[No funny picture today. I have one but WordPress isn’t letting me upload any pics for some bizarre reason. Will try updating it again later. In the meantime click through to check out this amazing vid!]
There is nothing simple about these crazy talented people! You’ll want to watch this vid on full screen! (Thanks Leslie for the tip!)
Complicating easy things is kinda my life’s work. I don’t want to brag or anything but I’m pretty much a genius at making things look hard. Whether it’s this whole motherhood thing – I’ve left a child at the gym so many times that it’s now standard operating procedure to do a headcount every time we go through a doorway – or exploding my bread maker this morning (an appliance that’s supposed to take the risk out of making bread? Pshaw!), I live for danger. But there comes a time when even I have to throw up my hands and say “Why are we making this so difficult?!”, especially when it comes to health and fitness.
3 Health Trends That Need to be Simplified
1. Salad. Every healthy eater eats it. It’s basically the only dish that everyone from vegans to low-carbers to raw foodies to the most neolithic Paleo can eat without anyone calling the nutritional police. I can understand why – it’s delicious, nutritious and the perfect canvas for any ingredient you can think to throw on top of greens. (Ha ha – you thought I was going to end that phrase with “and tastes like chicken!” didn’t you?) The problem for me is when it’s lunchtime, I’m starving and while salad sounds good I just don’t feel like chopping a ton of veggies and adding olives, beets, grapefruit wedges, cheese crumbles, toasted (by me, of course) pine nuts, onions and the weed that I pick out of the cracks in my neighbor’s driveway (purslane, seriously try some) and then topping it with a freshly emulsified dressing of extra virgin olive oil, vinegar, a dash of tabasco, unicorn blood and 11 herbs and spices. Why does such a simple food have to be so much work?
Simplify: When I was in Germany one of the best meals I ever had was started with a salad of chopped butter lettuce topped with olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette. That’s it. I ate so much of it our host mother was forced to go back out to their garden plot and pick another bunch just for me. (It also helped that I hadn’t seen a fruit or vegetable in like three weeks and was super constipated. Seriously Germany what is up with the produce hating? You have eleventy different kinds of sausage but an apple not in the form of strudel is verboten? It’s bad enough you have different flushing mechanisms on every single toilet – the chain over the door was by far the most befuddling – but now you have to back me up too?) These days I often make that “German salad” again and I’m never sorry. I love a good 70-ingredient salad as much as the next health nut but there’s nothing wrong with just plopping some lettuce on your plate. Especially when you eat as much salad as I do. (“Salad” bowl? More like mixing bowl!)
2. Food labels. My frozen peas are “gluten free”. My dark chocolate is “bursting with antioxidants”. My eggs are “all natural”. (I used to buy the unnatural eggs but after I found a baby woodchuck in one I switched.) My totally-not-healthy-in-any-way licorice is “fat free”. My yogurt is “now with probiotics”. (Um, what were they using before? Camel urine?) And, my personal fave, my bananas are a “superfood”. Seriously marketers? Stop it. When my banana sprouts a cape and saves my toddler from a speeding train then you can slap a superfood sticker on it.
Simplify: Foods that come without labels – usually produce, bananas notwithstanding, and fresh meats and seafood – are generally the healthiest foods out there. As for foods with labels, I find it works much better if I ignore all the hype in big letters on the front and just look at the nutritional facts on the back. Twenty three grams of sugar in a yogurt? You can keep your probiotics, thanks. While I wish that food marketers would be more honest in their labeling – all my peas better be gluten free – that’s probably as likely to happen as Lindsay Lohan staying sober so in the meantime I just take it all with an iodized grain of salt (“iodide is a necessary nutrient!”).
3. Weight lifting. I’m going to take some flack for this one but I’m going to say it anyways: weight lifting is just lifting heavy stuff. You do it every single day whether you intend to or not. Groceries? Kids? Drunk roommates in wobbly stilettos? All need carrying. I wince every time I hear a person (usually a woman but not always) say, “I can’t lift weights! I wouldn’t even know how to start, it’s all so complicated!” It’s not her/his fault. Between all the machines tattooed with diagrams that make Egyptian runes look like a preschool rebus and the beefed-up lifters talking “super sets” and “rear deltoids” and the signs warning you to not get injured, I can understand why people think they “can’t lift.”
Simplify: First, avoid the machines. Most gyms will steer newbies to those first (I’m guessing since they’re the most expensive equipment?) but not only are they hard to figure out but they are also not the best for you as they hold your joints in unnatural positions and don’t allow your supporting muscles to kick in. Second, go for free weights (dumbbells and barbells) and/or anything “functional” in movement. What to do with them? Just lift them! Lift them in any way that feels natural to you. Try and use your upper and lower body. Copy someone else (it’s only creepy if you stand right behind them and sing along with their iPod). But don’t worry about it too much. Sets, reps, muscle heads, negatives, splits – all these are great and if you decide you want a more precise workout then you’ll learn about them and implement them. The important thing is to just get in there and try it. Another worry I hear a lot is “I don’t want to get hurt!” While you can injure yourself weight-lifting most new lifters don’t lift anything heavy enough to do serious damage. Third, listen to your body. Does your knee hurt every time you lunge? Find a way to lunge that doesn’t hurt or don’t lunge. There are plenty of other exercises for your legs. Fourth, try bodyweight exercises. These don’t use any “weights” except your own and they can be powerful resistance exercises. You can build amazing shoulders with different kinds of push-ups and you’ll never once have to worry about dropping a dumbbell on your head.
One thing I wish was simple but is still really complicated for me: Sugar. I was reading on TheWhole9Life (the folks who came up with the Whole 30 challenge that bunches of you have been raving to me about) about excuses that people use to not clean up their diet, the first being “It’s too hard.” Their response? “It is not hard. Don’t you dare tell us this is hard. Giving up heroin is hard. Beating cancer is hard. Drinking your coffee black. Is. Not. Hard. [… This is] the only physical body you will ever have in this lifetime.” This made me giggle. All weekend whenever I’ve been confronted with something hard I mutter under my breath, “Giving up heroin is hard, this is not hard.” I’ve already told you about how awful sugar makes me feel but since I’ve been eating less of it I’ve also noticed all the good things that come from staying off the sucrose crack – I’m calmer, more patient, have more energy, sleep better, have less cravings and just feel all-around more sane, which if you know me at all sanity is a hard-won thing around these parts.
It’s Intuitive Eating at its best- recognizing how my food affects my body and making choices to nourish it. Simple, right? I wish. Breaking a life-long sugar addiction (in college during one bout of my eating disorder, I allowed myself one fun size package of Chewy Gobstoppers per day. Yeah, I wouldn’t eat anything else but still couldn’t give up my candy) is a lot harder than I thought it would be. Yeah, it’s not giving up heroin but then you don’t find heroin served up at every single establishment – even the fabric store has an entire aisle of candy – every home, every dinner party, every holiday and every gathering. It’s… complicated.
Do you have a health or fitness trend that you’ve found a good way to simplify? Have any good tips for me on bucking the sugar beast? What’s the funniest food label you’ve seen?
Funniest food label – on Peanut Butter – May contain nuts ! I jolly well hope so *lol*
Cold turkey is the only way I can give up sugar. And avoiding anything packaged. You’re right about yoghurt, that stuff is more candy than healthy these days. I really should get back into making my own. Same with breakfast cereals – even the so called healthy ones. So much fat and sugar. Funnily enough when I started IE I didn’t crave any cereals, but raw oats as porrige. My body seemed to know how bad they were for me, even when they did taste like cardboard !
Oh good one! I just went and looked and my peanut butter says “may be processed in a factory that processes peanuts, dairy or soy” Hahahah.
for real on the salad thing. i always go dressing free because after all that chopping and rinsing i’m too tired to lift the bottle (weight lifting really is too complex for me). i never miss the dressing with the other 69 ingredients swimming around in my “mixing” bowl though. PS: i want to see this exploded bread maker!! 😉
Oh believe me you do not want to see it. If there is a disaster in a kitchen, guaranteed I am within 5 miles of it.
Funny label on food: thin crust pizza (frozen) – now with thicker crust! LOL! Granted, not health-related, but still funny.
I have no advice on sugar. While candy isn’t my foe, baked goods definitely are. If there are cookies or cakes in my near vicinity, I’m a goner. It’s really bad. I always hear people say “nothing tastes as good as thin feels” and wonder if they’ve ever had the strawberry champagne cake from Baker X on Elm Street, or the homemade cheesecake I made the other day, LOL! 🙂
However, I do like the quote “Giving up heroin is hard, this is not hard.” I will be using that from now on. . . probably more motivational than the other one!!! 🙂
I hate that “nothing tastes as good as thin feels” – not the least because it’s the official mantra of the pro-ana movement. Strawberry champagne cake sounds aMAYzing!
Reba (yes, I occasionally listen to country music – I did go to college in Arkansas… and live in Texas for a year) was interviewed in a magazine and she actually said that phrase in the article and I was so dumbfounded…
Have you ever heard the one ‘Choose your hard’? Being fat is hard, dieting is hard, eating right and working out is hard, etc. choose your hard. I saw it on a weightwatchers message board.
I’m so with you on everything in this post. I once got in an argument with another personal trainer who said you can’t get strong with kettlebells and to get really strong you have to use the olympic bar and weights. He started rambling in all sorts of fitness jargon but I shut him up by saying you can get strong by lifting ROCKS, LOGS, or anything else HEAVY. People have been doing it for thousands of years. Get over yourself. (Him not you!) Goodness gracious, people love to turn the simplest things into rocket science. It’s annoying.
I read that from the Whole 9 a few years ago and like you found it super motivational. Before she started the Whole 9 she wrote a very sassy and informational blog called Byers Gets Diesel. Speaking of heroin, the book THe Total Sugar Addict’s Guide to Recovery talks about how our bodies respond to sugar in a similar way as heroin. (That was a clunky sentence but you know what I mean.) If that’s true then beating sugar may be in fact very hard. It was for me. Maybe one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I think you are going to have to find what works for you. Going cold turkey and using my pride as motivation worked for me. Honestly, it’s still a struggle b/c I will often eat too much bread or other refined carbs which are basically doing the exact same thing as the sugar.
Yes, I think of you a lot when I wrestle with sugar. I keep thinking if Jenn can do it I can do it too! You are my inspiration! Thanks for the book rec.
I’m totally with you on the salad thing. One time, I tried to make a “simple” meal of salad and hummus and pita…the salad took me an hour to chop, because I had to include every. single. vegetable. I had. In that time, I could have made a full Gujarati Thali, starting with putting the lentils in the pressure cooker. By the time dinner was done, I was annoyed because I could have made something more filling and more impressive. 2-3 veggie salads for me =) (Although, in college, I was known for my epic salads…helped that we had a dining hall. Literally, people would stop me and comment about my salad. It was a “composed” salad, with neat little piles of each veggie, instead of mixing them. Apparently it was pretty. Rainbow Diet, FTW!)
Last year (around this time), I heard that sugar was as addictive as heroin, and I started a 30-day experiment to get rid of processed/added sugars from my diet (I had to frame it that way to ignore all the sarcastic remarks about how fruit has sugar in it. I also banned all juice except lemon.) I found sugar substitutes (medjool dates, mainly) to stave off any sweet cravings, and at the end, my taste buds adapted, and I could taste the sweetness of the foods naturally (btw, black eyed peas are REALLY sweet). It’s totally possible to go cold turkey, so long as you have an end in sight and dried fruit.
Oh yeah, if i had access to a salad bar then I’d be ALL over the epic salads but when it’s me doing all the prep and clean up? I’m lazy:) I like your sugar experiment. I once gave it up totally for 90 days but when I fell off the wagon I fell hard…
Sorry, no good advice here (I know; shocking, lol!), but isn’t it amazing how “real sugar” is suddenly the new It Thing? I see all these ads for food/drinks that boast they use “real sugar!” instead of artificial sweeteners. These are the same companies that boasted about their low calorie/calorie free stuff a couple of years ago, thanks to those same artificial sweeteners.
Honestly, it’s enough to put a girl off of her mass produced, zero-nutrition, chemically-infused processed food and drink products!
Yes that cracks me up too! Sugar is sugar is sugar.
Occom’s Razor – the simplest solution is usually the best solution. (I’m paraphrasing, but that’s the gist.)
My favorite line from this post, among many, is this: “Does your knee hurt every time you lunge? Find a way to lunge that doesn’t hurt or don’t lunge.” Its such a DUH sentiment but man, I need someone to stand next to me and remind me of that sometimes.
My sugar advice? Embrace it. 🙂
Leave it to a scientist to invoke Occam’s Razor! Love it.
Loved this post, totally with you on all of the above. I had a salad discovery that I’m pretty excited about the other day. I love salads from Chipotle – I don’t need dressing because the beans and guacamole and salsa are enough. But the closest Chipotle is 30 minutes away. So I was really busy but wanted an awesome salad so I chopped a head of lettuce, washed it in my salad spinner, then brought home from a Mexican restaurant sides of guacamole, pico de gallo, whole pinto beans, and salsa and topped my salad with this. SO good, dead easy, enough toppings for several meal-sized salads, and totally cheap on a cost per meal level. I’m definitely going to be doing this a lot in the future.
I would totally eat that salad! My fave salads are Mexican food inspired.
I confess, I don’t eat nearly enough salad because…well…it’s just too much darned work!!
And I hear you on the sugar thing! I was born with the sweetest tooth imaginable but reading Sweet Poison recently really opened up my eyes as to how much sugar I was really eating (cereal and yoghurt like you said, packed the biggest punches!).
I’m not sugar free but I’ve more than halved the amount of sugar I eat in a day (I wish I could say it got rid of that last 5 vanity kilos, alas, they are still clinging on for dear life). I’ve found since cutting down that I don’t feel like sugar nearly so often as I used to and things that I used to think were yummy frequently taste too sweet now.
All that’s left really for me….is getting rid of my potato chip (crisps I think in the US) tooth!! I can’t even have those in the house. If they’re here, they’re going in my belly!
Am going to check out Sweet Poison NOW. Thanks for the rec! And congrats on the progress with your sugar!
I’m with you on the salads thing- I often will just toss some baby spinach in a bowl with lemon juice and a spritz of olive oil for a snack. It’s way better for me than a lot of other snacks.
And, I’m thinking I should try giving up the sugar again. I don’t start work for exactly 45 days, and in the interim I’m literally just lazing around. No stress. So, this is the ideal time to ditch the sugar. The Whole30 thing seems like a great idea as a vehicle for cutting sugar- but, I’m vegetarian, and very unwilling + reticent to bring meat back so..no legumes and no grains really cuts out all of my protein sources except eggs. And I cannot eat five eggs a day, that’s just insane. I will think on this.
The health trend that I really want simplified is running- there are so many gadgets and special clothes out there. Isn’t running the simplest thing in the world, it’s just walking faster. So…why do I need a smorgasbord of accoutrements to run?
And Austria is totally like Germany- except, I lived on my own when I was there for a semester, and I found out that the vegetables/fruit were all sold at farmers’ markets, not at the Spar. But, that did take a couple of weeks to find out (when my German class went on a trip to the market). They also didn’t sell cheddar anywhere. And I love cheddar. They had like 90 varieties of swiss, but cheddar was hard to find, and SUPER expensive (often only one kind- no Baldersons in Austria). I found that odd. Cheddar is a legitimate cheese.
I’ve never tried the Whole30 thing (and have no plans to – I don’t do well with super restrictive plans like that) but I did like the part about sugar. I missed the part about eating 5 eggs a day though! Wow. Also, yes, I heart the cheddar!!
Oh, it says nothing specifically about 5 eggs a day, but how else would I get even nearly enough protein? With no legumes, tofu, or whole grains? And as a vegetarian? Which is why I’m pretty sure I’d just starve on the plan (or become crazy…). All I’d be left with is vegetables, some fruit, and nuts/oils, and I cannot live on that.
Was totally about to mention the whole sweet poison thing! Great books! I choose what to take out of it though, otherwise the whole ED could ramp up and go crazy… Definitely notice when I have some sugar though, as I want more more more/feel terrible which is just as dangerous for the crazy in my head!
Any sweets that are 100% natural, no artificial colours or flavours, make me laugh, still packed full of sugar, as sugar is natural, it’s just not natural to concentrate it and cram it into everything?!? (we have a brand of ‘natural confectionery’ here that clearly really gets my goat!).
http://sweetpoison.com.au/
Thank you for the link, I’m going to go check it out NOW. Good point about watching the ED issues. I could see myself getting really nutty about this if I’m not careful.
Your baby woodchuck imagery made me throw up in my mouth a little 🙁
Glad you liked the Nike vid!!
Starting your day with mouth vomit is always auspicious;)
Hi Charlotte.
I’m with you, my arch nemesis is sugar! So yummy and addicting.
Most absurd health claim- Dark Chocolate Raisanettes (Full of Antioxidants!). Maybe but they are still candy and packed with sugar.
Yoga is complicated as well….I’m not a big fan. You’re just holding awkward, painful poses isometrically.
Too funny – yoga seems the soul of simplicity to me! And yes to the Raisinettes ridiculosity! Plus they’re not even that yummy.
You make a good point, Charlotte! I have certainly complicated areas of my life!
One area where I’ve learned to simplify is the martial arts. The simplest most basic techniques have always been the most effective!
Salads are a mainstay of my nutrition.
Martials arts are amazing!
For me I don’t want to simplify my salad TOO much because it’s a meal. If I just have lettuce and some olive oil/ balsamic, I’m not really getting the nutrients I need. But I have simplified it a bit lately: Lettuce, olives, sweet peppers (jarred), grilled chicken, sometimes cut up bell peppers and rice vinegar/ squeezed lemon for dressing.
I’ve been contemplating going sugar free as well, after reading so much about it lately I have cut out a lot of it. Yesterday I bought all natural PB and mixed nuts (for a sug-free snack). I keep telling myself that I don’t like to make anything off limits, but I’m still torn. My morning coffee with creamer is definitely the number one thing holding me back lol.
This: ” I keep telling myself that I don’t like to make anything off limits, but I’m still torn. ” is me EXACTLY. Let me know if you end up trying to go SF!
So after I read this Monday morning I decided to just go for it and try my coffee black. I realized I could deal with it and now I’m on day 3 of Sugar free 😀
I loved your description of the salad! I agree about food without labels, but I have to say I am back to bananas lately. I just no longer see why they should be avoided. They are nutritious and they taste good. I think I probably have good glucose tolerance so why not eat them? About black coffee, I can’t drink it. I actually somehow miraculously gave up coffee in the last couple of weeks. I am not too sure how I did it but I haven’t had it for some time. I went to brunch yesterday though and drank decaf with sugar and milk. Coffee for me just goes with milk and sugar. It’s actually easier to give up the thing with the actual addictive property (caffeine) than the sugar that makes it taste delicious!
Oh you misunderstood me – I LOVE bananas. I just don’t think they need an arbitrary sticker:)
Oh okay – I thought you were referring to the controversy around bananas. Anyway, I love them too!
Charlotte
I’m a steak kind of girl, not a salad!!! I tried, but its torture. Sugar is a must! My motivation, I’m going to hit the gym, and get rid of it all hitting that boxing bag!!! That’s my sense!
Biscayne Boxing & Fitness Club
I’m a salad lover too; and like you I rarely have time to chop, toast and dress a salad daily. So I simplified it by chopping, toasting, and making the salad dressing on mondays only. I make enough for the week, then store all the individual toppings in small containers so when I want my salad, I just toss a little from each container into a mixing bowl (yeah, the lunch salad is a go big or go home food for me).
The funniest labels for me, are the ones that say “X number of calories per serving” then you flip the box over to find that a serving is 2 crackers, or 1/4 cup ice-cream. It’s like a joke. I literally bust up laughing when I see some of them. I still can’t get over the 100 calorie packs of cookies, chips and crackers that are every where. Seriously, if I want a cookie, I’m going to eat a cookie. A delicious, homemade, completely bad for me, unknowable amount of calorie, cookie. And I will enjoy it. I’m not going to torture myself by eating only 100 calories worth of processed cardboard that somewhat represents the Oreo I really want. Thanks for turning me on to Geneen Roth and intuitive eating. It’s changed my life.
I really like that idea of bulk cooking/chopping/planning! When I’m on my game I keep a big bowl of mixed salad in the fridge but too often it feels like flying by the seat of my pants these days. And AMEN to the serving size shenanigans. 1 serving is 1/2 a Snickers bar? Yeah right.
And I’m SOOOOO glad you are doing so well with IE! It was life changing for me too.
Fitness simplified: Get to the gym (the hardest part for most people) and do some exercise vigorously for at least 20 minutes.
My salad simplified: Broccoli slaw straight out of the bag with a scoop of cottage cheese on top. Fresh cilantro or fresh dill for flavor instead of dressing. I often eat this for breakfast because it is fast and healthy.
Hahah I love your fitness simplified! And I’ll have to try your salad recipe. Totally sounds like something I’d eat.
“I used to buy the unnatural eggs but after I found a baby woodchuck in one I switched.”
hahahahahahaha
There’s nothing like humor to get the reader warmed up. I just found your blog and I love it, I’m going to read through your posts now. Really interesting stuff!! (I may steal some for my site, don’t worry, I’ll credit where credit is due!)
This made my Monday.
Then my work here is done;)
I feel the same way about salads. I always feel like them, but never want to take the time to make them. I guess you could chop the lettuce and veggies ahead of time and store them in containers in the fridge.
Oh, and giving up sugar is hard, but you’ll get there. The longer you go, the easier it will get. And then one day, when you slip, the food you eat will taste crazy sweet. As the girl who used to eat dessert with every single meal (and could polish off an entire Chili’s molten chocolate cake), I was shocked when ripe bananas tasted way too sweet for me.
Okay that is my new goal! I want to get to that point. Thanks for the encouragement!
I agree….mostly 🙂 I DO think beginners should follow a plan (Starting Strength or New Rules of Lifting for Women come to mind) just so that they can learn the more complex movements (wlel, not complex. Nothing really complex about squatting or deadlifting since they are natural movements — compound would be a better word) and so that they are following a plan so they’ll see results and won’t get discouraged. Those books are SO simple though and I agree with all your other points!!!
Oh I agree. Love that book! It just seems to me though that if you tell someone they need to read a book – even a simple one – first a lot of them think it’s too much trouble or too complicated and give up before they try. I figure we get ’em addicted to the pump first;)
I’ve been chopping up all the veggies and things for salads on the weekends so that during the week I can quickly throw a salad together. It works well for me. As far as the sugar thing goes, I can see why some people want to cut down on sugar. But why cut it out completely? Can’t it be enjoyed in moderation? The idea of giving up every little sweet thing in my life makes me sad.
I do really like the preplanning idea! Some weeks when I have it together I do that but other weeks… it’s lettuce plopped on a plate. As for sugar, I have a really really hard time with moderation with it. I think that not everyone is like me in that respect tho. And also, even a moderate amount of sugar gives me headaches.
Ahhh I wish I had some genious techniques for making everything in life simpler. If I did, I would share them, and then charge one million dollars per piece of advice. And then live off of that money in the carribean. 🙂
but alas, I don’t…about the sugar though, I would just say allow yourself a little bit each day, so that you don’t go long without getting that “fix”. I do that with my giant 4 lb jar of jelly beans…just a few each day…I’m determined to make that jar last!
oh and a mixing bowl instead of a salad bowl? Yes, that is most certainly me!
Mmmmm… I love those 4lb jars of jelly beans! Except for the “popcorn” flavored ones. Those taste like boogers to me. Not that I know what boogers taste like, ahem.
Bahaha! too funny! And I see where you are coming from…they have that sweet and salty mix …very similar to boogers…;)
I don’t eat salads much anymore. I like the veggies more than the lettuce & I like dressing so I stick with the veggies. 😉
Food labels – craziness.
Weights – I agree with some but you know me, I think there is a place for learning more to change it up. I hear all the time how boring weight lifting is & that is because they do the same thing over & over rather than learn all the fun ways to change it up. I have found some good machines out there even though I use free weights more & yes, using machines without knowing how to set them up right or some ones that really are not that well made, I agree… but free eights are king to me! 😉
This: ” I hear all the time how boring weight lifting is & that is because they do the same thing over & over rather than learn all the fun ways to change it up.” is a really good point! True.
I am not a fan of the “super foods” labels either. Seems there is always a new list coming out…I think it’s rubbish. What is an acai berry anyway?
Also, I keep telling myself that lifting a 15 baby, especially when she’s in her car seat carrier, is great strength training – so thanks for the reassurance. Also a big fan of using my own body weight for strength training – so easy to do a few minutes here and there and can be really effective.
It IS hard to drink coffee black…I don’t care what anyone says, including my husband. Coffee is meant to be a vehicle for cream. It’s in the Bible….somewhere.
And that’s why you missed the Rapture;)
I made my own yogurt, AND I like to eat chewy lemonheads. Weird. I know. 🙂
Chewy Lemonheads are THE BEST! Not sure how they (or homemade yogurt) apply to this post but I’m with you 100% on this one!
I hear that eye of newt makes a killer salad dressing base.
I’ve considered giving up sugar and I’m sure you’re right- it’s not hard. I just don’t wanna! 😉 I have so little anyway that what little I have brings me pleasure and I restrict myself enough already!
Weights- yeah- when I travel I often do my bodyweight lunge and squat routine and it renders me sore for days! Between L&S, there’s so few multijoint moves that will hit every muscle- rows, pushups. Always good to have a ‘pro’ show you the ropes if you are a beginner of course, and that’s probably the fear! It took me quite a while doing weights with a trainer (~1 yr?) and I still wasn’t confident to do it on my own b/c he didn’t TEACH me so that I could be independent. He wanted me to be dependent. It wasn’t til someone showed me with the intention of ME needing to do it by myself that I finally ‘got it’.
And I was JUSt at the store and happened to be craving butter lettuce but they didn’t have any organic 🙁 I totally know what you mean about simple being fabulous!
Ooh yes, I really dislike it when all trainers do is train you to be dependent on them! Glad you figured it out though and now you’re a weight-lifting rockstar!!
Just wanted to pipe in about the salads: If you want to eat salads more often but don’t like all the work, just do the work once! It takes just as much time to peel and shred 1/4 of a carrot as it does the whole thing (or even 2 or 3), wash and chop an whole head of broccoli as opposed to just a section, etc… Then get a bunch of stackable tupperware and put it all in the fridge. This also helps when you open say, a can of chickpeas but only use a few tablespoons. Anyway, whenever you want a big salad, pull out all your tupperware (in neat stacks in the fridge) and assemble! Takes no.time.at.all. and makes you way more likely to eat salad! I love to eat epic salads, but also dont like the work involved. So do it once, and eat yummy salads all week!
The weeks that I’m really on my game I do this! But then there are weeks like this one… (is it really only MOnday?!?) and lettuce plopped on a plate is going to have be good enough;) I love this tip though! It’s a real sanity saver.
You’re funny (“it’s only creepy if you stand right behind them and sing along with their iPod”). And you know some good, sensible stuff (“What to do with them? Just lift them! Lift them in any way that feels natural to you.”) Thanks a bunch for blogging and for being, Charlotte. 🙂
I just took a break from caffeine a week ago (not as bad as I thought… so far) and am now contemplating the sugar beast. It’s a scary proposition, to be sure. Hugs to you!
Great post. So true about the salads. And thank you for being blunt about weight-lifting. It’s really not that hard and man is it awesome! Women can and should weight-lift – I don’t know about you, but I feel like a total badass when I do 🙂 I love the comment about how kicking a food habit isn’t really that hard. In the grand scheme of things, it’s something tiny and insignificant. Heroin, cancer, various other addictions are all way more intense. As usual, love the post!
I am a little lazy with the salad. I throw the ingredients in, (lettuce, spinach, pepper strips,) and then chop them up with my kitchen shears until they are in the size pieces I like. I honestly have two sets of kitchen shears, 1 for meat and 1 for produce/bread. I will also just cut slices of veggies for sauces or omlettes right over the pan with the kitchen shears.
I will also dump a tuna pouch or some bbq chicken right over the salad to avoid dressing, but I am not a huge dressing lover.
Just wondering where in Germany were you ? There is plenty of produce here from my experience. But maybe your hosts felt it was their sacred duty to introduce you to sausage, dumplings, sauerkraut and beer.
We went all over but most of our time was spent in Hof (in Bavaria) and Frankfurt. I think it was more that we were poor students staying with other poor students so we ended up eating a lot of kebabs off carts. (tasty but constipating!) Although when people did treat us to a meal at a restaurant it was sausage, potatoes, sausage, kraut, sausage, eis, and more sausage. Oh and that really dark bread with the white soft cheese. (Wow I loved that cheese!)
Charlotte, I think you are so funny. I am reading your articles and I am laughing like crazy.