Rebecca's Healthy Food Blog

1200 calorie diet

2008-11-16T07:51:00.000-08:00

I have been on a diet for a couple months. I have been trying to eat around 1200 calories. It is so important when dieting to make sure that the food you consume is nutritious. I realized too that I have refined my eating habits a lot while dieting. Some of the things that appealed to me a couple months ago, do not appeal to me now. The good news is I have lost 15 pounds. The bad news is I still need to lose another 20.

Rice Maker

2008-04-29T10:18:00.000-07:00

I used to have a hard time making rice that came out perfectly. It tended to sometimes stick to the bottom of the pan, or be too dry, or mushy. I have gotten better at making rice through trial and error, but there were still times when it would come out less than perfect.

I just bought a rice maker and used it for the first time over the weekend and it is great. It is simple to use and it produces perfect rice every time and will even keep the rice warm after it's done. Plus, it cost just twenty bucks.

I recommend a rice maker to anyone who wants to make rice quickly and easily.

Dark Beer

2008-04-25T10:34:00.000-07:00

I have read studies that suggest that dark beer is good for your health, and I can understand how this could be so. It is rich with whole grains and these are good for you, but I can see another underlying health benefit that many people may not consider.

I think that unwinding at the end of the day with a glass of dark beer diminishes stress and alters the tense mood that you may have brought home from work. You become more lighthearted and leave the issues of the day behind you for a time, and you subsequently sleep better.

There is a saying that says "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy," and I think that I agree with this assessment.

Avocado Sandwich

2008-04-25T10:13:00.000-07:00

I am not a strict vegetarian, but I don't eat red meat and the vast majority of the meals that I eat are indeed vegetarian, so I have tried a lot of different veggie combinations.

A very good and nutritious sandwich is an avocado, lettuce, tomato, and onion sandwich. You can add cheese if you want to, or any other veggies like sprouts, cucumbers, or spring mix.

I like to use Goddess dressing on them, which is basically a tahini and lemon based dressing. Annie's offers it, but there are other brands that have it as well.

Get yourself some nice bread or a roll and I guarantee that you will enjoy your version of the avocado sandwich.

Why Eat Healthy?

2008-04-25T10:07:00.000-07:00

We like to talk about healthy eating on this blog, and some people may ask, why? Are you a "health nut?"

Did you know that 325,000 people die each year from sudden cardiac arrest? When I eat a soy dog rather than a regular hot dog, I am doing so to avoid becoming a part of that statistic.

Veggie Hot Dogs

2008-04-25T10:03:00.000-07:00

I am like a lot of people in that in the summer, I like to fire up the grill and enjoy the smoky taste of outdoor cooking. When you are trying to eat healthy, however, some of the favorite barbecue foods that we all grew up on really don't fit the bill, and hot dogs are one of them.

I still like a nice grilled hot dog, with relish, onions and mustard, and I do indeed get to enjoy them and still stay within my dietary standards: I just eat veggie dogs made out of soy. It is true that they are not as tasty, but after being grilled and smothered in some great toppings, the difference is minimal, and the health benefits are significant. Give them a try!

Healthy Food On The Go

2008-04-24T10:09:00.001-07:00

Though I decry fast food on this blog, I can understand why people sometimes feel as though it is the only alternative when they are in a hurry or on the go. I am actually moving tomorrow, and when you have everything all packed up and you are on the the road heading to your new home you are certainly going to consider fast food. It is tough to eat healthy when you are on the road and in transit.

Breakfast

2008-04-24T10:04:00.000-07:00

I am an individual who has gone through most of my life without eating breakfast. I know that they say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but I have always found that I just don't feel very hungry the first thing in the morning and I am reluctant to eat when I'm really not hungry.

The thing that I have realized is that when I do eat breakfast, I feel more energy immediately. I never realized that I would experience an immediate positive impact from eating breakfast, but I have now become a believer. It makes sense that food is your fuel, and when you wake up, you haven't eaten for at least the eight hours you were sleeping and probably a couple of hours previous to going to bed, so skipping breakfast results in maybe 12 hours or more without a meal, and that has to result in low energy

Healthy Cooking

2008-04-24T09:51:00.000-07:00

I think that in our modern culture we have lost sight of the value of taking the time to prepare a nice meal for ourselves and/or our families. The thing that separates a truly good meal from just eating is the insertion of love into the act of cooking. You have to really want people to enjoy what you are making and do the cooking from the heart.

One of the many things that I don't like about fast food and even chain restaurants is that they do not care about the food and it is not a creative act filled with good intentions. It is fast repetition of corporate recipes concocted merely to maximize profit.

When it comes to food and cooking, I always ask, where's the love? If it's there, you can taste it.

Healthy Foods From India

2008-04-24T09:44:00.000-07:00

My son works in a natural food store and he gets a lot of samples of various products, and he brought home some Tulsi tea one day and I really enjoyed it. He has also passed along a number of different Ayurvedic medicinal herbs and since I don't believe in pharmaceuticals I have always been willing to try them out.

There is a good web site that I came across called OrganicIndiaUSA.com that has a great variety of teas and herbal remedies. They also support sustainable farming and paying fair prices to farmers, and this is something that I wholeheartedly agree with. Check out OrganicIndiaUSA.com and improve your health while supporting a conscious business.

Yerba Mate

2008-04-24T09:40:00.000-07:00

I am like most people in America in that I like coffee, but I think that it is more of a habit than it is that I just love the flavor. A few years ago I learned about a tea that is called yerba mate. It grows in the rain forests and it is a stimulant and an antioxidant, but it is much more subtle and mild than coffee. People in South America drink a lot of it, and it is good for you. You can feel a good energy when you drink it. Check it out if you have never tried it.

Pizza

2008-04-21T15:26:00.000-07:00

There are a few peculiarities about human nature that I have noticed over the course of my life, and one of them is this: I have never met anybody who does not like pizza, and I find that to be amazing. Pizza restaurants have the best demographic opportunity imaginable because there is nobody who doesn't like their product.

Pizza is a nutritious food that doesn't have to be bad for you if you select the right toppings and use healthy ingredients. I like to make pizza at home, and of I have some favorite pizza restaurants as well.

I don't know if it will ever happen, but I am going to keep looking around and try to find someone who doesn't like pizza. There has to be somebody, right?

On The Move

2008-04-21T15:20:00.000-07:00

I am moving from Las Vegas to Sedona, Arizona at the end of this week and I am very excited about the move. I love Las Vegas, but as a person who is interested in health and nutrition I think that I will prefer living in Sedona, and I actually moved to Las Vegas from Sedona about six years ago, so I know what to expect.

Thinking Positively

2008-04-21T15:17:00.000-07:00

I know that a lot has been written about the power of positive thinking. There have been recent books about your thoughts and expectations becoming the reality that manifest around you, but this notion has been around for decades in one form or another, and it is as true now as it ever was.

It can be difficult to stay in a positive frame of mind as life dishes out various ups and downs, but it is best to expect the best. I think there is a quantum science to holding positive intentions, and it is also simply good for your mental health. They say that you are what you eat, and that is true to some extent, but I think that we are also comprised of the things that we think, so it is important to think positively.

Whole Foods

2008-04-19T14:47:00.000-07:00

My son actually works at the store Whole Foods Market, and he has learned a lot about healthy eating and nutrition from working there, though he was interested in working there in the first place because he grew up eating natural food.

I one knew a homeopathic physician who recommended a diet of "whole foods," meaning no processed foods. He felt as though this is the best way to eat, and he was in perfect physical condition, so it was certainly working for him. My son has come to feel the same way, and it certainly makes sense to me as well.

Staying away from processed foods in something to consider if you are looking for ways to eat a healthier diet.

Proper Hydration

2008-04-19T14:19:00.001-07:00

I find that it is very important to listen to your body and take notice of how you feel after you eat certain things and evaluate what agrees with you and what does not. I also think that when you are craving something that is somewhat unusual for you, you are probably lacking some nutrient that is present in the food that you have a yen for.

I have lived in the desert here in Las Vegas for several years now, and it is very obvious to me that I need to be sure that I drink a lot of water. When you live in the desert it is of course especially important, but regardless of where you live, you really need to remember to hydrate yourself properly. I don't think that most people drink enough water, and it is something that everyone should try to keep in mind.

What Is Food?

2008-04-16T11:37:00.000-07:00

I think that one of the major problems that many people have with eating is that they lose sight of what its purpose is. Food is sustenance, nourishment, and the fuel that our bodies need in order to function. Eating is a pleasurable experience, this is true, but its primary function is a utilitarian one and I think that many people lose sight of this.

Food can become an obsession, and that is when people run into problems with it. You may eat a ample breakfast at 8:00 and look at the clock around noon and feel as though it's time for lunch and start to think about what sounds good to you without ever stopping to think if you are actually hungry.

Portions are another matter. You may not have been all that hungry to start with, but when you start eating, you may have the "clean your plate" ethos, and in the "supersize" culture that many embrace as their own, obesity and ill-health ate the inevitable result of finishing what you started.

We have to realize that food is not a substitute for everything that we may be lacking: a romantic partner, the ideal job, or whatever else we may be yearning for emotionally. It serves a practical purpose, and it is to be enjoyed, but it is to be enjoyed intelligently and in moderation.

Salt

2008-04-16T11:15:00.000-07:00

When I was younger my father was diagnosed with high blood pressure, and he would use a salt substitute at the table. At that time, I had developed a taste for salt and I would salt everything before I even sampled the food. Hearing about his condition and the fact that salt exacerbated it brought the matter to my attention, and I started to reconsider my use of salt.

I think that red meat, steaks and burgers and such, are commonly salted and we use sauces that are salty. Imagine the taste of bacon: pure salt. I am not an expert on this, but I recall learning in school about the way that we taste, and salt is one of the things that we recognize. So the reason that we crave these foods has a lot to do with a Pavlovian conditioning that finds gratification in the taste of salt.

When you recognize this and stop using salt and stop eating beef and pork, your conditioning changes and you no longer want all of that salt. So the first time you have a veggie burger instead of a greasy cheeseburger it may not be completely satisfying, but as your tastes change, the veggie burger becomes preferable to the grease burger.

Did you ever see the fat congeal on the bottom of the frying pan after you make bacon or burgers? I wonder if it does the same thing in our bodies....?

Herbal Cleansing

2008-04-16T11:05:00.000-07:00

It is so very important that we are conscious of what we are putting into our bodies that it cannot be overstated. People talk about health care, but if a fraction of the money spent on health care was used to educate people about healthier dietary habits we would have a dramatic decrease in the need for health care. Science looks for pharmaceuticals that will "cure" ailments and they spend millions on that pursuit, when in reality, an epidemic like diabetes can be stalled by people eating differently, and eschewing certain soft drinks. If there was no such thing as fast food tomorrow, diabetes would drop in half the next day. Okay, that is an exaggeration, but it is not that far off the mark, and I think that most reputable doctors would agree.

Alternatives To Meat

2008-04-16T10:58:00.000-07:00

Personally, I don't eat red meat for the most part, though I would not offend a gracious host if I felt that my refusal to partake in their offering would be construed as hurtful or ungrateful. When I came to the conclusion that I didn't want to eat pork or beef, I explored the vegetarian burger patties and soy-based cold cuts, bacon, hot dogs, and sausages, and I was actually quite impressed.

I grew up on hamburgers and cheesesteaks back east, so I loved that stuff as much as anyone, but the veggie options are very good in their own right. The sausage doesn't have any of that "hard stuff" that real sausage has, when you add all of your favorite fixins' to a veggie burger it is very tasty, and the fact that you know that it is good for you really offsets whatever may be lacking in the flavor.

It's only fair to give it a try. I lot of people just scoff at these alternatives without trying them, and unfortunately, the cardiac units are full of folks that feel this way.

New Eating Habits

2008-04-14T17:15:00.000-07:00

I am 48 years old and I grew up in an environment where my family owned a small restaurant, and back in the 1960's when I was a child and developing the eating habits that I would have during my formative years people did not have the information that we do today about health and nutrition. I am sure that there were some that were more cognizant of it than others, but to my family, eggs, bacon, potatoes and toast was a normal and healthy breakfast. A cheesesteak and fries made sense for lunch, and breaded pork chops with mashed potatoes and gravy was a nice dinner.

I had to unlearn all of that, and I must say that I have done a good job of doing so. More people are realizing that the above menu is not the way to go, and that is a good thing. But I still see a fast food restaurant on every corner, so I guess we have a lot of work that we still need to do as a society to educate ourselves about eating a healthy diet.

Using A Wok

2008-04-13T11:15:00.001-07:00

I like to try to keep things simple, and I think that the way Buddhist monks live is a very intelligent methodology because they they try to keep things simple, and this leads to less stress and a balanced state of mind.

I love Asian cuisine, and it is for the most part healthy and nutritious if you make the right choices. I have never done this, but I have always thought that if you did all of your cooking in a wok and had a rice maker, you would always be eating fresh, healthy foods and it would be really easy to clean up and there would be no need for lots of pots and pans. It would be a very efficient and stress free lifestyle, and there are many different sauces and combinations of ingredients that you can cook in a wok so there is no reason why it would have to get too monotonous, and you could go out to eat occasionally and get whatever else you may crave.

I am moving in a couple of weeks and I think that I'm going to implement this strategy and keep it extremely simple for my physical and mental well being.

Yoga For Health

2008-04-10T16:05:00.000-07:00

I had a very painful and weak lower back a few years ago. It would periodically "go out," as they say, and I would find it hard to move for about a week when this would happen. And even when these episodes subsided, my back wouldn't feel right and I couldn't stand comfortably for more than a few minutes.

Someone suggested that I try doing yoga, and though I respected it, it looked to me like all of that bending and twisting would be bad, not good, for my back. But I got a video and practiced the poses along with the teacher, and I could tell by the time I was half way through the first session that it was exactly what I needed.

My back improved a lot and I have been doing yoga for about three or four years now. I highly recommend it, even if you don't have any particular reason for doing it. When you practice yoga you will realize how profound of an impact it has on your health and well being almost immediately.

Swimming For Health

2008-04-09T16:05:00.000-07:00

I have always done some sort of aerobic exercise, and when I was younger it was a lot easier. At first I played team sports, and then when I was in my twenties I would jog. As I got older I did some jogging coupled with a good bit of hiking until the jogging pretty much gave way to the hiking.

Last summer I had the strange experience of getting up one morning and being unable to put much weight on my knee. It was swollen and extremely painful. I didn't have the experience of suffering some sort of trauma, a twist or a tear--I just woke up with this bad knee inexplicably.

I implemented the R.I.C.E strategy (rest, ice, compression, elevation) and it ever so slowly began to improve over time. I was concerned not just about my knee, but because I knew that my overall fitness was declining due to my inactivity.

After a couple of weeks I decided to join a gym with a pool and I started to swim, and I would go into the jacuzzi afterwards. I swam for 45 minutes six days a week, and I kept that up for six months until my knee got strong enough to resume hiking.

The chlorine is rough on your hair and skin when you swim that much, but it was a great way to get my exercise and provide therapy for my knee without putting any strain on it. I recommend swimming as a great source of exercise foe anyone who doesn't want to put any stress on their leg joints.

Eating Less

2008-04-09T15:45:00.000-07:00

I am an individual who has struggled with being at least somewhat overweight all of my life. When I see pictures of myself as a baby, I was fat. I was fat as a kid too, and when I was just about entering my teen years I started to get really into sports and that interest motivated me to to lose weight.

Ever since then I have usually been able to keep my weight under control, but I have tried many different methods for losing weight when I have put it on over the years. In my estimation, different strategies work for different people, so there is no one universal weight loss method that is right for everyone.

There are two things, however, that I would recommend to everyone. The first thing is exercise. If you get the proper amount of exercise, you not only burn calories but you also improve your overall health and sense of well being.

The other things is not rocket science, and it is so simple that many people overlook it, but I have found that it is working for me, and it is this: eat less. When you become conscious of eating less you find that you can feel comfortable and eat perhaps half as much as you were consuming. I lost thirty pounds recently and I have kept it off by eating less than I used to. I wish I knew that it was this easy sooner.