A New Kind of Retail Therapy: Ways to Exercise That Will Fit Into Your Lifestyle

Working out is such a crucial tool for our health and longevity. According to Web MD, a dose of regular exercise can help you to:

-Feel better overall and have more energy

- Help you to sleep better and obtain a better quality of sleep

-Keeps your mind fresh and allows you to think better and faster

-Is a great method for handling stress

-Helps you to live longer

-Keep your bones, muscles, and joints in tact

-Ward off heart disease and some types of cancers

-Allow you to maintain a healthy weight

-Keeps you healthier overall

Most of us know that we are supposed to work out but are still not jumping at the opportunity for a grueling sweat session. For those that dislike physical exercise, the gym can be like waking across a bridge of hot coals. If treadmills, weights, ellipticals, and the dreaded Stairmaster machines do not sound like your idea of fun, consider some other options for physical activity.

Anything that gets you moving is good for your body. As spring is finally here and the weather is getting warmer, get outside and get moving. A great thing about exercise is that you can have fun, get a good workout, and not even realize it. Even a couple hours of shopping at the mall can burn close to 300 calories!

Here are some ideas for some good ways to work out without going out of your way:

-Riding a bike

-Going for a hike

-Walking around the block

-Playing tennis or another outdoor sport

-Taking Fido for a walk

-Household cleaning

-Lawn/Outdoor work

-Shopping or running errands

-Taking the stairs instead of the elevator

To find out how many calories your daily activities burn, see the following calorie burning interactive tool:

http://www.webmd.com/hw-popup/calories-burned

We Don't Need all That in Our Food!!!

I keep hearing all this buzz about how processed food is bad for you. I’m really starting to realize the truth behind this after seeing just how many unnecessary ingredients are pumped into the food that we eat. For instance, look at the ingredients in a box of popular cereal.

Raisin Bran:

Ingredients: Whole wheat, raisins, wheat bran, sugar, high fructose corn syrup, salt, malt flavoring

It starts off sounding healthy, but then we get to the sugar, high fructose corn syrup, etc… etc… Totally unnecessary

I bought some cereal today that is sweetened naturally with fruit juice and contains the following ingredients:Organic whole oat flour, organic concentrated grape and/or pear juice, organic brown rice flour, organic whole millet, organic oat bran, organic barley, sea salt

You can, of course, throw in a “fun cereal” every now and then and don’t have to stick to twigs and berries, but isn’t it refreshing to see that there are healthy options out there? I just wanted to illustrate the fact that things can be naturally sweetened with fruit juice, honey, agave, etc… and not pumped full of sugar and other unpronounceable ingredients.

I’ll confess that when I used to shop, I’d pay attention to:

-If it was organic

-How many calories it had

Period. End of story.

Everyone always talks about reading food labels but I never really got the importance of that until now. If starting this cleanse has done anything, it’s really made me pay attention to what I eat. Last night Greg and I went to Trader Joe’s and took our time. We carefully read ingredients and picked out things like: a jar of peanut butter that had three fresh and all natural ingredients in it versus one with an endless list of nonsense, unsweetened rice milk versus the flavored variety that probably tastes better but is pumped full of sugar and flavor substitutes, trail mix that contained raisins and a variety of mixed nuts versus the trail mix that contained cranberries with added sugar etc… I have to say that all the food label reading wasn’t tedious at all, as I had originally thought it would be. In fact, it was fun - almost like a scavenger hunt to see who could find the healthier variety of a product we were seeking out. I would, of course, recommend that such a feat be attempted at the nonpeak hours of a grocery store or else you will be that girl bent over holding three bags of crackers while clearly blocking the aisle as angry people put forth their best efforts to ram their shopping carts past you.

After just a few days of this cleanse, I can already tell that leaving out caffeine, alcohol, and processed sugar is what is truly making me feel great. The mornings are a little tough, as it’s a little more challenging to wake up properly without the caffeine, but once I get outside and snag some vitamin D and get some natural sugar from fresh and organic fruit, I’m ready to go. I will definitely be more conscious of my food labels going forward and will be making a huge effort to blast those processed sugars out my ballpark.

If Oprah can do it, so can I

I have been considering trying a cleanse for a while now. Not for the purpose of wanting to drop 10 or 15 pounds in a week, as some of those people that do the crazy juice cleanses do, but rather to detox, give my digestive system a break, determine if I have any gluten or dairy sensitivities, and to give the caffeine and alcohol a rest for a bit. The other main reason is to say goodbye to processed sugar. A lot of food like fruit has natural sugar in, which gives us those natural doses that we need. The guideline for a 2,000-calorie diet is around 32 grams of sugar a day and with a regular diet of most of us on the go, it’s nearly impossible to accomplish this without being overly conscious about it.

Take for example the following foods that are fairly popular and that I am guilty of eating every now and then:

Jamba Juice 12 oz Chunky Strawberry: Strawberries, bananas, yogurt, soymilk, and peanut butter with organic granola blended in and topped with fresh bananas and organic granola. Sounds healthy, right? Stats: A 12 oz version of this (and that’s the smallest size) contains: 520 calories, 17g fat, 82g carbs and…46 grams of sugar…eek!

Starbucks Chai Tea Latte: Spiced black tea blended with steamed milk Stats: A 16oz grande size has 240 calories and 41g sugar

Starbucks Apple Bran Muffin Stats: 1 muffin 350 calories 34g of sugar

Dairy Queen Medium Mint Oreo Blizzard Stats: 1 Medium size has 740 calories, 89g sugar

Think about if you have even one of those items in any given day. You not only surpass your daily sugar limits, but also will find yourself well into several days’ reserves.

My research into the whole cleansing frenzy took me in the direction of several almost-starving-yourself options such as the Lemonade Master Cleanse: Consisting mainly of a diet of cayenne pepper, maple syrup, lemons, filtered water, and sea salt. I’m very active and love my food so this would have been disastrous for me and would have most likely ended up with a trip to the ER, or at least the local clinic. Ironically, my soon-to-be mother-in-law emailed me and told me about this Quantum Wellness Cleanse by Kathy Freston that was featured on Oprah after she decided to give it a try herself. The plan is to eliminate the following from your diet over a period of 21 days: alcohol, gluten, sugar, caffeine, and all animal products.

I’m going to give this an attempt for a lot of reasons, but one of the main ones being self-control. I’d like to be able to get to the point where I am able to pay more attention to what I am putting into my body before I go ahead and grab that convenience, overly processed, and sugar-packed muffin from Starbucks when I am in a hurry and on my way to a meeting. At the very least, I’m hoping this is going to remind me to reach for a piece of fruit and challenge me to remember to incorporate fresh veggies into my diet. I’m looking forward to the challenge of creating some new recipes and pushing away my “go to” lunch and dinner meals.

Day 1 officially has kicked off:

I just ate a grapefruit. I don’t remember the last time that has happened. Delicious. I also discovered gluten free bread. Not the best but with some peanut butter and a banana on top it got the job done.

Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution will be on my To Watch List

Today I was watching television and happened to catch the sneak preview of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, which airs next week on ABC. I have to say, this definitely seems to be something worth watching, as it is full of alarming statistics about America’s food, especially as it pertains to the effects on American’s children. According to Jamie, “This is the first generation of kids expected to live a shorter life than their parents” and it is all because of what they are eating.

The segment kicked off with British based chef Jamie Oliver heading to the town of Huntington, West Virginia, which currently holds the title of the unhealthiest city in America.The sneak preview showed Jamie visiting a local elementary school, completely disgusted by the fact that a typical meal plan for the day includes pizza for breakfast and a lunch of chicken nuggets paired with a mashed potato surprise. The cooks in the kitchen are fierce older ladies, the head chef having a good twenty-one year’s experience in the school food industry, and are not exactly thrilled to have Jaime attempt to throw a coup in their kitchen.

Jamie sums up his mission for the show as: “I’m here to start the biggest food revolution this country’s ever seen.” If you care at all about your health, that line will build up enough intrigue to tune into the series premiere of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, Friday, March 26 8/7c on ABC.

For more information on the show check out:

http://abc.go.com/shows/jamie-olivers-food-revolution/about-the-show