Saturday, September 26, 2009

Did You Know?


For your enjoyment, a few very random facts about food, health and fitness.

There are 206 bones in the human body. 25% of them are in your feet.

A 12-ounce can of soda can contain as much as 13 teaspoons of sugar! That’s an entire day’s worth of sugar!

The first marathon allegedly took place in 489 BC, when a messenger ran from the town of Marathon to Athens to warn them of an attack.

The average person’s body holds 1.3 gallons of blood.
In one study, peppermint was shown to make people feel more energized after working out.

The best time to shop for shoes is in the aternoon; your feet swell during the day, so a pair that felt right in the morning may be tight in the afternoon

The pigment in spinach leaves can be used to make ink.

Apples are fat, sodium, and cholestrol free.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Chili

In celebration of fall (and because I like it so much), I’m posting a chili recipe. I had my first bowl of seasonal chili last week and I’m hoping to eat many more!

I know lots of people have a chili recipe that has been passed down from a family member or perfected over time. If you are this person, I admire you and hope you’ll share your secrets to perfect chili with me.

On the other hand, if you’re like me and don’t have a personalized recipe, you may want to check out the one below.Not only is this is a healthy recipe but a fast one too! The nutritional info is at the bottom.
It’s a white chili, which means it doesn’t use the traditional tomato base. Instead, it calls for white beans, chicken (or turkey), broth and a medley of spices. If your tastebuds can handle it, it's not a bad idea to throw some spice from chili peppers in too. Some studies have shown that spicy food speeds up your metabolism and can help you burn more calories.

Remember, there are no rules for making chili so spice it up, top it off with a dollop of yogurt, add some veggies or crush whole wheat tortilla chips in it. Anything goes!

Let me know what you think in the comment box below. Enjoy.

White Chili- taken from http://www.eatingwell.com/

Ingredients
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
2 4-ounce cans chopped green chiles
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/8-1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 15-ounce cans great northern beans, rinsed
4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
4 cups diced cooked skinless turkey, or chicken
2 tablespoons cider vinegar

Preparation
Heat oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onion; cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in chiles, oregano, cumin and cayenne. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Stir in beans and broth; bring to a simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes. Add turkey (or chicken) and vinegar; cook for 5 minutes more. Serve.

Nutrition
Per serving : 453 Calories; 6 g Fat; 2 g Sat; 2 g Mono; 68 mg Cholesterol; 44 g Carbohydrates; 44 g Protein; 9 g Fiber; 213 mg Sodium; 965 mg Potassium

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Nifty Fitness Tracker

Made a cool little discovery today. If you go to this page on the WebMD website, you can measure and keep track of your health efforts. It’s super simple and even a little bit fun!

Here’s what you do:

1.Put in your personal criteria (gender, age, weight,)
2.Enter your current level of fitness
3.Select your goal (ie. Lose 1 lb. per week, maintain your current weight)

Once you’ve filled all that in, click calculate. You’ll see your results in a column on the left. It will have calculated your BMI, necessary caloric intake (based on your fitness goal), and will tell you your ideal weight and heart rate range. How cool is that?

Step 2.
This is where you check out the column on the right. You’ll see two categories, “Add a Food to Your Plan” and “Add an Activity to Your Plan”. These tools let you measure the amount of calories per food item and also give you an idea of how many calories you are burning. All you do is enter the food and/or activity and the number of calories pops up. I was impressed with the number of options in the activity box. You can calculate how many calories you’re burning while cleaning your house, sitting at your desk, or running a mile. Handy, right?

Last thing on the page are two scales that look like speedometers. The green one measures your calories from food and the orange one measure the calories from fitness. There’s also a little bar that show where you are on your daily caloric intake and lets you know how many you have left. Read: lets you know how many more scoops of ice cream you can have.

So try it out and let us know what you thought! You can leave your comments below.

Happy Fall!

Friday, September 4, 2009

Fitness in the US vs China



When was the last time you actually played at a park? Not just sitting on the bench and watching your kids while you write emails on your BlackBerry but actually climbing up the tiny ladders and spinning on the merry-go-round.

…Chances are, it’s been awhile. Because playgrounds are for kids, right?

Maybe not. In China, the government initiated a Nationwide Physical Fitness Program that encourages both children and adults to participate in at least an hour of physical activity every day. Part of the program included building new public fitness areas and centers. Some of the areas include outdoor venues specifically designed with stationary exercise equipment.

Playgrounds for adults. So cool.

The cultural contrast between working out in China and working out in the United States is an interesting one. I’m no anthropologist, but I’ve spent some time living in both China and the U.S. and I’ve noticed a few things:

1.Some of us (maybe most of us?) Americans prefer to hide while we’re exercising. Unless we’re running down the road with our $100 Nikes and Ipod, we generally prefer a well air conditioned gym, fancy pool, or scheduled yoga class. God forbid we do Pilates on our front lawn in front of the neighbors, right?

2.In China, its likely (and culturally acceptable) to see dozens of people walking around early in the morning, stretching on the streets or shamelessly using special exercise equipment built specifically for outdoor venues. Tai Chi an ancient martial arts form that focuses on balance, relaxation, and coordination is commonly practiced in parks, on sidewalks, and on streets.

So maybe we’re not going to do any crunches in front of Ukrop’s but the idea of using what’s around us to contribute to a healthy lifestyle is a good one. So get on a swing and reset your record for “how high you can go”. You might be surprised.