It Happened This Week: Food Safety Tips, Halloween Candy, Healthy Halloween Alternatives and Recipes
This weekend clocks change and candy comes home! It’s Halloween weekend!
Diane wrote about how she made it through the holiday of candy and costumes while still losing weight. Her secret? Planning for a candy indulgence and then moving on because candy doesn’t control her, she controls the candy. Remember you can enjoy Halloween candy without gaining weight.
Or maybe you were thinking about handing out healthy alternatives to Halloween candy this year. Check out this list of 25 ways you can help kids in your neighborhood have a healthier Halloween.
Wondering what foods to make this weekend so candy won’t be such a big deal? Try some of these Healthy Halloween Recipes for a weekend of healthy eating: Mummy Hot Dogs, Spicy ‘Bruised’ Bugs, Pizza Mummies, Roasted Witches Fingers or Pumpkin Stew.
Whatever you do this weekend, enjoy it! Happy Halloween!
Healthy Recipe Thursday! Italian Chicken & Insight on Ingredients
Laura's idea doesn't throw everything into one pan like this but you get the idea.
Today’s recipe — well, more of a recipe idea — comes from friend and colleague Laura Lagano, MS, RD, CDN, an expert in using food as medicine, something she learned well in raising a child with developmental disorders. After a recent stay at her house, I can attest to her finesse with food and nutrition. She knows how to enjoy food in a way that makes her, her family and her friends feel great.
Laura has a nutrition counseling practice — The Holistic Nutrition Group – in the metro New York/New Jersey area. She provides medical nutrition therapy both one-on-one and in group settings. Specialty areas range from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to Alzheimer’s and from autism to irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
She shared this recipe idea via Facebook chat as she was preparing it. We’re pleased to add it to our cache of healthy recipes on A Weight Lifted.
Italian Chicken with Buttered Winter Squash & Roasted Vegetables
Sprinkle chicken with organic Italian seasoning* and brown in olive oil or butter* or a mix of the two. Add white wine and cook until chicken is done.
Quarter winter squash of your choosing and bake in hot oven (about 375 degrees F); toss with butter and nutmeg and sea salt*. If you want a sweeter taste, sprinkle with a little turbinado sugar*.
Slice various potatoes, turnips and onions, toss in olive oil and sea salt and roast at about 375 degrees F. If they don’t brown, finish on broil for some crispies.
*Some insight into Laura’s recommendations re ingredients:
- Organic Italian seasoning: She recommends organic versions of anything that is pulverized such as spices, herbs, coffee, nut butters, etc. Why? Because they aren’t peeled before pulverizing, making it harder to remove any pesticides that cling to the outsides.
- Butter: Butter tastes good (I told you she was into enjoying food). Plus it contains butyric acid which is a valuable fatty acid for gut healing.
- Turbinado sugar: Again, it tastes better. It also contains more minerals than regular sugar. Not a lot but every little bit helps.
- Sea salt: Ditto turbinado sugar.
Do you regularly use special ingredients that enhance the taste and nutrition of your foods? Do tell!
Self Acceptance Comes First
This week Marsha began her guest contributing at We Are The Real Deal by writing a post asking the question “If I Don’t Like Me, Can I Take Care Of Me?“ In her post Marsha asked readers to imagine that after successfully adopting a healthy lifestyle, they found their weight remained the same. How would they feel? Would they be okay with that, or would they be shattered?
The responses, as always, are across the board.
Many women feel their body size is directly related to their happiness. The smaller they are the happier they can be. They feel that once they can change their bodies into something better then they will feel confidence.
After losing a good amount of weight, keeping it off, then regaining much of it within a year’s time, I’ve realized that body size has only as much to do with my happiness as I let it. When Marsha asked me that same questions weeks ago, my answer was, “I’d be okay with that.” And I would. I’ve learned that as long as my body is active and I am able to do the things I want to do then I am happy and my weight doesn’t matter. I no longer think being a certain weight, or being above a certain imaginary weight maximum is reason enough for me to dislike myself.
Marsha asked another question in her post, one that Mimi Francis, our behavioral health therapist at Green Mountain, often asks,
“How well has not liking yourself worked so far?”
For most of us – not well. When I was in the stage where I hated my body and disliked myself because of my body, nothing good was happening to me. I was caught in an endless cycle of abusing food because I didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t think I deserved anything better. And it wasn’t until I finally decided that I was worth it, that I mattered, that I decided to change my life through healthy eating and exercise.
Positive change is much more likely to come from a place of self-love than from self-hatred. It did in my case and many others. Often the first step in creating a healthy lifestyle is discovering that you are worth it. Learning the simple fact that you are worth it is important because people will put in the work to take care of themselves when they feel they are worthy of it.
“We nurture and care for the things we love and feel connected to. We neglect and destroy the things we do not.” –Unknown
In her guest post at A Weight Lifted, Karen made some great points about this subject:
- You can’t hate yourself to health
- You can’t hate yourself AND lose weight permanently
- When you are full of self-loathing, your don’t treat yourself very well
- You must start from a place of self-love and self-acceptance
The first step usually is the one people think is last. You learn to love yourself and accept your body first, and the healthy lifestyle management part falls into place. When you start from a place of self-love it is easier because you realize you deserve it. Our bodies might not be perfect in the stage they are at right now, I know mine still isn’t, but that doesn’t mean we can’t accept and love them now. We have to be able to like ourselves enough now to realize we deserve the good things that a healthy lifestyle provides.
The World’s Best Gym
Driving to work this morning I noticed that there are still autumn leaves doing their best to cling to the trees. I actually find myself rooting them on, “Come on leaves, hang on! I don’t want to wait six whole months before I see you again!” (Ok, I might be just a little too invested in the trees…)
Why am I a leaf rooting nut you may ask? Let’s just say I’m not a big fan of the season that’s right around the corner. I know, I live in Vermont. How can you live in Vermont and not love the snow? I do find the first fall quite lovely. All pristine and holiday-ish. That’s my mindset for about the first 30 days – then I’m done.
Once a California girl…
But this year I’m vowing to try and embrace winter in a way I have not been able to in the past. I’m going to try and look at winter through the eyes of a child. I see it every year here at Green Mountain, women discover a whole new world of fitness and health and love it, by engaging in activities that they thought they’d never do, much less enjoy. Women come here every year from all over the world and snap on those snow shoes (or cross-country skis), and give it a go. Every winter there they are, truckin’ up our hill, laughin’ it up, acting like kids, finding the joy in this winter wonder land.
So, this year I’m turning a new leaf. Because when one lives in a place like Vermont, the best health club in the world is going to be right outside your front door – no matter what the season.
Losing 150 Pounds: One Woman’s Story
Losing weight can be hard. Keeping it off can be even harder given our environment that almost seems to encourage the opposite. And approaches that don’t add up to the best weight loss program practices for most of us. Annabel from Feed Me I’m Cranky shares her formula for success in our interview below. During her six-year journey from a 280-pound teenager to a 150-pound-lighter young woman, Annabel realized her weight-loss goal had become a health-gain goal. As she so articulately says, “One goal can be achieved and abandoned; the other is a lifelong commitment.” Below, she shares more valuable insight about what she’s learned along the way.
You talk about weight loss as a goal and health as a “a lifelong commitment.” Can you elaborate on that and how you came to that conclusion?
Weight loss was an enabling goal. It was one step of many to help me achieve better health. But any efforts to obtain and maintain one’s health have to be life-long and holistic. You can’t lose 50 pounds and then revert to your old, poor eating habits. Likewise, you can’t maintain a healthy weight but allow your mental health to suffer. Health is so much more than our weight. It’s what we eat, how we eat, how we handle stress, etc. — it’s basically how we live our lives day-to-day and how those daily choices impact our future.
My most important step in gaining my health was educating myself in how to live a healthy life. We take for granted that some people really don’t even know how to read and interpret the nutritional label on a pack of food. Some of us really don’t know what a calorie is and how calories are not equal and how very much what we put into our bodies and minds truly impacts how we appear on the outside. Learning those very things and acknowledging the behaviors that fueled the lifestyle choices leading me to 280 pounds, was truly the groundbreaking part of all of this. As I continue through this journey, I still find myself gaining knowledge in how to live a healthy lifestyle and even still struggling with remnants of previous, ingrained bad habits.
You say your twin brother was a huge motivation and inspiration. Twins have a very special bond. Do you think you could have lost the weight without him? Do you think everyone needs a partner in getting healthy?
Having a weight-loss partner was extremely useful and meaningful to me. From a technical standpoint, no one needs a partner to lose weight. My twin lost his goal amount of weight well over four years before I got to my goal weight. Having said that though, I cannot say for sure if, without him, I would have ever truly believed that I could lose the weight. I had spent so much time focusing on my previous failed attempts to lose weight that, until I saw him begin to lose weight, I didn’t believe it would ever be possible for me. I think people in your life can serve as an impetus to get you on the right track and they can serve as motivators and cheerleaders, both of which are priceless. But when it comes down to it, my health quest has felt like a very solitary journey. No one can be around you 24/7 monitoring what you eat, how much you exercise and how you live your life (unless you’re on The Biggest Loser and that’s just not real life!). Even still, no one truly understand the forces within you that you grapple with when you’re trying to make a life change. You have got to be strong within yourself to push through the inevitable set-backs. No one can (or should) hold your hand through every tough moment in life.
Have you noticed yourself change in ways that aren’t just physical since you’ve lost weight? How?
Absolutely. Because losing weight was a very personal and isolating battle, I learned to believe and trust in my strength as a person. This has given me confidence to persevere in challenges well outside the weight-loss sphere of my life.
Do you fear putting the weight back on?
Yes and no. My weight has fluctuated up and down 30 pounds in the past couple of years. I am currently working on preventing such large fluctuations as, knowing my body and habits, they are not “natural” as much as they are consequences of reverting to food as a coping mechanism. I fully accept that my weight will fluctuate as I grow older, as I (some day far in the distant future, fingers crossed) become a mother, and as my body naturally adjusts. I aim not to accept putting weight on, or even losing weight, due to unhealthy lifestyle choices.
How do you stay motivated?
Motivation is a tricky subject. We all know that one day we can be absolutely assured that there is no turning back, that our reasons for staying healthy are so incredibly compelling, and another day, we can say “why bother?!” We can have a positive attitude but low motivation and alternately, have a bad attitude but high motivation. My blog title says it: I’m a cranky person! But that crankiness is typically linked with a very high degree of motivation. I accept that some days (weeks, even months!) I lack motivation, but I eventually push through it. Recently I’ve gone through a slump and two things really helped me: 1) A friend told me I needed to break the vicious cycles that got me into the slump. This forced me to reflect on what had initiated my lack of motivation. I was able to see that there were certain situations I continually put myself in that leave me emotionally drained and lacking the desire to do anything good for myself. I realized I had to step outside of myself, outside of my comfort zone, and truly break ties with the things that were holding me back. 2) I simply repeated to myself, “You are not allowed to give up.” Seeing other people living a healthy lifestyle and persevering through their challenges is very motivating too, which is why I entered the blog world to begin with. I wanted to hold myself accountable and stay motivated. My fellow health bloggers have really helped push me through a lot of “I lack motivation” days. Thanks, guys!
When you look at pictures of yourself when you were larger, how do feel about that person back then?
That’s a hard question. I know a lot of people look at their old pictures for motivation, but for me it’s still a bit hard because I know that the extra weight I carried was a symptom of a larger, emotional problem mixed in with unhealthy choices. Losing weight didn’t remove me from the web of inner struggles that got me to my high weight in the first place. So, I see me. A lot of that person back then, is right here typing.
You are quite young to have achieved such significant weight loss. What do you say to people trying to lose weight who have been overweight their entire adult lives?
I tell them that today is always the best day to get started. I tell them that sometimes the best thing to do is get angry and to use that anger to fuel them to make healthy choices. I ask them to find a common denominator relevant in things they deem personal successes so that we may see if we can apply those motivators and tools to their weight loss.
What’s your basic philosophy about healthy eating?
Healthy eating is a very personal decision in that what works well for one certainly does not work for everyone. My eating habits have and continue to evolve every day. In a nut shell, my philosophy is eat the way you think you should eat the majority of the time after you have done your research. Adjust as you learn more. As you can see, I really prefer not to tell people how to eat or what they should eat since I firmly believe it’s dependent on a number of variables.
What do you tell people who are trying to live a healthy life but are surrounded by others living a very different lifestyle?
I say “welcome to my life” haha. It’s challenging and can be a sick test of will-power to be surrounded by people who choose to indulge in things you would prefer not to, or to be around people who prefer not to exercise, etc. So, you can either wait for every single person in the world to change before you do (and die waiting) or just do it. I know that sounds harsh, but we can’t put our goals on hold because we fear others will impede our progress or won’t support us. With that said, you can help yourself out by seeking out, and building relationships with, people who share the goal of living your ideal healthy lifestyle. You can’t choose your family, co-workers and peers, but you can choose your friends. I have been very fortunate to have friends to set positive examples and who share my lifestyle choices.
You say in your bio you’re finally grasping what it means to thrive. What do you mean by that?
I have realized that to thrive in life I have to accept and take responsibility for my shortcomings, but never allow them to inhibit me in pursuing my happiness. So much of my younger life was spent bemoaning the things I couldn’t do, blaming the circumstances that were out of my control and allowing myself to become discouraged and emotionally impacted by negative criticism. While I am certainly not immune to taking criticism personally or from feeling discouraged, I try to spend my energies focusing on what I can change and feeling empowered by the opportunity to do so. Living my life with the belief that I can achieve everything I want to achieve, is truly the definition of thriving.
Did anything Annabel shared resonate with you?
It Happened This Week: Loving Our Bodies, Halloween Candy, and First Lady PLAYouts
A new study, published in the September 2009 issue of the Journal of Health Psychology, shows that workout frequency can help improve body image. The study claimed that the act of exercise – not necessarily to get in shape – boosts the exerciser’s body image. The study also claimed that the more people exercised per week, regardless of how hard or how long they worked out, the more their body image improved.
In honor of National Love Your Body Day on Wednesday, women have been exposing their bodies for what they really are – and explaining why they love them. Spurred on by Mish’s awesome post called Exposed, which was inspired by Esther’s original post called The Naked Truth, other women have been joining in to show their own bodies and explain what makes them beautiful. Myself, Roni, AJ, and Maggie have all joined in. Will you join them? What do YOU love about your body?
Are you worried about the upcoming holiday and the temptation of candy? Check out a post from our archives and learn why we at a healthy weight loss program think Halloween Candy doesn’t have to be scary.
Looks like First Lady Michelle Obama is a fan of PLAYouts. Wednesday at a White House physical fitness and health event she jumped rope and showed off her expertise with the Hula Hoop. It was all part of her effort to encourage children to exercise and eat healthily, but it might have inspired adults to get out and participate in the new workout trend of hula-hooping.
Enjoy your weekend and have your own PLAYout or two!
Healthy Recipe Thursday: Lemongrass Chicken
Today’s recipe is courtesy of Tram Le, RD, author of the lovely blog Nutrition to Kitchen…. It’s an amazing collection of recipes, I think all developed by Tram. Or maybe they’re a lot of “recipes” that were handed down to her. She actually says she wasn’t given recipes — just an intuitive ability balance flavors that she learned watching her mom and other “remarkable women” in her family. That’s what appealed to me about her post that featured this recipe, besides the fact that the recipe itself is simple and flavored with lemongrass. I love lemongrass when I taste it in dishes I get at restaurants but haven’t ever really used it in anything I make at home. This recipe inspires me.
I especially encourage Moms with young children still at home to read Tram’s blog. Many of our children today are growing up with no knowledge of food. It’s easy to get that knowledge if that’s all they know as children.
Lemongrass Chicken (Thit Ga Xao Xa)
Serves 4-6
1.5 lbs chicken thighs, skinless, boneless, excess fat trimmed off (about 6 4-oz thighs)
3 Tbsp minced lemongrass
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp fish sauce
1/2 tsp low-sodium soy sauce
1 tsp granulated sugar
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
Freshly cracked black pepper
2 tsp canola oil
1. Combine all ingredients, except for canola oil, and allow to marinate in the refrigerator, for about 1-2 hours.
2. Heat the canola oil in a large skillet, over medium-high heat. Add the chicken thighs and cook for about 6 minutes. Flip the chicken thighs over, reduce the heat to medium, and cook for another 6-7 minutes, or until done.’
Note: The recipe is gluten-free if you use gluten-free soy sauce.
Enjoy!
Do you have any stories about how you learned to cook? Or did you learn?
Stop The Fat Talk
My favorite classes in this healthy weight loss program revolve around the issue of body image. It’s a huge topic that holds great importance when one is trying to change and develop a healthy lifestyle. You need to feel good enough about yourself to do the hard things that will make you healthier. You need to feel good enough about yourself to enjoy the successes and not flounder when struggles come along. You need to start appreciating your body so you can treat it well.
Five years ago, before I started my journey of living a healthier life and long before I came to stay at this amazing weight loss retreat, I didn’t appreciate my body at all. I hated it. I felt trapped some days, I felt ruined other days, and most of the time I just felt a great apathy towards the situation. I just didn’t care enough about myself or my body to do anything good for it. I sought the temporary comfort of food because it was easier than trying to fix how I felt about myself. I looked in the mirror and at pictures of myself with disgust instead of love, all because I thought I was fat. I heard other people call me fat every day until I absorbed the words into myself. They became my words. The insults, the bad names, the torturous ideas about my lack of worth gifted by other people became the backbone of my negative self-image.
I don’t remember the exact moment when I decided to change and start getting healthy. All I remember is the decision to try. I hated my body, what I had become, what I had let other people make me feel about myself. So I decided to try for once to change my situation. Enter exercise, healthy food, and a few good stray thoughts about myself. Fast forward a few years and I am now much healthier and a million times happier all because I decided to just try and shake off both the physical and mental strain of hating my body.
It wasn’t easy. I still have days where I think my thighs are too big or my fingers are fat. But I don’t let those thoughts stay like I once did. Before, I would take that thought and let it fester in my mind, running over it again and again until I convinced myself it was true. Now? When a thought like that pops up I immediately recognize it and then replace it with a positive thought to stop the fat voice inside my mind. Instead of thinking my thighs are too big I realize that they are so strong and can carry my body through hikes up a mountain. Changing my perception of the situation changes how I feel about it. The positive thought is the one I will now run through my mind until I believe it.
This week is Fat Talk Free Week. Started by Delta Delta Delta Sorority, it encourages us all to put down the fat talk and talk to ourselves differently. Be positive about your body. Be kind to yourself. Be honest about the good things. It might seem strange at first, and the positive things might feel like a lie. For me it did. I felt like I was lying, trying to trick myself. But eventually the thoughts stuck and my perceptions changed. So I challenge you to finish this week without any negative “fat talk” or any negative self talk at all. Eliminate it from conversations with your friends, your family, yourself. When a negative thought comes along, change it. If you feel like you can’t, just try.
Will you take the challenge and promise to eliminate fat talk?
Dancing with the Stars
I enjoy watching Dancing With The Stars. Corny? Ok, but even from the beginning — when it was really corny — I was hooked. Not because I’m a big ballroom fan, but because these D-list celebrities really seem to be authentic in their desire to do well and even to win.
Most put their heart and souls in — and their reputations on the line – each and every week. In the beginning you worry that this might be a train wreck for some, but within a few weeks they really begin to shine under the mirror ball. In fact, some are unbelievably good.
What does this have to do with healthy weight loss or fitness? Well, for one thing, many starz blush about how much weight they’ve dropped during the show — it’s a lot of work – yet none of them are trying to. They’re simply engaged and invested in this new and exciting activity and poof! before they know it, they’re fitter than they’ve been in years.
For me, this just solidifies the fact that getting healthy or fit has to include behavior that is inherently joyful. Eating food you actually enjoy when you really want it. Adopting physical activity that is fun and invigorating, like ballroom dancing, may keep you coming back for more. I find it inspiring to watch all these folks get out there and hoof it every week, pushing themselves beyond their expectations and finding real joy and a sense of accomplishment.
What do you think? Do you love or hate DWTS? What is the most fun thing you do to keep yourself in shape? What keeps you trippin’ the light fantastic?
Reader Question: How Do I Stay Focused on My Goal?
This post marks the beginning of a new feature on A Weight Lifted that we hope you’ll be excited about. We’re inviting questions from readers which various staff members of our healthy weight loss program will answer.
As a quick review, our focus at Green Mountain is on normal eating, trying to help women stop dieting and begin to live healthfully so that they are no longer trapped in the up and down cycle of weight worries. There’s a lot involved with that — big issues ranging from chaotic eating due to busy lifestyles or the diet mentality to emotional eating, exercise resistance, stress management, body image, self esteem and more.
If you have a question you’d like answered, please email us at info @ fitwoman.com (spaces removed). Put “Blog Question” in the subject line. We can’t promise to answer all your questions but we’ll try our best!
Our first question comes from Sara from See Sara Shrink! where she blogs about “the adventures of the ‘Incredible Shrinking Sara’ as she drops 100 pounds….”
Sara asks: “What do I need to say to myself when I’m wanting to make a bad food choice (like eating when I’m not hungry)? How can I focus on my ultimate goal and not just meet an immediate emotional need with food?”
First, thanks to Sara for clarifying that what she means by “bad food choice” is a behavior, not a food. By not categorizing individual foods as good or bad, we can better discover what foods really are the best choices for us. If we think we can’t have them (the kind of thinking good food/bad food sets up), we often get caught in wanting them purely out of feelings of deprivation, an insidious form of emotional eating.
But enough from me. Here’s what the fabulous Teri Hugo Hirss, expressive movement and health psychology expert at Green Mountain, has to say:
“Take a couple of deep breaths. Ask yourself, “Is this truly what I’m needing right now? What am I really needing in this moment? Is there a better option for meeting my need that allows me to stay in alignment with my goals?”
A simple answer to what can be a very strong pull. What Teri is saying is to take the time to look closely at what we need. Will food meet that need? Surprisingly, sometimes the answer is yes. That’s important to realize because healthy normal eating isn’t about perfect eating (whatever that is). If we emotionally eat a lot, however, it’s probably not the best solution.
Hope that helps, Sara. Let us know below!
Do you have any words of wisdom to add? And if you’ve got any questions of your own that we can help you with, please send them on!
