Sushi

In keeping with my new resolve of healthy food/diet/exercises I have decided to make sushi for dinner. :) OKAY so its not the BEST food but its not awful, and I saved a ton making it from scratch on my own! At the local store sushi that I made would cost $8.99 for 16 pieces, my cost $1.80 for 16 pieces!

:-)

Here are some pictures:

Eating FISH!!!

On the topic of, dieting, eating right and eating better.

MSN in their health section has the following headline:

Eating fatty fish lowers risk of dementia

So now we know that Fish is not only good tasting but it is also good for you.
What interests me is the fact that scientists actually research these topics and come up with thesis papers to explain phenomenon the cavemen used to know when nobody could read, or write. This is yet, another excellent example of better living through chemistry.

Personal

Side note:
As part of my initiative to change our lives for the better, during lunch I walked to the forest preserve and back. I believe I’ll be doing that more often, possibly with music so its not as bad of a walk. I guess being healthy starts one day at a time J

Count:
8 weeks = 15 pounds lost.

Moms Eat Junk Food, Kids Get Fat!

Moms Eat Junk Food, Kids Get Fat
Study Shows Rats Fed Junk Food During Pregnancy Have Obesity-Prone Offspring

Finally there is evidence, what you do before a child is born is just as important as what you do after they are born.
Here is a pleasant read that will put everyone on a nice slimming diet of no junk food…at least while pregnant.

Enjoy the read!

Food, Again?

So this topic is re-occurring and I'm not sure if it is because it is such a large part of my life or because I now pay attention to it way more than I used to!
Before I moved out on my own I had no idea how much anything cost in the grocery store. I didn't know what the average price was, and I certainly didn't know what a 'good' price was for any of the essential fruits and vegetables. Once I moved out and started to buy my own groceries I realized a few things very quickly: 1) I should have lived at home for longer because there food was free unless I wanted junk food which was a total of $10 a week if that. 2) Food spoils quickly, you cannot stock up for more than one week on fruits and vegetables. 3) Fruits and vegetables cost a lot more and are a lot less filling then buying junk food. It is this last point I would like to concentrate on.
This week I was at one of our kosher supermarkets in town. It is quite extensive and the biggest in the city where I reside. I noticed that the fruits and vegetables were definitely marked up a little more than what I just spent in the produce store down the street. I also noticed that there are so many aisles of already prepared food. What caught my attention, while not realizing this earlier, were the number of aisle dedicated to strictly junk food. What I mean by junk food: potato chips, candies, chocolates and the sub categories of each. There were 4 complete aisles in two separate parts of the store dedicated to these items. That is 4 aisles, both sides of the aisle. Then another aisle, both sides dedicated to pop and juices. Then I started to think of the recent articles that I've read about obesity and the crisis that America is in. It doesn't surprise me that this country is in a crisis. HOW could it now be? When you have more processed food available for purchase, when there is so much junk food, appealing to anyone and everyone, from chocolate to caramel and everything in the middle, how can anyone resist the temptation to buy and eat something that just looks so appealing! With these foods containing so many negative additives that do not break down easily in our bodies, that work against our bodies digestive systems how can Americans be thin?
The temptation to buy unhealthy food is too great to resist for a few different reasons: it tastes good, it's cheaper than anything healthy and there is no preparation time involved. If eaten enough of it, a person can definitely get full on junk food. So what is better - buying something that costs more and is less filling or buying something cheap and filling? Really the option there is an obvious one...right? WRONG? In the long run eating healthy will be beneficial to the individual. Spending less on doctors visits, spending less on dentist visits and overall feeling better. In the short run, it costs more and is more time consuming.
In North America it seems that people are more focused in getting more for you buck and spending as little time as possible doing things that they do not like to do. So, for a lot of people it is much better to eat out, or eat unhealthy foods because there is no prep time involved an no cleaning. Even when we think of Shabbat and all the good that it is, we have to take into the fact of how much food there is on this holy day. We're eating late and eating mass amounts of bread and, of course, there is dessert - it's a shabbat treat! What if we ate healthy on Shabbat too? What if instead of a whole dessert we would eat half of a dessert? Would this behaviour kill us? NO, this behaviour would give us the strength to be healthy. This behaviour would give us the strength to get up early in the morning and go to shul on time for shabbat services. These good eating habits give us the strength to stay up on shabbat day and learn rather than get so full that a nap is a necessity rather than to learn and fill our hearts and souls with Torah and Knowledge.
In conclusion: eating healthy is just a start. It is a start to become healthy not only in body but also in mind and spirit. Fight the urge and evilness of eating junk food. Your body is your domain, don't let it be invaded by something that costs $0.99!

Fat and Dieting

This topic is so widely spread and talked about that I’m sure everyone knows about everything that I have to write about. Still, I would like to point out a couple different ideas.
It is interesting to me that as of late, dieting has come up in relation to the escalating food prices. In my opinion that is bizarre. Un-healthy food or junk food as we know it costs much less than nutritious or good food as we know it. The real issue is not the cost but the health concerns behind such statements. When someone is slightly overweight the issue is less severe than for someone who is obese. Unfortunately the scale for overweight or obese is very small and someone that might look like they are a little overweight could potentially be classified as obese. I think this article is very interesting; one of the interesting points of it is that this morbidly obese man who weighed 1235 pounds blames his problem on….JUNK FOOD!
“Uribe said his weight problem spiraled out of control after he moved to the United States for a few years in 1988 and indulged in a nonstop diet of junk food and soft drinks.”
See the distressing part in this particular case is this man feels that it was not his fault for getting into the situation he is currently in. He blames junk food and soft drinks so naturally his hands were tied. He became that big because of those issues and that is all. What is more interesting is that he is not the only one. Many people that become obese or really overweight blame other issues and rid them of the guilt. Making something an obsession is a psychological problem and of course is a disease. In my opinion, when a person takes something whatever it maybe to such an extreme, it is a mental issue and it needs to be addressed. Someone pinning all the blame onto ‘junk food’ clearly needs help addressing the real issues.
Now, for everyone else that just happens to be overweight and not 1235 pounds, the best way of shedding weight is the ancient way that has been tried. It has been tested and it is truly the only way………..eating well balanced meals and exercise. There is no mystery behind it. There are no hidden facts, or hidden agendas, eating right and working out is the way to live a healthy life. This article outlines some lies and gives good advice as to achieving success

One last thought on dieting: eating at 9pm is not healthy because you have a large meal and go to sleep. That is bad. If eating at 9pm is necessary as we know it is when Shabbat starts at 8:08pm then maybe eating a lighter meal should be a possible solution. Nobody needs to eat meat that late at night, nor eating lots of carbohydrates. Eating right and thinking of what is going into your body are ways of losing weight and feeling great about it. Dieting in ways that are hurtful to your overall health is not a way to a successful diet plan. Just a way to shed some pounds and then gain them back the second you stop doing the diet.

Good luck.