How bad are group lunches for you?

What happens to your waistline when circumstances cause you to not be able to eat your usual healthy lunches?

I’ve been asking myself this question for the past couple weeks as I’ve gone through the orientation activities at my new college teaching job.

Don’t get me wrong – it’s been great. And it’s very nice of the university to provide lunches. (Throwing that in there just in case my new bosses read this) It could be worse – they could just tell you to get lunch on your own.

But when you usually eat a homemade salad with fat-free dressing, a piece of fruit, yogurt and unsweetened tea for lunch like I do, navigating your way through all the great food provided for a group can be difficult – especially when you’re new and trying to make an impression. You want to go along with the crowd.

However, I don’t want there to be too much of an impression on my waistline.

At least they have had unsweetened tea at most of the events I’ve attended. And they have had salad, although I doubt the dressing is fat-free.

But I’ve also eaten chicken breast covered in cheese and marinara sauce, slabs of some kind of vegetarian lasagna, rolls, barbecue sandwiches and Mexican food.

All of the food has been delicious, but heavy. On the day we had the barbecue sandwiches, I must not have had my healthy thinking cap on, because I took the bun, smothered it with delicious barbecue and chowed down. It wasn’t until I got halfway through the sandwich that I realized what I should have done to minimize the damage: leave the bun off and just eat the barbecue with a fork.

That’s testimony to the fact that my head was spinning with orientation information, and my healthy eating had taken a back seat.

Oh, well. I only have a couple more events to attend, then my lunches will be my own again. I’ll just minimize the damage as much as I can and not worry about the pound or two I may gain.

At least I’m on a college campus now where I can walk it off.

Bigger is NOT better, Part 3

I talked in my last post about knowing your Body Mass Index to help you get started on a healthier path and reverse the trend toward a fatter world.

But the BMI is not the only number you need to know to be fully aware of the state of your own health. You also need to know your total cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar.

Why are these numbers important?

First, let’s look at cholesterol. According to the American Heart Association, cholesterol is a soft, waxy substance found among the lipids (fats) in the bloodstream and in all your body's cells. It's used to form cell membranes, some hormones and is needed for other functions. But a high level of cholesterol in the blood is a major risk factor for coronary heart disease, which leads to heart attack.

The total cholesterol number breaks down into three major components, HDL, LDL and triglycerides.

HDL, or high-density lipoprotein, is known as "good" cholesterol because a high HDL level seems to protect against heart attack. However, a low HDL level indicates a greater risk of heart attack and may also raise stroke risk.

LDL, Low-density lipoprotein, is the major cholesterol carrier in the blood. If too much LDL cholesterol circulates in the blood, it can slowly build up in the walls of the arteries feeding the heart and brain. Together with other substances, it can form plaque, a thick, hard deposit that can clog those arteries.

According to the Mayo Clinic, triglycerides are a type of fat found in your blood. When you eat, your body converts calories it doesn't need right away into triglycerides. The triglycerides are stored in your fat cells. Later, hormones release triglycerides for energy between meals. If you regularly eat more calories than you burn, you may have high triglyceride levels.

Now, let’s look at blood pressure. The AHA defines blood pressure as
the pressure of the blood against the walls of the arteries. Blood pressure is expressed as systolic pressure over diastolic pressure. The systolic number is always stated first. The higher systolic number represents the pressure while the heart contracts to pump blood to the body. The lower diastolic number represents the pressure when the heart relaxes between beats.

High blood pressure, also called hypertension, is a serious condition that can lead to coronary heart disease, heart failure, stroke, kidney failure and other health problems.

The last important number we’ll look at is blood sugar. Wikipedia defines blood sugar as glucose in the blood. Glucose, transported via the bloodstream from the intestines to body cells, is the primary source of energy for the body's cells.

A blood glucose test measures the amount of glucose in your blood. Glucose comes from carbohydrate foods. Insulin is a hormone that helps your body's cells use the glucose. Insulin is produced in the pancreas and released into the blood when the amount of glucose in the blood rises.

Normally, your blood glucose levels increase slightly after you eat. This increase causes your pancreas to release insulin so that your blood glucose levels do not get too high. Blood glucose levels that remain high over time can damage your eyes, kidneys, nerves, and blood vessels.

My former company conducted a health risk analysis in February of this year, and I got all of my numbers. Overall, they’re good. My analysis showed I have a low risk of heart disease and diabetes, but that there are still a few things I can do to improve my health. I was pleased with my results.

Do you know your numbers? What would a health risk analysis show for you?

BIgger is NOT better, Part 2

In my last post, I talked about the CDC's 2007 data for the fattest states in America. Mississippi weighed in as the fattest state, and Colorado was the leanest. But almost all 50 states have gotten fatter.

Kentucky, my home state, ranks as the seventh fattest state.

According to the World Health Organization, this is not just a problem in the U.S. The whole world is getting fatter. Globally, there are more than 1 billion overweight adults, at least 300 million of them obese.

Like I said in my last post, this is bad news. But if we are going to even begin to turn this trend around, we need to be armed with some information.

Starting with this: What is considered overweight and obese? How do you know when you have crossed the line?

The CDC defines overweight and obesity as ranges of weight that are greater than what is generally considered healthy for a given height. The terms also identify ranges of weight that have been shown to increase the likelihood of certain diseases and other health problems.

Overweight and obesity is most often measured with the BMI, or Body Mass Index. It uses weight and height to calculate a number that, for most people, correlates with their amount of body fat. An adult with a BMI between 25 and 29.9 is considered overweight, and an adult who has a BMI of 30 or higher is considered obese.

Here is a BMI calculator. Try it. Are you too fat, underweight or just right?

Now, what are you going to do about it?

A good series of 10 topics on the Workout IQ blog highlights weight loss problems and how to deal with them. The series addresses such topics as challenges to working out, having unrealistic expectations and fear of failure. It's a good starting point for those of you wanting to lose weight.

If you have calculated your own BMI and faced the results, you've armed yourself with the information you need to get started on a healthy path. It may not be all you need, but it's a good start.

And if just one or two people can take this step toward a healthier future, maybe there's hope yet for Mississippi, Kentucky and the rest of the world.

Bigger is NOT better!

Each year for the past few years, when the Centers for Disease Control releases its data on the fattest states in America, I’ve felt sick. Disgusted. Appalled.

This year is no exception. How is it that we have let ourselves go so badly? And what is it going to take to reverse the obesity trend?

According to the CDC’s study of the fattest states in 2007, Mississippi tops the list for the third year in a row. Mississippi is the first state ever whose obese population exceeds 30 percent over a three-year average. Another 35 percent of Mississippi adults are overweight.

Colorado is still the leanest state – but its number of obese adults increased from 16.9 percent to 17.6 percent. Even the leanest state can’t rest on its laurels – or its love handles.

This Web site has a nice analysis, along with a map and ranked list of all 50 states.

And, where does my home state of Kentucky rank? It’s in seventh place, with 28 percent of the population obese and 66.4 percent obese or overweight.

That only leaves about a third of us maintaining a healthy weight in Kentucky. This means that as a healthy weight person in Kentucky, I’m a minority. Now, as a white female, I never thought I’d be a minority. I wish I could say I was proud, but I’m not.

In addition to all of the overweight adults in Kentucky, my state also has the third highest rate of overweight youths aged 10-17. So our children are getting fatter, too.

Fellow Kentuckians, you need to get off your fat arses and take that weight off!

I am not enough of an expert to know the answer to the growing obesity problem in America. We can start by laying off that extra soda and bag of M&M’s in the afternoon. Try some fruit or yogurt instead. We can also get up and walk now and again instead of sitting so much.

It seems pretty simple to me. So why is it so complicated?

Sugar substitute, sugar or honey: Which is best?

In an occasional series of posts, I’ve written before about ingredients of various foods in my diet. Sometimes I’ve found out that there are things in my foods I’d rather not be eating, and it has caused me to change my habits.

I’ve written about coffee creamer and bagels. Today, I’m tackling various sweeteners – namely, sugar substitutes, good ol’ sugar and honey.

Let’s look at sugar substitutes, first as a category, then at the specific one I use in my diet.

According to Wikipedia, sugar substitute is a food additive that duplicates the effect of sugar or corn syrup in taste, but usually has less food energy. Some sugar substitutes are natural and some are synthetic. Those that are not natural are, in general, referred to as artificial sweeteners.

In the United States, five intensely-sweet sugar substitutes have been approved for use. They are saccharin, aspartame, sucralose, neotame, and acesulfame potassium. There is some ongoing controversy over whether artificial sweeteners are health risks.

The food and beverage industry is increasingly replacing sugar or corn syrup with artificial sweeteners in a range of products traditionally containing sugar. Artificial sweeteners cost the food industry only a fraction of the cost of natural sweeteners.

The particular brand of artificial sweetener in my kitchen is Splenda, made from sucralose. It is also available in generic brands, such as Kroger’s Apriva. Sucralose is approximately 600 times as sweet as table sugar, twice as sweet as saccharin and four times as sweet as aspartame. Unlike aspartame, it is stable under heat and over a broad range of pH conditions and can be used in baking or in products that require a longer shelf life. Sucralose also does not promote tooth decay.

Now for the sweetener we all grew up with: table sugar. Sugar is a class of edible crystalline substances including sucrose, lactose and fructose. Common table sugar (sucrose) is made from sugar beets or sugar cane. Sugar also appears in fruit, honey, sorghum, sugar maple (in maple syrup) and in many other sources. It forms the main ingredient in most candy. "Excessive" consumption of sugar has been associated with increased incidences of type 2 diabetes, obesity, tooth decay and gout.

The Sugar Association lists many sugar myths and debunks them with evidence.

As I read through them, some of them made sense, but I kept in mind that the Sugar Association would have a vested interest in debunking myths that would harm the sale of its product. That doesn't mean their evidence isn't true, but I like to keep in mind that they're not exactly objective.

And finally, let’s look at honey, that sweet and viscous fluid produced by bees and derived from the nectar of flowers.

Honey gets its sweetness from fructose and glucose and has approximately the same relative sweetness as granulated sugar.

Honey is a mixture of sugars and other compounds. With respect to carbohydrates, honey is mainly fructose (about 38.5%) and glucose (about 31.0%). Honey's remaining carbohydrates include maltose, sucrose and other complex carbohydrates.

Honey contains trace amounts of several vitamins and minerals, but it is not a significant source of either. Honey also contains tiny amounts of several compounds thought to function as antioxidants, including chrysin, pinobanksin, vitamin C, catalase and pinocembrin.

The specific composition of any batch of honey will depend largely on the mix of flowers available to the bees that produced the honey.

The World's Healthiest Foods site has some charts and information about the health benefits of honey. In addition to its reputation as nature's nutritive sweetener, research also indicates that honey's unique composition makes it useful as an antimicrobial agent and antioxidant.

For more information, also see the National Honey Board.

Of the three major sweeteners I’ve examined, I think the blue-ribbon winner overall is honey. It sweetens your foods naturally while delivering some health benefits. I don’t think table sugar in and of itself is bad for you – like anything else, it has to do with how you use it and what you eat it in. It’s all about moderation as part of an overall healthy diet.

As for artificial sweeteners, I think I’ll try to stay away from them. I wouldn’t say they’re the most horrible thing you could eat – and if they’re my only choice, I’ll go for it. But it falls in line with my recent efforts to stay away from things with the word “artificial” when I can.

Lately, I’ve switched to sweetening some of my foods with honey. I previously used sugar substitute in my coffee, but in my effort to use more natural ingredients in my foods whenever possible, I’ve been putting honey in it, and it tastes good. I have also been putting honey on my oatmeal for breakfast. All-natural oats topped with all-natural honey. It doesn’t get much better than that.

What type of sweetener do you use most often? Have you made any switches lately?

Emotional eating takes its toll

Why do you eat?

Is it because your body needs nourishment? Or is it because you are unhappy and depressed, and you think that piece of cake will make you feel better?

Luckily, I've never been an emotional eater. I've always eaten for nutrition. If I indulge in a piece of cake, it's because I want a treat.

But I've seen people who are emotional eaters, and they are not happy.

I have known people who "can't resist" so-and-so's wife's cookies, or people who "have to do something" for someone when they have a birthday or leave their job.

In their eyes, "have to do something" means getting a large cake or a colossal cookie.

Since an emotional eater ties their gratification to food, the only way they can show their appreciation for others is also through food.

I saw an example recently of someone who is not very well thought of at his workplace who bought lunch at a sit-down restaurant for a group of nine people. Once you include appetizers and tip, the bill had to be around $100!

Funny thing is, this person will complain that he never has any money. If that's the case, how can he afford to pick up a $100 lunch bill? Was he genuinely doing something nice for the group, or was he hoping the group would think better of him in return? In other words, was he trying to buy friends with food?

I don't know for sure, and probably will never know, but I suspect it's the latter.

I've also known people on weight loss programs like Weight Watchers who just can't stop cheating. Weight Watchers and other programs like it cost money. I never have been able to understand why someone would pay money to be part of a program that they are not even going to follow. Does the emotional eating get in the way of their weight loss?Are they afraid of losing weight for some reason? Do they like being fat?

I think emotional eating comes from deeper problems than just being overweight, and that if an unhappy person loses weight, but doesn't work on their other issues, they will go right back to using food as comfort. Which mean they will go right back to being fat.

A Good Housekeeping column agrees. The author says, "If emotional eating is a challenge for us, if we suffer because of the size of our bodies and our relationship to food, then somehow we end up believing that getting rid of the fat will take away the suffering. When it doesn’t, we feel so betrayed that we eat to comfort ourselves."

She recommends an experiment: Instead of waiting to be thin to be happy, try being happy right now. Live as if you were already thin, as if you liked yourself, as if you chose to have the life you have right now.

I like that.

An entry on The Fit Shack says, "If you do not work on your inner self and find the things in your life that you are happy about now and cultivate them to create more happiness, that unhappiness will more than likely follow you even if you lose weight, and you’ll find yourself either an unhappy thin person or an unhappy person who regained the weight they previously lost."

My favorite poem, "Desiderata," ends with the line, "Be cheerful. Strive to be happy."

If you are an emotional eater, I hope you can take this advice to heart and find it within yourself to break your attachments to food. There is much happiness to be found in this world, and it lasts longer than a piece of cake. You only have to look for it.

Are you an emotional eater? What struggles have you had? How did you overcome them?

Popeye would be proud of me

I’ve been eating my spinach.

I’ve been a salad eater for a long time. I spend quite a bit of time each week with knife and cutting board, slicing greens and veggies for my lunch.

I used to buy iceberg lettuce because it was the cheapest. Then I learned that it had virtually no nutritional value. So, I switched to green leaf or romaine lettuce.

But then the recent economic problems hit, and food prices skyrocketed. The head of green leaf lettuce that I used to buy for $1.69 is now $2.29.

Well, my pocketbook won’t handle that for very long, so I started looking for alternatives. I wanted to keep as much nutritional value in my salads as possible while still keeping my food budget in mind.

Suddenly, I looked at the dark greens – spinach, kale, mustard and turnip greens. I had bought spinach on occasion, just for something different in my salads, and I knew it packed a wallop nutritionally. But then I noticed something even better: the price. Spinach is $1.69 a bunch at my grocery store. Its price may have gone up recently, too, but it’s still cheaper than green leaf lettuce. So I started buying it on a regular basis a few months ago.

Since I’ve been eating spinach a lot lately, I got to thinking: exactly what nutritional benefits does it have? Well, to answer that question, I checked Wikipedia.

Spinach is a rich source of iron. According to the USDA, one 180 gram serving of boiled spinach contains 6.43 mg of iron -- three times the iron in the average hamburger patty.

Spinach has a high calcium content. It is a rich source of vitamin A (and lutein), vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin K, magnesium, several vital antioxidants and folic acid (Vitamin B9).

Spinach is an excellent source of manganese, folate, vitamin B2, potassium, and vitamin B6. It is a very good source of dietary fiber, copper, protein, phosphorous and zinc. In addition, it is a good source of omega-3 fatty acids, niacin and selenium.

This Web site shows a great chart of the percent daily value of the nutrients in spinach.

Wow! I knew spinach was good for you, but I didn’t know just how good! I’m glad economic factors drove me to choose a food that’s cheaper on price, but not cheap on nutrients.

With all that nutrition, I just might have to stick with eating my spinach for awhile. Maybe I’ll get as strong as Popeye!

Do you eat spinach? Why or why not? Leave me a comment!

Make your whole household healthy

Committing to a healthy lifestyle isn't easy. Sometimes, it's downright difficult.

But if you don't have a supportive partner or family, it's almost impossible. One person can't do it alone when everyone else in the house is eating junk food.

I know from experience. When one partner’s favorite dinner is Hamburger Helper, and they are eating potato chips and M&M’s all the time, it’s hard for you to focus on eating vegetables, fruits and lean meats.

Healthy eating also requires expanding your palate to include new recipes, flavored in different ways with spices and oils instead of creamy sauces, and cooked in healthier ways, such as sauteeing, broiling or baking. It’s hard to do these things when your partner wants everything deep-fried and won't try healthier ways of flavoring foods.

Luckily, I have a supportive partner now, one who is just as committed to healthy living as I am.

As I’ve written before on this blog, my parents modeled healthy eating habits to us kids. Our daily snacks mainly consisted of fruits, and dinners included meat, potatoes or rice and vegetables. We drank milk on a regular basis. Potato chips, desserts and soft drinks were kept to a minimum.

The key was that the whole family supported healthy eating habits.

Exercise is also an important component of a healthy life. And it's much easier to keep exercising if your partner or the whole family is involved.

Your exercise partner can be your spouse or significant other, or it can be a good friend or family member. My stepfather and stepbrother used to go to the gym together. My husband and I go to the gym together now.

A partner can keep you motivated, urge you to exercise when you just don’t feel like it, spot you during weightlifting and encourage you to do new exercises.

An article I found here says one of the single best things you can do to help ensure your health and fitness success and give your efforts a much-needed jumpstart is to embrace your family and draw them into living healthier with you. It offers tips for getting the family started on a healthy lifestyle together.

So grab your partner and your kids, fix a healthy dinner together and then go take a walk afterward!

Are you trying to be healthier? Is your family healthy? What obstacles stand in your way?

Bagels: What’s really in them?

This is my second in an occasional series of posts where I will examine the ingredients in one of the foods I eat on a regular basis. In my first post on coffee creamer, I mentioned that I do pretty well with staying away from too many processed or high-fat foods.

But still, as I examine the ingredients in the foods I eat, I am discovering that I can do better. And that's what living a healthy life is all about. Always doing better.

This time, I'll take on bagels. I specifically eat Thomas' Whole Wheat Bagels. I really like the texture and taste, but what about the ingredients? What am I really eating?

I searched Thomas' Web site, and I found the product listings for all of their varieties of bagels and other foods, including the whole wheat bagels. However, they did not have their ingredients, nor their nutrition information, listed. To find that, I have to look at a package of bagels.

First, let's look at the nutrition facts. One bagel has 240 calories, 2 grams of total fat, of which 0.5g is saturated, 400 mg sodium, 49 grams of carbs, of which 7 grams is dietary fiber, and 10 grams of protein.

Next, the ingredients, in the order in which they are listed.

Whole wheat flour. From Wikipedia: a powdery substance derived by grinding or mashing the wheat's whole grain. It is used in baking, but typically added to other "white" flours to give nutrition (especially fiber and protein), texture, and body to the finished product. The word "whole" refers to the fact that all of the grain (bran, germ, and endosperm) is used and nothing is lost in the process of making the flour.

Water. Good ol' H20. I hope I don't need to define this one.

Flaked wheat. The only place I could find definitions of flaked wheat specifically were in reference to brewing beer. From How to Brew, unmalted wheat is a common ingredient in wheat beers. It adds starch haze and high levels of protein.

Wikipedia does have an entry on wheat, which is defined as a staple food used to make flour for leavened, flat and steamed breads; cookies, cakes, pasta, noodles and couscous; and for fermentation to make beer, alcohol, vodka or biofuel.

Sugar. An ingredient we're all familiar with. Here's what Wikipedia says: Sugar is a class of edible crystalline substances including sucrose, lactose, and fructose. Common table sugar (sucrose) is made from sugar beets or sugar cane.

Yeast. Most of us are familiar with yeast, and we at least know that it is used to make bread rise. Thus, it makes sense that it would be in bagels. But what is yeast? Wikipedia defines it as a growth form of eukaryotic microorganisms classified in the kingdom Fungi ... The yeast species Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been used in baking and fermenting alcoholic beverages for thousands of years.

Wheat gluten. From Wikipedia: Wheat gluten is a made from the gluten of wheat by washing wheat flour dough with water until all the starch dissolves, leaving insoluble gluten as a gummy mass, which is subject to further processing.

Wheat bran. From Wikipedia: Bran is the hard outer layer of grain and consists of combined aleurone and pericarp. Along with germ, it is an integral part of whole grains, and is often produced as a by-product of milling in the production of refined grains.

Salt. We all learned about this one in baby chemistry class -- sodium chloride -- and most of us have it in the kitchen. I still found the Wikipedia definition interesting: Salt is a dietary mineral essential for animal life. Salt flavor is one of the basic tastes, and salt is the most popular food seasoning and a key preservative. Salt is also the only rock eaten by humans.

The only rock eaten by humans? Hmmm ... I was not aware of that.

Cornmeal. From Wikipedia: flour ground from dried corn. Steel ground yellow cornmeal has the husk and germ of the maize kernel almost completely removed. Stone ground cornmeal retains some of the hull and germ, lending a little more flavor and nutrition to recipes.

Mono- and diglycerides. These came up on the list of ingredients in my previous analysis of Coffee-mate creamer.

To review the definitions, a monoglyceride consists of one fatty acid chain covalently bonded to a glycerol molecule through an ester linkage. A diglyceride consists of two fatty acid chains covalently bonded to a glycerol molecule through ester linkages. Both are common food additives used to blend together certain ingredients, such as oil and water. They can come from either animal or vegetable, derived primarily from soybean and canola oil. They may also be synthetically produced.

So as I mentioned in the coffee creamer post, I have no idea whether I am eating a real or synthetic product in these bagels, nor where these mono- and diglycerides come from.

Preservatives (Calcium propionate, sorbic acid). First, here’s how Wikipedia defines preservative: a natural or synthetic chemical that is added to products such as foods, pharmaceuticals, paints, biological samples, wood, etc. to prevent decomposition by microbial growth or by undesirable chemical changes.

The ingredient label on the bagels lists two preservatives specifically. The first, calcium propionate is defined as the calcium salt of propionic acid. Okay, so what’s propionic acid? It is a naturally-occurring carboxylic acid, which in its pure state is a colorless, corrosive liquid with a pungent odor.

Um … corrosive liquid with a pungent odor? I’m not sure if I feel comfortable putting such a thing in my body.

The other preservative listed, sorbic acid, is a natural organic compound used as a food preservative. Sorbic acid and its mineral salts are antimicrobial agents often used as preservatives in food and drinks to prevent the growth of mold, yeast and fungi.

Guar gum. Guar gum, also called guaran, is primarily the ground endosperm of guar beans. The guar bean is an annual legume grown mostly in India.

DATEM. I added all caps to this one because it is actually an acronym, for Di-Acetyl Tartaric Ester of Monoglyceride. It is an emulsifier primarily used in baking to strengthen the dough by building a strong gluten network.

Citric acid. If you eat citrus fruits, such as oranges, you’re familiar with citric acid. It is defined as a weak organic acid. It is a natural preservative and is also used to add an acidic, or sour, taste to foods and soft drinks.

Maltodextrin. From Wikipedia: a polysaccharide used as a food additive. Maltodextrin is easily digestible, being absorbed as rapidly as glucose. Maltodextrin can be derived from any starch, usually rice, corn or potato in the U.S.

If you type this term into Wikipedia, you are redirected to an entry for dextrin, which is way too full of long chemical names. This disturbs me a little. I shouldn’t have to work that hard to understand what I’m eating.

Algin. Wikipedia redirects you to the entry for alginic acid, which is a viscous gum that is abundant in the cell walls of brown algae.

What? I’m eating algae!?! Eeeewww!

Soy lecithin. Wikipedia defines lecithin as any of a group of yellow-brownish fatty substances occurring in animal and plant tissues, and in egg yolk. Lecithin is an integral part of cell membranes, and can be totally metabolized. There are studies that show soy-derived lecithin has significant effects on lowering cholesterol and triglyceride, while increasing HDL ("good cholesterol") levels in the blood.

Okay, so this ingredient doesn’t sound quite as bad as some of the others.

Soy flour (trivial amount). Wikipedia takes you to the main entry on soy. If you scroll down, you see this: Soy flour refers to defatted soybeans where special care was taken during desolventizing (not toasted) in order to minimize denaturation of the protein.

I found that a little confusing, so I went to Soy Foods. It says soy flour is made from roasted soybeans that have been ground into a fine powder. Rich in high-quality protein and other nutrients, soy flour also adds a pleasant texture and flavor to a variety of products.

So, what's my verdict after examining all of these ingredients? Some of them aren't so bad, but there are some other strange things in these bagels that make me think twice about eating too many of them. My habit has been to eat half a wheat bagel covered with natural peanut butter (which has one ingredient: peanuts) for breakfast. Perhaps I'll try instead oats. That is, plain oats from the big canister, not the packaged, flavored stuff. The ingredients in oats? Whole grain rolled oats. Simple and pure.

Do you eat bagels? Check the ingredient list and see if any of these show up in the brand you eat. What do you think, now that you know what some of them are?

Coffee creamer: What's really in it?

They say you are what you eat. If that's the case, I've been inspired to examine the ingredients in some of the items I eat or drink on a regular basis.

This inspiration comes from a couple of other blog posts I've read recently. Scott Kustes of Modern Forager urges us to eat real food, and Mark Sisson of Mark's Daily Apple discusses foods that contain high fructose corn syrup.

After reading these posts, I caught myself looking at the ingredient labels of various foods around my kitchen. I feel like I do pretty well with focusing my diet on vegetables, fruits and meats. For the most part, I stay away from too much processed or high-fat foods. But in our highly-processed world, it’s hard not to let a few creep into my kitchen.

But still, these posts made me wonder if I was doing all I could to help my body be healthier. Sure, I keep the fat and carbs pretty low, but what about all that weird stuff in my foods that I can't pronounce? As Scott says, real food doesn't need an ingredient label.

So what about the ingredient labels on the foods I eat? I plan for this to be an occasional series of posts where I'll take one of the foods in my diet and try to define as many of the ingredients as I can. And then see what I can do about decreasing my intake of those foods or eliminating them altogether.

First, I'll take on coffee creamer, specifically Coffee-mate Original powdered creamer. The reason I pick this one (and here's the disclaimer so the folks at Coffee-mate don't get mad at me) is because I put it in my coffee at work, five days a week.

First let's look at the nutrition facts. As you can see in the nutrition label, which I've pulled from Coffee-mate's Web site, a serving size is 1 teaspoon, and it has 10 calories, 0.5 grams of total fat -- all of which is saturated -- and not much else in the way of nutrients.


All of this comes from the ingredients, which I will look at in the order in which they are listed.

Corn syrup solids. From Wikipedia: Corn syrup is a syrup, made using cornstarch as a feedstock, and composed mainly of glucose. … Its major use is in commercially-prepared foods as a thickener and for its moisture-retaining (humectant) properties which keep foods moist and help to maintain freshness.

I further found an entry on The Fit Shack that says corn syrup solids are manufactured from corn syrup liquid through a process that removes 97 percent of the water from the liquid.

Vegetable oil (partially hydrogenated coconut or palm kernel, hydrogenated soybean). From Wikipedia: Vegetable fats and oils are substances derived from plants that are composed of triglycerides.

As for the “partially hydrogenated” part, Wikipedia says: Triglyceride-based vegetable fats and oils can be transformed through partial or complete hydrogenation into fats and oils of higher melting point. The hydrogenation process involves "sparging" the oil at high temperature and pressure with hydrogen in the presence of a catalyst, typically a powdered nickel compound. … Partial hydrogenation results in the formation of trans fats, which have increasingly been viewed as unhealthy since the 1970s.

So, by ingesting this coffee creamer, I’m drinking nickel compounds and trans fats. That doesn’t sound healthy.

Sodium Caseinate (a milk derivative). If you search for this term, Wikipedia redirects you to an entry for casien: Casein (from Latin caseus "cheese") is the predominant phosphoprotein that accounts for nearly 80 percent of proteins in milk and cheese. … Casein is often listed as sodium caseinate, calcium caseinate or milk protein.

I have to wonder why a product described on Coffee-mate’s own Web site as “The original rich and deliciously creamy non-dairy creamer” has a milk derivative in it. I am not lactose-intolerant myself, but what does such a product do to people who are?

Dipotassium phosphate (moderates coffee acidity). From Wikipedia: Dipotassium phosphate -- also phosphoric acid, dipotassium salt; dipotassium hydrogen orthophosphate; potassium phosphate, dibasic -- is a highly water-soluble salt which is often used as a fertilizer, food additive and buffering agent. It is a common source of phosphorus and potassium.

So I’m putting a product that is also used as a fertilizer in my coffee? Ick!

Mono- and diglycerides (prevents oil separation). This requires a search for two different terms on Wikipedia: A monoglyceride, more correctly known as a monoacylglycerol, is a glyceride consisting of one fatty acid chain covalently bonded to a glycerol molecule through an ester linkage.

A diglyceride, or a diacylglycerol (DAG), is a glyceride consisting of two fatty acid chains covalently bonded to a glycerol molecule through ester linkages. … Mono- and diacylglycerols are common food additives used to blend together certain ingredients, such as oil and water, which would not otherwise blend well. … The commercial source may be either animal (cow- or hog-derived) or vegetable, derived primarily from soy bean and canola oil. They may also be synthetically produced.

So I have no idea where the mono- and diglycerides in this particular creamer came from. Are they real? Synthetic? Also, if oil and water weren’t meant to blend together, should we be forcing them to do so?

Sodium aluminosilicate. From Wikipedia: Sodium aluminosilicate, also referred to as sodium silicoaluminate, is a chemical with the formula AlNa12SiO5 and CAS 1344-00-9. It is an aluminosilicate compound with sodium cations, taking the form of a white crystalline solid.

All this definition told me is that sodium silicoaluminate is an aluminosilicate compound. No, really?! I had figured out that much from looking at the word. So I clicked on the term aluminosilicate and found this: Aluminosilicate minerals are minerals composed of aluminium, silicon, and oxygen.

I’m still not sure this tells me anything. And since I’m not sure what it is, I would rather not put it in my body.

Artificial flavor. Note that the ingredient list does not say what this artificial flavor entails. But if you type the term “artificial flavor” into Wikipedia, you are redirected to the entry on flavor, and specifically to the part about flavor creation, where you read this: Most food and beverage companies do not create their own flavors but instead employ the services of a flavor company. … The flavor creation is done by a specially trained scientist called a "flavorist." The flavorist's job combines extensive scientific knowledge of the chemical palette with artistic creativity to develop new and distinctive flavors.

Hmmm … so a flavorist has decided now my creamer should taste, and has added who-knows-what to it. So, again, I have no idea exactly what I am putting into my body.

Annatto color. From Wikipedia: Annatto, sometimes called Roucou, is a derivative of the achiote trees of tropical regions of the Americas, used to produce a red food coloring and also as a flavoring. Annatto is produced from the reddish pulp which surrounds the seed of the achiote.

This last ingredient doesn’t sound too bad. At least it comes from a natural fruit. But the entry does say it can cause allergies in some people. Personally, I can take it or leave it.

So what's my verdict after defining all of these ingredients? I'm not so sure I really need that creamer in my coffee. In fact, for the past few days, I've been leaving it out of my coffee. There is a little more bitterness to the coffee’s taste, but it's something I can get used to, especially if it means leaving these unnatural ingredients out of my body.

I consider the loss of coffee creamer a worthy sacrifice to live a healthy life.

So how do you take your coffee? Creamer? Milk? Black? Will knowing what these ingredients are change your mind about putting powdered creamer in your coffee?

Defending my healthy choices

On my recent vacation to Washington, D.C., I had endured a turbulent airplane landing, my stomach was upset, and I didn't want anything greasy or fried.

All I wanted was a salad. Only crisp, cool, soothing vegetables and salad dressing would do it.

I wasn’t trying to make a point or show off how healthy I was being. I just wanted a salad.

However, one of my travel companions commented on my salad. As she ate her hamburger and fries, she explained how she didn’t like salads because they took so much work to cut up and so long to eat.

There have been times when I have been a little offended when someone feels the need to point out, or even put down, my choice to have a salad. Luckily, that day, I was too hungry to care what she thought. I simply nodded at her and kept eating. And boy, was it tasty. It was just what I needed to fill my stomach and settle it down.

But later, when I reflected on it, it made me wonder if my action made her feel guilty in some way. I can see why my action might have been interpreted as some sort of example or statement, especially if she somehow felt she hadn’t made the best choice for herself.

I’ve had other occasions when people feel the need to point out my choices of salads, fresh or steamed vegetables or fresh fruit.

It is at times like this when I call upon the nine qualities of a healthy life, which I wrote about in my last post.

Since I was not feeling good as a result of the air turbulence and not having any food in my stomach, I tuned in to what my body needed, and I was honest about it. I needed pure foods, not grease or fat.

I also called on my defiance. Although those hamburgers and french fries looked really good, and it would have been easy to say, "I'll have them because everyone else is," I did not give in.

I also was defensive. Not with words, because I was too busy stuffing lettuce into my mouth. But I was defensive with my actions. The fact that my response to her comments was to simply keep eating what I had chosen was my message that I was confident in my choice.

In most cases, I’m not trying to be self-righteous or snobby in my healthy choices. I’m simply doing what I feel is best for myself. If others wish to take an example from it, that’s fine. If they wish to comment on my choices in an effort to defend their own, that's when remembering the nine qualities comes in handy.

If you want to make a healthy food choice, you should do so, no matter how it makes other people feel. What's important is how it makes you feel.

Maybe, just maybe, if you are seen as an example of what it means to be healthy, it will make a difference for someone around you. If you can influence just one person with your good choices, you have done your part to make the world just a little healthier.

And if you can't, well then, you can still influence yourself. And that's what really matters.

What examples do you have of times people commented on something you were eating? How did it make you feel? How did you respond? Leave me a comment!

Do you want your kids to be healthy? Show them how!

When I was a kid, I didn't have carbonated soft drinks or potato chips very often, and desserts after dinner were not a given.

"Oh, you poor thing!" you might exclaim. "Did you never get anything good to eat?"

Yes, I did. All the time. My mother made me eat my fruits and vegetables. And today, I thank her for it.

Because of her early lessons in what was "good" for me to eat and what wasn't, I have formed lifelong habits that keep me healthy today.

If I wanted a snack when I came home from school, I reached for a piece of fruit. Dinners were rounded out with meat, potatoes or rice and vegetables – and we had to eat a little bit of everything. Our drink with dinner? Milk.

We did have desserts, soft drinks and chips, but they were reserved for weekends and other special occasions.

Because of this, I learned how to eat right. I learned like nutrient-dense foods and what they do for my health. I also learned that it's OK to have junk food sometimes -- as long as it's kept in perspective as a treat and not as a diet staple.

An article here says helping kids lead healthy lifestyles begins with parents who lead by example.

Poor eating habits are often established during childhood, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). More than 60 percent of young people eat too much fat, and less than 20 percent eat the recommended five or more servings of fruits and vegetables each day, according to this article.

I think there’s a lot of truth to that. Because of the examples my parents set for me, I learned to think about my food choices and eat foods for their nutritional value.

I’ve known other people who are examples of the opposite – because of the habits they learned, they don’t eat so healthy as adults.

Someone I knew several years ago in college had a mother who would fix him his own meal every day, giving him total control over what he wanted to eat. She didn’t force him to eat anything he didn’t want to. The result? A very picky eater who ate nothing but junk food and didn't want to try anything new. I don’t even want to imagine what his blood sugar and cholesterol numbers are like now.

A family I know has two overweight parents – and their three kids are on their way to being overweight. In the past couple years, they have tried to make some changes as a family, and I wish them the best of luck. If this family is going to change their kids’ lifestyle habits, they’d better do it now. Their oldest child is a teenager, and as she gets older, her eating habits will be more and more difficult to change.

I’ve also worked with people who make the same New Year’s resolution year after year – to eat better and lose weight. They start off great, but by March, if not sooner, they’re back to their old habits, claiming they “just can’t give up” their hamburgers, pizza and beer. I’ve also seen people who eat for comfort, not for nutrition, and they stay fat because of it.

So, I appeal to the parents. Your kids will learn from you. Sometimes, they will learn only too well. You want to prepare them for a successful future in terms of education and career, don’t you? What about a successful future for their health? Set them on the right health path, and they’ll be more likely to live a long life so they can enjoy their other successes.

What kind of health example are you setting? Think about it.

11 ways to keep sweets at the office from ruining your healthy diet

Are you committed to healthy eating and limiting your intake of sweets, but work in an office where there are many occasions to eat cake and cookies?

If it seems like your officemates want a cake every time someone has a birthday, leaves the company, graduates from school, or any other occasion they can dream up, you might find yourself in a dilemma. You have to strike a balance between not being too self-righteous about your healthy habits, which might make you look snobby and non-participative, and not letting all of the sweets ruin your weight and your health.

This can be even more difficult to navigate if these parties are the boss's idea. You might feel even more pressure to eat dessert in order to show your appreciation or to avoid offending the boss.

What do you do?

I've been in this situation many times, and I've come up with a few strategies that have worked so far.

I'm full from lunch.
This especially works well if the party occurs soon after lunch. Simply claim that you are full. It is even more effective if you rub your stomach, groan and bulge your eyes slightly, as if you can't possibly eat another bite. If your co-workers pressure you, you can put them off by saying, "I'll have a piece later." Then just don't get any. Once everyone goes back to work, they won't notice you.

I have an errand that I must get done today.
If you are trying to eat healthy, but your department has scheduled a pizza lunch, this strategy works. Just before everyone gathers together, jump up with a worried look on your face, grab your purse and tell a co-worker that you have to handle something urgent, and could they please let the boss know you'll be back as soon as possible. Then run out the door. Of course, your "urgent" errand is to go out somewhere for a nice salad. Or, if you bring your lunch, have it stored in your car and sit outside and eat.

Take advantage of chaos
If you are attending a company-wide lunch party where there are many people and many conversations going on, your co-workers are much less likely to notice what you eat. If it's a pot luck event where everyone has brought a dish, you may not know what's in them, but it's simple enough to choose dishes that emphasize vegetables and de-emphasize creamy sauces. And if you skip the sweets altogether, your dessert-less plate will get lost in the crowd.

Take advantage of the meeting
If cake is served during a meeting, politely accept a piece and set it further away from you than your notepad. Then, pay really close attention to the meeting and take lots of notes. If you're busy writing, you can't eat! Then, when the meeting is over, you can do one of two things with that cake. You can say, "Gosh, I really have to get on this task. I don't have time to eat this. Do you want it?" and offer it to someone. Or, you can take it back to your desk and promise to eat it while you work, then allow it to quietly make its way into your trash can.

Strategically timed bathroom break
This one works if the cake is being served at the end of a meeting. When the meeting leader calls for a break and people start to get the cake and plates out, sneak out to the bathroom. Stay there for a few minutes. By the time you come back in, the cake server will be eating their own piece, and you might just be able to hang out in the back of the room or sneak back to your seat without anyone making a big deal out of the fact that you don't have a piece.

Let everyone else get a piece first
This works especially well if the dessert is a small cake or a cookie cake, where it looks like there might not be quite enough for everyone. Just say, "I'm not sure I want any. I'll let everyone else get some, then I might take a piece if there's any left." Chances are good that the cake will be gone by the time everyone else gets theirs, which solves your problem. Or the person who asked you will be distracted by their own cake and forget that you don't have a piece.

OK, maybe just a little piece.
You can kick this one in if you have tried the other refusal strategies and they just haven't worked. If the well-meaning co-worker serving the cake insists that you have some, politely accept it. While holding your plate and talking to someone, eat three or four bites slowly. Then, when no one is looking, set it aside on a table.

Ask for half a piece.
If you just can't get out of having a piece, or if you have decided that you can indulge just a little, ask the cake server to cut your slice in half. Then eat it slowly. Chances are, you won't want to go back for more, and no one will say anything more to you about it.

Eat a healthy snack beforehand
If the cake party is a few hours after lunch, when you are more likely to have the late-afternoon munchies and think you might be persuaded to indulge despite your good intentions, eat a healthy snack first. A piece of fruit, a handful of nuts or a carton of yogurt will take the edge off your appetite and help you withstand the pressure.

Simple refusal
It is okay to simply refuse, saying, "No, thanks, I don't want any." If you feel comfortable saying this without offending your co-workers or the boss, this is the most honest and straightforward strategy. If a co-worker persists, simply repeat yourself. They can't force cake down your throat.

Alternate
A good way to strike the balance between being a non-participating health snob and ruining your diet with the weekly cake-fest is to alternate. If you refused the last time, take a slice of cake this time. This can be used in conjunction with the "OK, maybe just a little piece" or "Ask for half a piece" strategies to minimize the damage to your waist.

It seems like every time I turn around, cake or other desserts are being served at my workplace. With a little preparation and the strategies above, so far I've been successful at keeping extra weight off while keeping the goodwill of my co-workers.

Does your workplace have sweets often? What strategies do you have for staying away from the desserts?

Breakfast of champions? Or gut-wrenching nausea?

I have been a breakfast eater as far back as I can remember.

When I was a child, my mother encouraged me to eat a bowl of cereal or a piece of toast with a glass of milk before I headed off to school.

Now, I keep up my breakfast habit. What I eat has changed over the years, partly because of my schedule and partly because I have learned new things about what to eat and what not to.

Currently, I eat half a wheat bagel topped with a layer of natural peanut butter, followed by a serving of fruit cocktail a couple hours later.

Because I am a breakfast eater, does that mean I think everyone should eat breakfast? Not necessarily.

My husband is the other side of the coin. He hardly ever eats breakfast. He says he's just not hungry in the mornings, and if he forces himself to eat before his body is ready, he gets nauseous. Instead, he goes to lunch at 11 a.m., which is earlier than most people.

Should people like my husband be forced to eat breakfast? Common belief says so. And this Web site, Mr. Breakfast.com (the name of which makes me chuckle), backs up that common belief.

This site gives four reasons to eat breakfast:

1. Children who eat breakfast perform better on standardized achievement tests and have fewer behavior problems in school.


2. Eating breakfast has an advantageous effect on late-morning mood, satiety and cognitive performance.


3. Eating breakfast keeps you thin.


4. Breakfast is delicious.

Let's look to my husband, the non-breakfast eater, to examine those reasons. He never had any major problems in school on tests, nor did he get in trouble for his behavior. He works through his mornings just fine until he eats his lunch at 11 a.m. He has maintained his same healthy weight for several years now.

As for the last reason, I have to wonder how many scientific experiments they had to run to figure that one out.

It's interesting to note that not one of those reasons is: because you're hungry. I have always eaten breakfast in the mornings because I'm hungry, and I want to.

I came across an interesting post giving a different take on the breakfast debate. This view lets my husband and others like him off the hook.

Cari Corbet-Owen in her blog post challenges the assumption that an early breakfast keeps you slim. She says, "The breakfast buzz may have less to do with our bodily needs than to do with the clock, custom and breakfast ‘research’ funded by groups with a vested interest in our breakfasting habits."

Hmmm ... so, maybe the research that tells us breakfast is the most important meal of the day may not be from the most objective source. Are you surprised? I'm not.

Cari advocates a body-based approach to eating, meaning you should honor your body's wisdom, eat quality foods and check these theories for yourself.

I agree. In other words, if you're hungry in the mornings, eat breakfast -- and make it a nutritious one! If you're not hungry in the mornings, don't eat breakfast.

In the end, after you've read up on some information and considered the pros and cons, the best person to decide whether or not you should eat breakfast is you

Do you eat breakfast? Why or why not?

Practice portion control for waist control

My husband and I enjoy going out to eat on the weekends. We eat a few less-healthy foods than we might during the week.

Trouble is, neither one of us can eat the huge meals served in restaurants these days. A typical meal might include a salad, a 12-ounce steak, a large side of mashed potatoes a pile of vegetables and rolls. Even if we had the appetite to down that much food, we know it's not good for our waistlines to stuff ourselves.

The reason for this is simple: When you consume more calories than you expend, you gain weight.

A major key to losing or maintaining your weight is portion control, something we Americans have trouble with.

Maybe we should take a lesson from Okinawans. They practice the principle of hara hachi bu - or eating until you are 80 percent full.

They're on to something. In Okinawa, heart disease rates are 80 percent lower than in the U.S., stroke rates are lower, cholesterol levels are typically under 180 and cancer rates are 50 to 80 percent lower.

Interestingly, there is a society, called aptly the Calorie Restriction Society, that advocates the concept of Calorie Restriction. They say that since the 1930s, extensive scientific research has shown that calorie restricted diets improve health and extend lifespans of nearly every species tested, including worms, spiders, rodents, dogs, cows and monkeys. They believe it is likely that people who carefully adopt a calorie-restricted diet will see similar results.

However, when you're at a restaurant, it can be difficult to strike a balance between enjoying yourself at lunch or dinner and maintaining a healthy weight.

How do you do it?

Martha Edwards, a That's Fit.com blogger, recommends a few suggestions, including ordering off the kids menu, asking for a half portion, going for an appetizer (one that’s not fried!) instead of an entree or getting a side salad and lean meat.

These are all good suggestions, and I have one more to add to the list.

My husband and I control the amount of food we eat in restaurants by splitting meals. Luckily, we like many of the same foods, so we have a pretty easy time finding something we can both agree on. We specify to our server that we will split the meal, and we ask for an extra plate. If the meal doesn't look like it will be quite enough for the two of us, it's easy to add an appetizer or an extra side.

We have been doing this for several years, and we haven't had a restaurant balk yet. If it did, we would probably take our business elsewhere.

Splitting meals has the added benefit of keeping our costs down, too, which is a good thing in today's economy.

We have encountered a few restaurants that are nice enough to split the meal for us, and we appreciate this extra service when we get it. But most of the time, we have to split the food ourselves. This takes a little extra time and effort, but the calorie savings -- and cost savings -- are well worth it.

How about you? Do you find it easy or difficult to control your portions? What suggestions do you have to add to the list? Leave a comment and let me know!

How to keep your vacation (sort of) healthy

I have just returned from my vacation to Washington, D.C. At the same time, I am also getting this healthy lifestyle blog started. Thus, I came home with a few ideas for future posts.

But first, I thought I would give a few short snippets of things I did during my trip to stay a little on the healthy side.

Airplane abdominals

During takeoff on the flight from Detroit to Baltimore, I noticed my husband leaning forward, bracing himself against the upward tilt of the airplane. He said, “Hey, this is great for the abs!” So, of course, I joined him. I leaned forward and tightened my abs to resist the angle of the plane, and a few seconds later I felt a burn in my abs and thighs.

So, if you want to do a bit of isometrics on an airplane, just lean forward during takeoff. You have to do it as soon as the plane lifts off the ground, though. Once the plane levels out to cruising altitude, you lose the resistance.

I’m resting my feet

I am a yoga practitioner, and I am sensitive to the tension in my body caused by daily living. The routine tension of sitting at my desk all day, staring at a computer, carrying groceries and the like can usually be relieved by a series of yoga poses.

On vacation, my body suffers different tension because I put it through different stresses than at home. Walking a lot, sitting on an airplane and carrying a bag on my shoulder all take their toll. Therefore, I often find opportunities to stretch and twist to relieve the tension.

One pose that I like to do after walking a lot always gets a laugh from my husband, but it feels darn good. It’s called Legs Up the Wall, and it’s a great little inversion. He’ll look over and ask what in the world I’m doing, to which I answer, “I’m resting my feet!”

Basically, you lay with your back on the floor near a wall and rest your legs vertically up the wall. This causes the blood to flow away from your feet, which makes your feet happy after you’ve stressed them all day by walking on them. After a few seconds, you’ll feel a pleasant tingling sensation. You can point and flex your feet, and if you’re flexible enough, bring your leg back toward your face and stretch your hamstrings a bit. This pose also releases the lower back and shoulders, and you can lay in it for as long as you need to.

Restrained indulgence

On a vacation, our eating routine is always different than at home. This is partially because of circumstances – the usual salads, fruits and yogurt I would eat for lunch at home just aren’t readily available in a hotel room. You can’t carry any of these things with you, and you can’t always get to a grocery store near your hotel, and if you could, you don’t always have a refrigerator in your room to keep anything cold.

So you’re stuck with eating out for just about every meal. Don’t get me wrong – I enjoy going out to eat and experiencing different foods. That’s part of why I go on vacation – to eat things I can’t get or don’t normally eat at home.

But on this vacation, I found myself really paying attention to my food choices. For one meal, I wanted nothing more than a salad. Nothing but crisp green lettuce, a few toppings and dressing would do. I just didn’t want anything greasy or full of carbs. So we stopped at a McDonald’s, and my husband got burgers and fries while I got a salad. And it was delicious.

At other meals, I chose turkey sandwiches or grilled salmon and substituted sides of French fries for steamed vegetables.

However, since it was vacation, I didn’t entirely hold back. We went to this delicious steak house called Bugaboo Creek. I ordered sirloin tips with mashed potatoes. And boy, was it good! That was the same day I had the salad for lunch, so I figured I could justify the red meat and carbs.

When you’re on vacation, you should definitely have a meal or two where you can get something not-so-healthy and not feel too guilty about it. If you watch your choices at other meals, you can minimize the overall damage to your diet.

Although I have no doubt I gained a pound or two during my vacation, I feel like I did my best in striking a balance between indulgence and restraint. At no time did I feel like I was depriving myself or not enjoying my vacation to its fullest extent.

Now that vacation is over, though, it’s time to get back to the gym and the salads, fruit and yogurt!