Links and Quotes of the week

The email from Mark's Daily Apple this week had this quote: "Make your easy workouts longer and easier, and your hard workouts shorter and harder. "  I love this philosophy!

Tips for staying fit on vacation by Weight Watchers.  I have used most of these tips: Staying Fit on Vacay

Nice graphic on activity (via Mark's Daily Apple).  Scary stuff.  I sit way too much!

Links!

Just a few good ones this week:

Is sugar toxic?

10-primal-meals-in-15-minutes-or-less  I'm not primal, but I think about it.  But then, I think about going vegan too.  So.  These recipes look good and easy.

Raincoast crisps - or "why I should never go to the foo foo grocery store hungry".  I did go on Amazon to see the price there...same as the foo foo store.  $7.99 per box.  But they are goooood.  But $0.22 per cracker.  Now I did find this recipe to make your own version.  I bought the fig and olive version, by the way.  I found this version and this version too.  But I've never made my own crackers, and I will probably be lazy and just buy these when I'm really really craving them.

A Couple of Links, and I love Mark BIttman

Mark Bittman's Blog this week was pretty awesome. Say it, brother! Couldn't have said it better myself.

There were some interesting comments. liza from MA:

Great points, with which I couldn't agree more; however, I can't imagine how Americans can possibly eat well until they are working less hours. Eating well cannot happen in a country where most people are working and commuting so many hours: no matter how "simple" the meal is, a healthy one - unprocessed, fresh food - takes time, time to shop more often, perhaps drive further, requires more preparation - cannot be just thrown into the microwave, etc.
As long as we put up with an economic system where so many working hours are essential to survive, we will not be able to eat well or be healthy in any way, body, mind or spirit. There are a finite number of hours in the day, and the way Americans are living now, this does not leave time, especially for families with young children (and little money) to eat well, exercise, get enough sleep, take care of all the household chores and errands, etc.....never mind smelling the roses.

Well, from a personal standpoint, I still manage to cook healthy meals, but I also don't watch the US average of 5 hours of TV per day.

Silvie from CT:

Mr. Bittman's ideas are interesting but how can we expect the government to withdraw subsidies to industries that exist because of them? The risk to known, taxpaying corporate sectors, with seriously powerful lobbies is enormous. The payoff, while probable in terms of public heath and the environment, will be very difficult to quantify.
Certainly (as we saw with the 'Public Option' fiasco in the health debates), there is no one in congress or the Presidential Administration or at the state-government level with the courage to begin to examine these questions, never mind actually back the withdrawal of subsides.
I for one will take care in my choices of where my food dollars go, will continue to marvel at how much corn sugar (up to 50% of products) is in the average supermarket, but I will not hold my breath and wait for our farcical, utterly unprincipled political class to 'save us' from the food they enable.

Sad, but true Silvie.

On another topic: working moms are the source of all evil.

In the blogosphere:

Squawkfox did a great job of cooking a lot of meals with one chicken.

This blog shows the AMAZING weight loss journey of one woman. Simply amazing.

And Cook for Good has a great recipe for Savory Onion Muffins.

Weekly links

Sparkpeople has another photo gem on what 300 calories really looks like.




More fruits and veggies are better in preventing heart disease.



On government subsidies this is why you're fat.


Thanks to Less is Enough for passing on a blog series on Slate/Clean Plate where a blogger strives to improve her eating habits. This one looks pretty good...I've just skimmed it so far.

Good Links

I confess. My favorite posts to read each week are Casual Kitchen's Friday Links, and Cheap Healthy Good's. (And any other weekly links, if I can find them. Know of any good ones?) There's something about having a solid 20 minutes reading good content that relaxes me.


But I never do my own. Mostly because I don't have a whole lot of time to search around, or save up what I get via email. Today I was inspired by something in my in-box, so I'm giving it a whirl.


Some foods are worth the extra $$, some are not, from Ivillage. Pretty much sums up how I shop.


How one mom stretches her grocery shopping to once/month. (If you know me, you know grocery shopping frequency fascinates me). Penniless Parenting. I am fascinated by the way that many Europeans shop daily (and we did the same when we vacationed there). I get into that habit myself when I have the time (with almost daily farmer's markets, it's easy to do). But when life gets crazy, like it is now and will be for three months, I love getting inspiration from others on how to shop less frequently. Even if I'm only cutting it to weekly or bi-weekly. My biggest tip? Eat something else.


A registered dietitian reviews Weight Watchers new PointsPlus plan. Pretty much sums up how I feel about it. Thanks to Biz for the link.


I love pictures. I get the Sparkpeople daily emails. Usually, I delete 'em (that time thing). Today I opened it and found this gem, about how it can be cheaper to cook than eat out. I think the pictures are very descriptive, and can give some people the boost they need to get into the kitchen.

And totally non-food related, but really good advice on conflict and keeping your cool at work, from Fabulously Broke in the City. A lot of lessons to be learned here, about being an adult, acting professional, and not giving up. The ability to shrug bad things off and keep going can be applied to many areas - weight loss, saving money, work...

My Favorite Blogs

As I sit here thinking about my dinner plans and the fact that today is my 1 day weekend, I got to thinking about some of my favorite blogs.

You can see my blog list on the right. That's not all the blogs that I read, but some of them. The blogs that I enjoy are a reflection of me. So here goes, in no particular order.

Joanne at Eats Well With Others - Joanne is intelligent and FUNNY (my goodness, she's a great writer...runner, cook, writer, and medical student? She's got it all.) She ALWAYS makes me smile, sometimes laugh right out loud. She's also fearless. She takes on quite the complicated recipes...if only I could have cooked like that in my 20's...

Kath at KERF - Kath has an all-around great blog with a love for nutrition and good healthy food. She's also got a thing for oatmeal. Her whipped banana oats are the best. Her upbeat attitude is an absolute joy. And she's training for a half marathon (I love reading about her progress).

Jenna at Eat Live Run - Jenna has a ZEST for life that cannot be matched. Her love for Paris and good food and good wine is a joy to read. She grabs life head on, from moving cross country to California, to partying with the boys from Top Chef, to writing a book, to planning a summer in France.

Kalli at Fit and Fortysomething - Kalli has an all-around GREAT site about health and fitness in your 40's (a topic soon to be very near and dear to my heart). I *love* reading about her exercise endeavors and seeing her meals. She can combine veggies like nobody's business and I mean - she puts hummus on almost everything. My kinda girl.

The ladies at Cheap Healthy Good (Kris and Leigh) - This blog introduced me to blogging. It was the first that I ever read, and inspired me to start my own blog. Their blog is chock-full of helpful information on how to cook meals at home, and on the cheap. I wait patiently each week for their Friday Links...best link list out there if you are interested in food.

Daniel at Casual Kitchen - This guy will get you INTO the kitchen. Great instruction, simple recipes. And he really makes you THINK about food, what it means to you, how you eat, what you eat, how much you eat. Good stuff.

Gena at Choosing Raw - I cannot even remember how I came to discover this blog. So many of my discoveries come from reading a comment that someone left on another blog. I really like her philosophy of eating. She's mostly raw, not all raw. She encourages people to eat more raw food, without being in your face about it. And her recipes look lovely.

Sheri at Green and Crunchy - A family full of high-raw vegan kiddos. A love of section plates and smoothies. Delicious vegan and raw foods. So colorful, so yummy looking, I adore this blog. Absolutely adore it.

Vegan Dad - delicious recipes. 'Nuff said.

Rebecca at Less is Enough - This wonderful woman did an experiment in 2009, to eat for 30 days on $30. She did an amazing job. She's still blogging (though she's increased her budget), and her posts are very informative. She shows her receipts, total amount spent eat week, and details some of her meals. She is self-defined as a NON-foodie. Her philosophy on eating for cheap is to buy only what you need this week. This is mostly the opposite of what I do for staples, but I do use this method to eat down the pantry...buy only fresh fruits and veggies each week. This brings me to ...

Tina and Phil at 30 bucks a week - These two are feeding themselves in Brooklyn, NY for $30 a week (yes, that's $15 per person). This does not include eating out on occasion (I mean, they do live in New York). I am constantly impressed at what they can get at the Park Slope Coop (oh, if our coop prices were only so low) and what they are able to make with what they buy. Always an inspiration. And their shopping philosophy is similar to Rebecca's, above.

Angela at Oh She Glows - Angela had a vision. A vision of leaving her job and owning her own vegan bakery. And she has realized her vision. She also has a really good handle on how to eat healthfully and exercise FOR THE RIGHT REASONS. Angela has struggled with disordered eating, and her posts are very sensitive to the millions out there who also have (been there, done that). Every once in awhile, I'll read a blog from someone who gained 20-30 lbs in college. And now they are blogging about health, because "look I lost 20-30 lbs after college". I would scoff. I mean, really, big deal, losing 20 lbs in your 20s. Try losing >50 lbs in your 30s.

But then, I have to smack myself. What a bad attitude. Sure, these young'uns might not understand where I've been, but by the same token - I don't know what it's like to lose (and keep off) 100 lbs when you are in your 40s. I have to remind myself to appreciate that it's difficult for ANYONE to lose weight and keep it off in the food minefield we live in today. Any inspiration and help we can get, we should take.

Truth be told, for those of us who've been obese...our bodies are simply DIFFERENT once we lose weight. For some people will never be able to hit a "goal weight" (defined by BMI) once they've been obese. The metabolism changes, sometimes forever. And then, there's the loose skin. Ah, the loose skin.

Lynn at Lynn's Weigh - Lynn is an absolute inspiration. Just check out her stats. She's lost the weight, kept it off, kept fit, and is a great place to go to talk about food and weight.

And last but not least:

The Dervaes Family at Path to Freedom: Homesteading. Living simply. Doing it yourself. Knitting, crocheting, canning, cooking, baking and - of course - growing your own food. Whenever I want to contemplate "unplugging" I look to them for inspiration. And they are a great place to buy seeds.