and they require neither heating nor cooling to remain edible. But…
You knew there was a “but” coming and there’s a 3 out of 4 chance that it’s a BIG butt.
“A 2001 Pulpit and Pew study of 2,500 clergy found that 76% were overweight or obese compare to 61% of the general population at the time of the study.” (Fat in Church , 2012) If we really appreciate our pastors, we need to contribute to their health, not lead them down the saccharine coated path to the Dark Side.
Instead of baked goods, take your pastor fruits and vegetables. Don’t know his favorite herbivore snacks? Ask him. Or take him a bit of your favorite vegetables; maybe he’ll learn to love it too. (Include the recipe so he can recreate it if he does like it.) Most of us will eat a healthy snack if we’re handed one: carrots and dip, broccoli with cheese, guacamole with chips, etc. And most of us will eat an unhealthy snack if we’re handed one: cookies, brownies, sweet breads, etc. So hand your pastor something healthy.
Ladies, I’m not saying that you and I can turn an overweight pastor into a thin one – that choice is up to the pastor. I’m saying that we can do our part by equating love and appreciation with vegetables and soup. Keep your pastor preaching longer (in years of service, not minutes on a Sunday morning) by appreciating his health!
“Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.” Act 20:28
Fat in Church http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/06/03/obesity-epidemic-in-america-churches.html
cliparthut.com (women with baked goods)
gregburdine.com Pastor Appreciation Month logo
Recipe: Kale Beans
Is it bad that I’m in love with bacon? It makes so many things taste so good…especially bit pots of vegetables. It looks like a lot of kale at first, but trust me, it boils down to a reasonable amount.
Ingredients
½ lb bacon (or turkey bacon…gobble gobble…it up)
1 lb kale (6-8 cups chopped)
1 onion
2 tomatoes
1 can red or black beans
¼ cup fresh cilantro
Supplies
Sharp knife and cutting board
Large soup pot with lid
Can opener
Preparation
Chop onion and tomatoes.
Cut bacon into 1” pieces.
Wash kale.
Drain and rinse beans.
Directions
Fry the bacon and onion over medium heat until onion is tender.
Add tomatoes, kale, beans and cilantro.
Cover tightly and reduce heat to medium low. Cook 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until kale is tender.
If too much liquid remains once kale is cooked, uncover and simmer 10 minutes more until liquid evaporates.
Serve over rice or by its savory lonesome.
Yield
5-6 one cup servings (Told you the kale would cook down!)
Note: I used yellow tomato and red onion when I took this picture. With red tomato, it’ll look Christmas-y 🙂
What We Can Learn From a 100 Year Old Athlete
Don Pellman set 5 world records at the San Diego Senior Olympics this year. That’s impressive, but becomes exponentially more impressive when you learn that Don is 100 years old and two of the medals were for the long jump and the high jump.
You’d expect that kind of athletic prowess to be a lifelong pursuit, but Don didn’t start competing until after he retired. I love that. If it wasn’t too late for him, it’s not too late for me. He gives good advice too:
“People ask me what do you attribute your success [to] and I can say four words: ‘eat sensibly and exercise’ – those are the things that you have to do,” he explained. “Eat sensibly, keep your weight down, and exercise every time you get a chance.”
A hundred year old man who can high jump? That’s someone worth listening to.
Magic that Makes the Brain Work
What is the magic that makes the brain work? I’ll give you a hint! It’s one of the following:
a. sleep
b. vegetables
c. exercise
Take a guess and watch this video.
The “Magic that Makes the Brain Work” by Kim Bevill
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1aNERoMndU
For those of you who hate quizzes, guessing, and/or TED talks, I want you to stand up, do ten jumping jacks, ten lunges, and touch your toes. Thank you. Now you may return to whatever you were doing and you will find that you do it better because your brain is happy.
Invasion of the Cucumbers: Health Benefits and Recipes to Make You Love Cukes More (Part 5)
I no longer view cucumbers as a semi-useless vegetable nor as a pickles-only food. They are tasty, versatile, unique, and on my plate. Today’s recipe happens to be my favorite new way to eat them.
WHY WE LOVE THEM
- Cures diabetes, reduces cholesterol and controls blood pressure– Cucumber juice contains a hormone which is needed by the cells of the pancreas for producing insulin which has been found to be beneficial to diabetic patients. Researchers found that a compound called sterols in cucumbers may help reduce cholesterol levels. Cucumbers contain a lot of potassium, magnesium and fiber. These work effectively for regulating blood pressure. This makes cucumbers good for treating both low blood pressure and high blood pressure.
I think “cures” is the wrong word to use here, Natural News. Beneficial to diabetics? Sure, I’ll give you that. But cures? Nope. As for the rest of it, I’m going to repeat myself a bit: vegetables are awesome. They do so much more for our bodies that fill our bellies. God designed plants to optimize human health which is why the Garden of Eden diet was purely plants. So, (best Mommy voice and shaking my finger at you) eat your vegetables!
10. Promotes joint health, relieves gout and arthritis pain -Cucumber is an excellent source of silica, which is known to help promotes joint health by strengthening the connective tissues. They are also rich in vitamin A, B1, B6, C & D, Folate, Calcium, Magnesium, and Potassium. When mixed with carrot juice, they can relieve gout and arthritis pain by lowering the uric acid levels
Blah, blah, blah – Go eat a cucumber!
HOW WE EAT THEM
Cucumber Soup (Beatrice Snare)
Ingredients:
5 cucumbers (or more), peeled and with seeds removed, cut into quarters
1 onion cut into chunks
4-6 cups water
4 Tb butter or margarine (1/2 stick)
3-4 Tb flour
2 cloves garlic, minced
Salt to taste
Croutons (optional)
- Cover the cucumbers and onion with water and boil until soft (10-20 minutes)
- Ladle the cucumbers and onion into the blender along with some of the hot water they were boiled in – fill your blender as much as you safely can. Discard excess water. Blend until smooth.
- In the same pot you used for cooking the cucumbers, melt the butter over medium low heat. Add the flour, garlic, and salt and stir constantly. It should look like a bubbly paste.
- Add ¼-1/2 cup of the blended cucumber to the paste in the pot and stir until smooth. Add another ¼-1/2 cup of cucumber liquid and stir until smooth. Keep adding ¼-1/2 cup of the blended cucumber and stirring each time until all of the liquid has been added. (Adding the hot liquid slowly prevents balls or chunks of flour from forming in your soup.) Your soup should have a creamy consistent texture.
- Add croutons and enjoy! (I added Parmesan cheese for the picture, but this soup doesn’t need cheese…I’m a cheesaholic, so I don’t say those words lightly!)
Natural News article: http://www.naturalnews.com/036769_cucumbers_health_benefits_rehydration.html#ixzz3i5YLJT64
Stack of cucumbers photo courtesy of www.istockphoto.com
Invasion of the Cucumbers: Health Benefits and Recipes to Make You Love Cukes More (Part 4)
Cucumbers look like the great green torpedoes of the vegetable world, but they do so much more than blow up watermelon submarines.
WHY WE LOVE THEM
- Hangover cure– To avoid a morning hangover or headache; eat a few cucumber slices before going to bed. Cucumbers contain enough sugar, B vitamins and electrolytes to replenish many essential nutrients, reducing the intensity of both hangover and headache.
I find this fascinating. I suspect that the one drawback to this plan is that the person who is going to have a hangover the next day is in no shape before bed to remember to eat a few slices of cucumber.
- Aids in weight loss and digestion– Due to its low calorie and high water content, cucumber is an ideal diet for people who are looking for weight loss. The high water content and dietary fiber in cucumbers are very effective in ridding the body of toxins from the digestive system, aiding digestion. Daily consumption of cucumbers can be regarded as a remedy for chronic constipation.
Water and fiber, water and fiber, water and fiber. That, my friends, is a magic mantra that can change your digestive life!
HOW WE EAT THEM
Refrigerator Sweet Pickles (Grandma Trone’s Recipe)
Ingredients:
7 cups cucumbers sliced very thin
1 cup onion sliced thin
2 cups sugar
2 Tb salt
1 Tb celery seed
1 cup white vinegar
Mix sugar, salt, celery seed, and vinegar. Pour the mixture over cucumbers and onions in a large bowl and stir. Store in the refrigerator for 3 days, stirring at least once per day. After 3 days, ladle the pickles and liquid into glass jars for easier storage. Pickles are ready to eat right away and will keep in the refrigerator for up to one year.
Natural News article: http://www.naturalnews.com/036769_cucumbers_health_benefits_rehydration.html#ixzz3i5YLJT64
Cucumbers on the vine courtesy of: www.rhs.org.uk
Fridge pickles photo courtesy of www.tastespotting.com
Sex, Soup, and 2 Fisted Eating 