Do you sneak food?

there's squash in here ya'll!

This post has been languishing in drafts for a while.

It’s something I think about pretty much daily—yet I wasnt sure it was completely post-worthy until a Twitter chat last week.

The chat focused on healthy living & children (starting NOW please to feel free to substitute spouse/partner/friend for the words CHILD or KID). 

One of the questions asked for our best tips on sneaking healthy food into our kids’ meals.

And, as per this languishing-in-drafts post, I thought:

Im completely, entirely, wholly & utterly anti-sneaking.

And, as per my lack of filter these days, I tweeted precisely that. 

Out of all the chat attendees only one other woman agreed with my perspective.

Allow me to back up a moment.

Remember when Jessica Seinfeld came out with her Deceptively Delicious cookbook and prattled on & on about how she’d created a way to sneak veggies into her kids’ (& Jerry’s) meals?

I rolled my misfit eyes.  Hard.

This concept is nothing new (which she eventually acknowledged).

My own mother–back in the 70s–experimented with black bean brownies.

I remember because she laughed to me about how we werent supposed to be able to taste the beans and invited me to help her concoct them (you cant taste the beans. the brownies rocked).

Ive chosen to parent in this same way.

I love the notion of slipping veggies into unexpected places and all the better if in said places you cant taste them at all tell they’re there!  (ala our fave Shrek Shakes).

Where the other twitterchat attendees and I parted ways was in the sneaking.

Id be lying if I didnt say it can be a struggle to maintain the Tornado’s healthy eating habits (thanks Kinder!), yet I firmly believe if I “sneak” veggies she’s not creating a lifestyle she’ll maintain.

We make a game of sneaking on ourselves.

We slip in things we both dont really like arent tremendous fans of & see if we’ve created a way in which we’ll eat them!

We make a game of sneaking on ourselves.

We use our imaginations in the kitchen to find a tastier vehicle for our veggie consumption.

We make a game of sneaking on ourselves—but she’s always aware the healthy, good-for-you stuffs are in there.

I agree with the men & women who asserted pureeing/sneaking is an easy, painless method for getting our kids (spouse/partner/friends) to eat more veggies.

I just question, still, if it’s a method which will be a disservice to them in the long run?

And you?

have you successfully sneaked veggies into a loved one’s food & feel firmly it’s the way to go?are you a fan, as I am, of the open-sneak and believe we can teach healthy eating that way?do you wish this post had remained in drafts where it mightcould really have belonged?

Please to hit us up in the comments below.

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Wednesday Weigh In: Darn Easter Candy

When chocolate consumption increases the scale number increases. It’s kind of how this whole weight thing works, huh?

In all seriousness, I totally expected a gain. Easter weekend was a calorie fest. No guilt. No regrets. Moving on.

Lots of things to share tonight…

I posted a new Snacktastic Toddler Food Find…

As you can see, he’s double fisting these things. Click here to check them out. Great snack choice!

I also posted a new quick lunch idea inspired by Little Bean. He’s oozing into all my work lately. :)

Click here for the Spicy Chopped Kidney Bean Salad recipe.

Finally, I’m scheduling a chat on Thursday to answer questions about FitBloggin and Ignite Fitness….

If you are a blogger or thinking about becoming a blogger stop by (on twitter) and say hi. I visited the FitBloggin site today and I’m getting REAL excited.

In 5 short months (OMG, it’s sneaking up on me!) I will be here…

Handing out name badges.

wow.

What did I get myself into.. again!

:) Ok, bed time! I’m running late tonight.

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Workout While You Clean

This week on Rebecca Regnier’s Full Plate we learn how to use our spring cleaning to get a good workout!

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Google Goggles aka Project Glass

Dear Google, skip the glasses and give me the long thick wavy hair. Love, me.

Did you hear about Project Glass?
This is an idea for a new product by Google. Project Glass proposes that you wear eyeglasses that are connected to Google. There’s a video online that demonstrates what that would be like and how you’d use these Google Goggles. And Google — you’re going to need to pay me 500 million dollars for that name. You can afford it.
Go to You Tube and search “Project Glass” to watch the video. Essentially the Google Goggles flash informational messages in your peripheral vision and also you can talk to your friends through them.
Google Goggles would be able to talk to you, get you directions to stuff, let you communicate to your friends and from the video I saw teach you how to play the ukulele while you walk around a hip urban environment. The video is supposedly…continue reading.

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Cows dont shoot (guest post)

On March 13th Time Healthland tweeted “The deadly dangers of eating red meat” which linked to their blog post “Eating Red, Processed Meat Raises Your Risk of Early Death.” A paper in Wyoming ran “Red Meat Kills.” Questionable science aside, these are, in my opinion, irresponsible headlines. Sending people running from a hamburger as if a cow is going to jump up off the plate and shoot you in the head is not going to improve anyone’s health. Really, folks.

By the next day my email boxed was full with concerns from panicked patients who I had put on a high protein diet based on their own individual risk profiles and health conditions. People were frightened, and for good reason. Death is a scary prospect for most, and when we are told what we are eating is going to kill us, we panic. The truth is that there are far worse things than a bit of grass fed red meat in our diets. But that’s another post.

This kind of dramatic reporting isn’t a rare occurrence. Just off the top of my head I can think of several examples of studies throwing us the final word on what is and isn’t healthy:

The only thing everyone can really agree on is that experts never agree on anything. And truthfully, most statisticians will tell you that results of studies are often massaged to get the answer that the researcher is looking for. Not to mention that studies may never be released if what was set out to be proven, isn’t.

That leaves the average person with the media (including social media) blasting sensationalist headlines often handing us yet another reason to beat ourselves up. What we thought was healthy, isn’t. What we thought was the right thing is the wrong thing. The two most common outcomes of this sensationalism are jumping on bandwagons or throwing our hands up in the air and saying “forget it, it’s impossible to make the right choice.” Extremes. And we all know that extremes are never a good answer.

So what is there to do?

When you’re on twitter or facebook and see the headlines that put you in a panic about your health or your life, stop, take a deep breath, and take whatever it is with an initial grain of salt.Wait a few days to see how the medical community responds to the information. If you’re more holistically oriented, see how the alternative medical community responds to it. If you’re oriented toward Western medicine, watch sites like WebMD.Have a health practitioner who you trust who can talk to you about the actual numbers in the study and how they apply to you, personally. A health practitioner who can work with you not only to treat your medical problems, but prevent problems from occurring in the future. Understand fundamentally that the specifics of what you need are specific to you.Put your logic on. Association is not causation. In other words, just because two things happen together (eating red meat and slightly decreased life span) doesn’t mean one caused the other. If several times in a row your mother calls when you’re in the bathroom, it doesn’t mean that going to the bathroom makes your mother call. Or that your mother calling makes you go to the bathroom.Put the information in context. If there were one diet that worked to keep everyone healthy, trust me, we’d know about it.Remember, most importantly, that we don’t know more than we do know. There’s a universe out there of information we don’t yet know how to gather. The be all and end all today may not be the be all and end all tomorrow.

Dr. Samantha is a licensed naturopathic physician and acupuncturist, health educator, writer, cook and owner of Evergreen Natural Health Center in Portland, OR. These days when she’s not seeing patients she’s either playing with the fam or hanging out on her blog, twitter, facebook or pinterest. She’d love to see you there!

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Wednesday Weigh In: Eat Smart/Snack Less

Down 2.2 lbs from last week. All I kept telling myself since last weigh in was…

Eat Smart/Snack Less

For some silly reason it helped.

Cheesy, I know.

I’m a mantra kind of person.

In other news it’s mid-week of Spring Break. I’ve been home with both boys having a blast, getting work done and in a weird way, relaxing.

Monday we went to a fun tire park

and I made dinner in the crock pot.

Click here to check out the recipe.

Yesterday Little Bean had a front row seats to a soccer game that Little Guy won. As you can see…

I also made a fun new wrap…

I hope to get post it on GreenLiteBites tomorrow. SO GOOD!

Today I took both boys to the gym while I went to yoga. We grilled for dinner. I ran sprints with a friend. Besides a few conference calls, that was about it. See… fun, productive, yet at the same time, relaxing.

I think I’m just in a good state of mind. :)

Time for bed. I have an early morning workout tomorrow!

OH! and I posted the funniest video of Little Bean–I can’t watch it without laughing–and today I shared a wordless Wednesday photos of him walking.

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Join me in exercising *less*?

I'm coming for you!

I know.

In this day & age when everyone  is admonishing us to Up!The!Exercise! I’m here & waiving the “sometimes less (time) is indeed more (results)” flag loud & proud. 

(A flag which is, alas, not quite as fun as my freak flag. Youll have that.)

I’m frequently challenge by people when it comes to my workout routine (or, more aptly put, my lackthereof).

They question my brevity (My workouts are short but intense).

They struggle with the idea I squeeze in fitness where I can, when I can & completely non-traditionally (Im not competing! This approach works just fine).

They can’t seem to accept if they aren’t where they *want* to be right now that perhaps doing less but more consistently could be the answer (Ive been there & overtrained that. I can entirely relate).

And, while I like to hope you’d immediately hop my brevity-bandwagon & merely take my misfit word for it—-I know many of you are hardcore folk.

From this soft of core woman I give you my 4 reasons why I firmly believe less.is.more.

1.        High-intensity interval training is twice as effective as normal exercise.  Intense interval training means working very hard for a few minutes with rest periods in between sets. Interval training can double endurance, improve oxygen use/strength by more than 10 percent, & speed by 5 percent. Studies in the elderly and in heart patients found better oxygen use and fitness after doing interval training.  Interval training also makes for shorter workouts.

2.     You’ll never over-train.  When I was a personal trainer many of my clients would see results & start exercising more in order to see more results.  Initially this plan would work. After a few weeks, however, the results would drop-off dramatically due to over-training.  Consider this fact: not giving your body the rest it needs is almost akin to not working out at all.  Exercise.  Move daily.  Consistently over time.   Unless you are training for competition there’s no need for marathon-length workouts.

3.       It’s the fits & starts that kill us.  Sure I’m being hyperbolic, but let’s talk self-esteem.  Remember the last time you started a workout program? How you planned out 60+ minutes of exercise six days a week?  How fantastic you felt about yourself….until life derailed you & you fell off the workout wagon?  This time plan an amount of exercise you can fit into your life today and forever.  Less exercise time plus ZERO fits & starts  = happier and healthier you.  For me that’s 30 minutes a day.  Every day.  No “starting Monday I will…” ever.  I’m healthier and I feel better about myself through setting realistic goals and achieving them.

4.      Exercise should fit into your life…your life shouldn’t have to be fashioned around your fitness routine.  It’s recommended that adults get 150 minutes of exercise per week.  For those of us working out for overall fitness and not competition, this number is a reasonable and healthy goal.  Try breaking these 150 minutes down into short ten minute bursts!  Take a ten minute power-walk, three times a day, five days a week.  Jump rope or hula hoop for ten minutes at a time, three times a day, five days a week.  You get the idea.  Less time at the gym exercising traditionally does not have to mean a less-fit you.

And you?

Have you had an experience where you ratcheted back the workouts and discovered, to your delight, you both gained (muscle strength energy) and lost (bodyfat)?

Do you remain in firm disagreement with my stance and remain strong in your belief to gain and lose we need the long workouts?

Please to hit us all up in the comments below.

Im off to workout, but, uh,  Ill see you back here in ten minutes or so…

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