Fit Geek

Note: This is an article I wrote as part of a job application (didn’t get the gig). I spent a butt-load of time looking up research for it, so I felt it would be a waste if it never saw the light of day. Even though it’s, you know, A REJECT.

Damn. It’s been a while.

Where to even start…

Oh yeah, the no sugar bet. David and I both made it through the week without ingesting any added sugar. (We were still eating fruit and dairy though.) We even withheld at a party that had these treats laid out before us, begging to be taken like wanton lovers.

But we resisted! Honestly, the whole no sugar thing wasn’t really a big deal. I liked that I didn’t eat any sugar, but I can’t say I felt much of a difference. Maybe it’s because a week isn’t long enough to feel the effects, or maybe it was because we were still having a small amount of natural sugar. Interestingly, when I ate sweets again after that week was up, I didn’t feel any different either. Granted I didn’t eat a large amount. But still. A few chocolates here and there didn’t upset my stomach or change my energy level at all.

Although I will say that it felt really good to go to that party and not eat any sugar. In situations like that I usually go overboard, and as Louis Ck says, “the meal is not over when I’m full. The meal is over when I hate myself.” Yeah, that’s totally me at a party. David and I only ate shrimp and olives and drank wine.

For once I didn’t feel like a bloated whale at a party. I was happy and sated without being stuffed. I like that feeling. Perhaps I should adopt a strict no-sugar policy for social occasions only.

Then some stuff happened. I started up the boot camp again. These two were the only ones to show up. I didn’t have one this weekend because of Christmas and all, but plan to resume after the new year.

Speaking of Christmas…

Spent it with family.

Then I went home for a workout.

One of my gifts was this Jillian Michaels resistance band set. “Cool! I can use these today since the gym is closed,” I thought. I attempted to do shoulder raises with the lighter resistance band and it broke on the first rep. Great. Good thing I have dumbbells at home. I did the following shoulder workout:

One arm DB shoulder raise – 3×8 25 lbs

Arnold press – 4×8 20 lbs

DB upright row – 4×8 40 lbs (20 lb DB in each hand)

Deltoid lat raise – 4×10 with level 2 resistance band (I held the band instead of the handle so it wouldn’t break.)

Bent over rear delt raise – 4×8 with level 2 resistance band

Front raise – 4×10 level with level 2 resistance band.

I still prefer dumbbells over resistance bands, but they get the job done when your options are limited.

Then…I went for a run! I hate running!

Then…I went out for sushi! I love sushi!

So yeah. That’s a very abbreviated version of what’s been happening, and stuff. I will be back on the regular posting bandwagon soon. Until then, be good and have fun!

I know I’ve extolled the virtues of being an unprejudiced eater, but even I have my aversions. One of which was unknown to me until last week.

In my last batch of produce from the co-op, I received 3 persimmons. If you are as inexperienced with produce as I am, you may be asking yourself, “What the hell is a persimmon?” I thought they were some kind of weird tomato until I read the label.

A persimmon is a little, round fruit usually orange or reddish in color. According to Wikipedia it was originally harvested in eastern Asia. The flavor reminds me of an extremely sweet yam, and the texture is slightly softer than a pear. I ate one raw and the saccharine flavor was too intense. The meat of the persimmon also had fibers (or something) in it, like when you eat too close to the core of an apple or pear, only it was in the entire fruit. I didn’t like it at all.

David’s sister-in-law told me that she used to feed them to her sugar glider, and after that I associated them with squirrel food. This wasn’t helping.

Fortunately, I really hate letting produce go bad. So I asked Sylvia wtf to do with these little overly-sweet demon balls, and she led me to this recipe.

Sauteed Persimmons.

Whaaaaat?! Dude. This stuff was good. Like, real good. Like make-you-say-whoa good.

And it was so easy to make! Sometimes all you need to do is give food a new spin to really enjoy it. I loved the way the salt and thyme complimented the sweetness of the persimmon, and sauteeing it until it was browned did wonders for the texture. I also added parmesan cheese. T’was excellent. I will rejoice the next time I receive persimmons  in my share!

And if you’re curious, Day 2 of the no (added) sugar challenge went swimmingly for me. Surprisingly, I’m not craving sweets at all. David, on the other hand, texted me saying he wanted a cookie. As much as I’d like to tease him for losing the bet, I actually would like it if he were successful. Stay tuned to see what happens.

I feel compelled to mention this because this place is supposed to be a fitness blog: I have not been to the gym YET this week, so I am sleeping in my workout clothes and setting my alarm for 6 a.m. The chances of me making it to the gym are much greater when I’m already dressed to workout.

A couple of weeks ago I bet David $100 that he couldn’t go a week without eating any added sugar. This was while he was in the depths of a pastry and candy binge fest that must’ve lasted at least a fortnight. Ashamed of himself (not really), he accepted.

I was originally not participating in the bet, and because of that he didn’t have to pay me if he lost. I don’t know what my (lack of) logic was to agree to that, but so it goes.

In typical David fashion, he started talking crap. Saying things like, “I’m gonna win that bet so hard. I can’t wait to buy candy with that money. You might as well just pay up now. It’s hopeless for you.” Okay, so that’s not what he said verbatim, but close enough.

Crap talking makes me nervous. I realized that I did not want to pay him that money. But I couldn’t back out of the bet. So he said if I do the no sugar thing with him, and I go the week without any added sugar, I don’t have to pay him. However, if he loses he still doesn’t pay me any money. Which doesn’t really make any sense to me, but whatever. Why did I agree to this again?

Oh yeah. Because I want to cut down my sugar consumption, and this is a good, albeit not exactly fair, way to get me started. And if you think about it, I have more incentive to win, because the fear of loss (of money!) is a bigger motivator than winning something. He doesn’t have anything to lose. I do.

So the rules are that we can’t have anything with added sugar. Obviously that means no cookies, cakes, brownies, candy or desserts of any kind. Fruit is okay, juice is not. David is a milk junkie, so I told him milk was fine since it doesn’t technically have any added sugar.

Grossss.

You’d be surprise how many things have added sugar in them. Bread, dressing, soup, marinated meats and so on. David works at Whole Foods and always eats lunch from the prepared foods section. It took him a few days to find options that fit the guidelines of our bet.

Today was Day 1 and all went well. I almooost slipped up and ate a butterscotch candy, but that’s only because I forgot about the bet for a second. Good thing I remembered before the candy bowl at work got the better of me.

I’m feeling pretty good about the bet so far. I’d say luck is on my side, but I don’t need luck for this one. When I really want something, my resolve is solid as stone! Too bad I won’t get any money out of it though

My Festivus pole.

Oh yeah, and Festivus was a success. I had a blast. However, somebody decided to jump on the pole with a running start, and it was knocked out of place and put this little dent in my wall. But hey, that’s how you know it was a good party

This is a hole in the wall.

Ps. On a completely random note–I made beet burgers the other day and I couldn’t help but wonder if it’d be possible to make a variation of red velvet cake with them. Hmmm…

My man squats ME ass to grass!

He also uses me as a human barbell.

And this is why we’re together.

In other news…got my co-op share today. Here are some crappy pictures of good produce.

Eat your vaggies! That's a spaghetti squash on the left, btw.

Mushrooms!

Persimmons! I've never had these before.

Beets! I'm looking forward to having purple poop.

Let’s see what I come up with the next two weeks.

This weekend was a doozy.

You see, David works at Whole Foods. And sometimes he brings home “goodies” (although I think it’d be more fitting to call them “badies.”) This week’s batch of evil temptation came in the form of cornbread. And not the dry, crumbly kind they used to sell in the school cafeteria. No, this was glorious, moist, SWEET as sin cornbread. I ended up eating enough to send me crashing into a sugar coma several times. There was also fried chicken (when will my parents stop buying this?), sugar-free energy beverages (the legal, liquid equivalent of designer drugs), a cheeseburger and cake. That’s as much as I’m willing to admit, anyway.

I also bailed on some of my workouts, making my resistance training total for the week a measly two sessions. (Although I was good about cardio…and I sprinted, too!)

By Sunday night, I was feeling pretty gross. I brooded for a bit, and then I forced myself out of it. There was no point in dwelling on the fact that I ate like total crap and didn’t exercise all weekend. It happens. I could let it depress me and send me into a vortex of gluttony because, what the hell, I already blew it.

But I don’t work like that. I know a weekend of overindulgence is not a sentence that dooms me to repeat the same mistakes over and over again. Instead, it becomes a breaking point for me, an opportunity to turn something negative into something positive. And that’s what I did.

I read up on some exercise stuff (I seriously enjoy that) then set my alarm clock for a rather ambitious hour. Today I made it to the gym bright and early for a good workout. I put together all my lunches for today when I got home, and even prepped some stuff for later tonight. This past weekend’s offenses aren’t bothering me in the least right now because today has gone so swimmingly.

It’s all about perception. I didn’t let my negativity consume me. Instead, my weekend of reckless abandon reset me for the week. It motivated me to clean up my act.

We all have a few days, a few weeks, maybe even a few months where our habits are…off the chain.

*cough cough the holidays*

But instead of beating yourself up, try to shift the way you think, even if it feels like flat-out lying. For example:

Ugghhh. I can’t believe I ate the whole thing. I’m so disgusting. I feel gross. I just want to faceplant into a pint of icecreambecause what does it even matter anymore? I’m a failure.

Or:

Eh. I overate. More than usual. Whatever. I feel kind of full and bloated right now, and I don’t like feeling that way, so tomorrow I’m going to do a bunch of things that will make me feel better. Yes, I will feel awesome after a glorious day of walking, veggies and water.

Oftentimes, it’s dwelling in our own negativity and guilt that prevents us from shedding bad habits. Just remember that messing up doesn’t have to be the end all, be all of your healthy habits. Sometimes all it takes is a little gumption and positivity to get you on the right track. Be good to yourself. It pays off.

And because I’m a cheese ball who loves Gone with the Wind, I can’t help but posting this:

Don’t hate

How many times have you liked a song a lot more the second or third or tenth time hearing it?

What about movies? The first time I saw Juno I thought it was so overrated. (No 16 year old talks like that or is that cool.) Then the second time I saw it I wasn’t so judgmental and I enjoyed it a lot more.

Source

Sometimes you have to give things a second (or third) chance to fully appreciate their awesomeness, and I think the same thing applies to food, especially if you’re a picky eater. Do you wish you could start eating more healthy but feel like you just can’t get into it because the food is so boring? Do you agonize over menus at restaurants because you can’t find anything that suits you? If your answer is yes, and you’d like to expand your epicurean horizons, then I’m talking to you.

The first thing I want to address is WHY certain foods make you feel like you’re chewing cud. There are many reasons, but here are a few:

1. Leftover dislike from childhood
Kids are picky eaters. And personally I think the more you try to force certain foods on them, the stronger their distaste grows. So let’s say as a kid your well-intentioned parents tried to get you to eat more broccoli. At a time when the only green thing you were interested in was probably Sour Apple Blow Pops, the taste of broccoli was gross, and being forced to eat it made it even more disgusting. Now as an adult just the smell of it makes you gag.

Source

2. Unfamiliar taste/texture
I think this quote from this article at summertomato.com pretty much sums it up:

“The psychology of taste is further complicated by our natural aversion to things that are new or different from what we are expecting. Foods with unique textures such as mushrooms and okra often fall victim to this bias. In these cases the unfamiliarity and strangeness of the texture makes us slightly uncomfortable, and we interpret this feeling as a personal dislike. However, this reaction reflects the food’s uniqueness rather than its true character.”

By the way, that’s a really good article about overcoming food aversions.

3. Salt or sugar addiction
If you are used to eating processed food and/or fast food, then regular ol’ whole foods are probably going to taste bland to you. That’s because the fare you’re used to eating is filled with tons of salt or sugar. But, there are many flavors out there besides salty and sweet, you’re just not used picking them up. Once you lose your taste for processed food it becomes much easier to detect and appreciate the flavors in more natural foods.

4. Genuine dislike
Hey, sometimes you just don’t like stuff. It happens. As I’ve mentioned before, I really don’t like dill or celery. But I managed to polish off a LARGE portion of it over the last two weeks because I know how to cook it the way I like it (SOUP to the rescue). I think that if cooked or prepared properly, just about anything can be delicious. Or at least edible.

THISSSS.

Source

After doing a Google search, it seems that at its more extreme end, picky eating can be quite the ordeal, to the point where there are support groups for it. This post isn’t directed towards people whose picky habits have become a source of major social anxiety, but rather those who are mild to moderately fickle and open to changing those habits. If you suspect that your taste buds are temperamental for any of the reasons I listed above, here are some suggestions for expanding your palate:

-Keep an open mind. If you focus on the idea that you are not going to like something, or that it’s gross, then it probably will be. Instead, try to set aside your biases and look at the particular dish as an adventure, not a punishment. If millions of other people around the world like it, there has to be something good about it, right?

-Keep trying. Those childhood aversions can run deep, but if you’re dedicated enough, you can overcome that with a little exposure therapy. This might sound…unpleasant, and to a certain degree it can be. But realizing that a certain food isn’t just edible, but in fact pretty good is worth it. I mean, how many things have you learned to love in your life? I bet there are a few. Why exclude healthy food?

-Opt for the freshest ingredients you can find. If you don’t like apples and you eat an old, grainy one, it’s not going to help.

-Go to a high quality restaurant. Chefs know how to make everything taste good. It’s their job to make the fireworks go off in your mouth. Take advantage of that and try something you normally don’t like and see if it makes a difference.

-Learn how to cook. First of all, if you want to be healthy you should be learning how to cook anyway. Second, sometimes you just need to figure out a way to prepare something so that it’s tasty to you. The right spices and cooking method can make all the difference!

-Phase out the junk food. It’s time to expand your palate beyond sweet and salty. It’s time to stop drowning your tongue in salt and sugar.

So, are you a picky eater? Are there any foods that you just can’t stomach? Have you learned to like a particular food that you once hated?

Holy fudgesticks.

I’m not sure I’m entirely coherent right now. Perhaps that will make for an interesting post, but probably not. Out of sheer laziness I considered putting up the angry, drunk post I wrote Saturday night, but well…I guess I’m not that incoherent.

Just been busy. I’m kind of exhausted at the moment, but I’ve been absent ’round these parts a bit longer than I’d like, so here I am. I probably won’t be back to posting somewhat regularly for another two weeks, but I’ll still pop in when I can.

I got my second share of produce today from the co-op. I finished everything from the first batch, with the exception of a package of alfalfa sprouts (there were two). It was interesting figuring out what to do with all those veggies. Here are some things I learned: I like apples way more than pears. Chard is good, especially in frittatas. Parsnips have an unusual, sweet taste that I can’t exactly pinpoint.And when in doubt, roast or sautee!

Here’s this week’s share (I get them bi-weekly).

Cauliflower!

Collards!

Celery and lots of romaine.

'Taters and 'Naners.

Fruits 'n' roots!

Spicy sprouts...interesting.

This is how I figured out this fuzzy green stuff is dill.

Once again, I need to figure out what I can make with these ingredients. I’m not really a fan of dill or celery, but not liking food has never stopped me from eating it. Yes, I’m a human garbage disposal. With the first batch I was a little worried that the produce would spoil before I got a chance to eat it, but it held up pretty well, especially with the green bags I used. And to be honest, I eat food way past the expiration date anyway. As long as there’s no mold or green stuff growing on it, and the texture is good, it’s in the clear. Like I said, garbage disposal.

Aaand on the fitness front, I saw this piece of equipment in the new Hers Muscle & Fitness. The Elliptigo!

Source.

I lol’ed, but I secretly kind of want it…even though it’s basically just a stand-up bicycle. But at $1800, I think I’ll stick to my Schwinn.

David walked in and told me to close my eyes and open my mouth.

He put this mostly eaten organic lollipop in my mouth -_-

Ummm…yum?

PS. Add me on the Twitters! MsFitGeek

When it comes to my goals, a big obstacle I’ve always faced is staying on point during the weekends. For years I’ve teetered back and forth between wanting to be gung-ho about not imbibing or eating fried food on the weekends, and then inevitably jumping off a cliff into an oblivion of carbs and alcohol once the temptation was presented to me. Whenever I found myself in a party setting I’d rationalize that my love of socializing and booze was too strong to give up for the sake of abs. Then of course then next day I’d be pissed at myself for losing my resolve so easily.

But for the past couple of months I’ve started to notice something. Alcohol doesn’t make social situations better. Settings that weren’t that entertaining to begin with didn’t get any better once I was buzzed. When I was younger, alcohol made me a much louder, extroverted party-girl type of person, and so I began to equate booze with fun and going out. But these days all it seems to do is make me hungry and sleepy. So what’s the point?

And you know, it’s not just about having abs. Waking up at 1 p.m. with a hangover sucks. And waking up feeling full and bloated from all the crap I ate ‘cause of my drunk munchies isn’t very pleasant either.

So this past weekend I gave myself a challenge. I was going to go to my friend’s birthday party…at a bar…and not drink. AND I DID IT! I honestly think I enjoyed myself more than I would have if I’d been drinking. I am so proud of myself for doing this. I hope I don’t sound like a total ass for finally realizing that I don’t need alcohol to have fun or socialize. Alcohol has been a social crutch for me for a long time, and all it’s done is hold me back. I know this was just one party, but hopefully I can keep it up. I know my liver and my memory are rooting for me. That’s not to say that I’ll never drink again, but I’d rather save it for special occasions. I love Saturdays and all, but they are not a special occasion.

Sober smile! Of course, I can only speak for myself

Coining A New Move
Recently I was daydreaming of exercise-related things, and I started thinking about a time when one of my friends asked me if I could get up from the floor without using my hands. To me this was a piece of cake, but neither she or our other friend could do it! So for beginners, try it out. Sit down Indian style and try to stand up without using your hands and keeping your legs crossed.

The next step is to try it with your legs uncrossed.

Naturally, I like to take things to the next level, so I tried it…on one leg. I’m coining this a lying reverse pistol. IT IS MINE!

(If you’ve never heard of a pistol before, it’s a one-legged squat. Click here to see a video of how it’s done.)

EDIT: Apparently there are some kinks with the gifs showing up in Google reader. If you can’t see them click through to the actual post.

Keep in mind that for all of these “get-ups”, you are using a bit of momentum to stand up. The lying reverse pistol is still pretty hard, even with momentum. I definitely felt it in my booty. David said he thought it was easier than a regular pistol, but I thought it was harder. Try it out and let me know if you could do it!

Today I received my first organic co-op share via the Organic Buying Club of South Florida. The way it works is you join a group in your area, usually as a substitute so you can try it out before deciding to commit. And once every two weeks you pick up a bunch of organic veggies, aka your share, from the group host.

I’m super excited. I just need to figure out how to cook this stuff. I got A LOT of greens and I don’t want them to go bad. If anyone can recommend any recipes for green chard and cabbage (at least I think it’s cabbage), please let me know.

Kiwi berries! I'd never heard of these before.

I see stuffed mushrooms in my future.

I know this is probably weird, but I've never eaten a pear before. First time for everything, eh?

Also…what is this?! I don’t even know!

Can someone tell me wtf this is and what I'm supposed to do with it?

Should be interesting. I’ll let you guys know what I come up with. And seriously, recipes…give them to me!