Agave Nectar = Not So Good, Maybe Very Bad

I just read this article by Dr. Joseph Mercola about agave nectar and felt that I MUST share it with all of you! I always felt that agave nectar seemed to be a little too good to be true and I've noticed that Dr. Andrew Weil (who's writings I always keep up-to-date on) has always had his reservations about it. Now I know why. It's just another super-refined, bad-for-you sweetener with fantastic marketing!

Dr. Mercola's article also includes a cool chart that tells you approximately how much fructose is in common fruits, etc. Keep in mind that the fructose in actual fruit is going to be made less harmful because of the fact that it's bound up with fiber and other nutrients. Just another bit of evidence that real food in its whole, natural, unrefined state is where it's at (as far as your body's health is concerned, at least).

Exercise Classes

I've decided to give a complete change-up to my usual workout approach. The gym I go to (Gold's) has a huge variety of classes and, in the past, I've had a mostly...well...er...snobby attitude about a lot of these classes. It's hard to admit, but I trust you guys not to shame me for it. Well, even if you do, I'll have to get over it I guess. Previously, I was under the mistaken impression that most of these classes were for...well...er...wimps. Maybe not exactly wimps, but people who just didn't train as hard as I did. You know what I mean.

Well, as I said recently in answering a previous post's comments, if your body is talking to you and you don't listen, it will just talk louder, shout, then scream, and, finally, wipe the dirt with you. I'm glad to say that I didn't have to get to the dirt wiping point in the battle with my body, just maybe the shouting point. I've just been training a little too hard for the past few months and I need to balance it all out.

So I'll keep you posted about these new experiences!

Boris, Tony, Nonie, and me. Eggs make you crazy, but they won't kill you!

Forget about all that stuff you heard that eggs are bad for you and they'll kill you with cholesterol! Yay! The nutrition scientists have taken it back and now say that eggs are good for you. An egg a day is fine and gives you vitamins A, D, E, K, the highest quality protein, and that miraculous stuff we all keep hearing about, Omega 3. Especially eggs from organic free-range chickens. The fact that these chickens eat little bugs and things off the ground outside make their eggs a ton more nutritious as well as extra tasty.

So, a couple of days ago on Easter Sunday, Nonie (pictured above)--also known as the adorable Winona Nelson(the same Winona Nelson that does all those kick-butt character designs for video games)--came here with her really sweet boyfriend, our son, Tony Palumbo, to join us for dinner and she suggested we dye some eggs with food coloring. Actually, she and Tony did all the egg coloring, Boris and I just watched. But it was so fun and from now on, I'm going to color eggs every week. I'll just make a bunch of them and have instant high-quality, high-protein snack food waiting for me in the refrigerator. What a great plan!

Avocados

I've been going crazy for avocados lately. I'm not sure exactly why, except for the fact that they taste fantastic and are extremely good for you. Yes, they're high in fat, (but it is very good fat that keeps your body sane and balanced), so you wouldn't want to overdo it and put on unwanted pounds. But, I find that if I keep my entire diet clean and consisting of whole foods, having fats that come from things like avocados and nuts don't cause a weight gain problem. I think one reason is that when you're not having lots of junky refined foods, your body is way better at communicating with itself and with you, so you end up eating only what and when you need to and not eating when you're not really hungry or in need of nutrients. Thinking about how smart my body actually is (as long as I'm willing to listen to it!) just makes me so happy. It's lots smarter than I am, for sure!

Anyway, back to avocados. They are anti-inflammatory to your system, contain lots of good vitamin E, B vitamins, and magnesium, and even help balance out your hormones. I like them a little on the firmer side of ripe, about like a perfect pear. You'll have to experiment and decide for yourself how ripe you like them.

When thinking of avocado recipes, most people think of guacamole first, so I'll tell you how I make it. I keep it VERY simple so that I can taste the rich avocado taste above anything else:

Place peeled avocado pieces from 2 avocados in a bowl. Sprinkle the juice of 1/2 a lemon or 1 whole lime over it, and give a few shakes of garlic powder or garlic salt. Chop it up a little with a pastry blender (or two knives). Don't attempt to blend it to a puree, just mash it up a little and leave lots of chunks of the avocado. It's ready!

Another way to enjoy avocados is to cut up 1/4 to 1/2 an avocado per person in a serving bowl and combine with chopped chunks of pink grapefruit. This is a bright and amazing flavor combination.

And, my favorite salad (which I have almost every day for lunch) is:
1/4 avocado, cut into chunks,
a handful of washed and chopped dandelion greens,
3 raw asparagus spears, chopped,
a medium-sized raw carrot, sliced
Combine all these in a bowl and give it a dash of apple cider vinegar. Mix it up and go for it.

(Almost) Barefoot

I'm one of those people who can't stand to wear shoes when I absolutely don't have to--they just make me claustrophobic. For instance, I feel really uncomfortable and uptight if I have to wear shoes while I paint. I don't know why, I've just always been this way. So when I heard about the "barefoot running movement", I was naturally intrigued. The word in running magazines, etc. is that barefoot running will help you avoid foot, knee, and back problems because your feet, sensing the ground, will send signals to your body to cushion the shock of running by working your joints in a more useful way to protect you. Apparently, wearing heavily padded running shoes causes us to slam into the ground with too much force and not the best form (often heel first, which is bad).

Boris made me promise that I wouldn't just go out and run barefoot in the street (might get some glass, etc.), so I've been investigating "barefoot" running shoes. I just bought a pair made by Terra Plana (called Evo) that I LOVE. They're not the five-finger ones that you may have seen that separate your toes (that really doesn't appeal to me at all), they're just like a combination ballet slipper and running sneaker. They have laces and are totally flexible, but the sole is just thick enough to protect your feet from getting cut by rocks, glass, etc. that might be on the street you're running on. The makers of the shoe tell you to start slowly and gradually work up to your normal running times. So the first day I just ran around the block and it felt great. Being who I am, I decided that now it was okay to just do what I normally do, so I did and I ran my usual 3.5 mile run. Well, it was fantastic. After the first couple of minutes, my feet actually just naturally took themselves into a whole different way of running and it was much more graceful and "floaty" than the usual. The muscles in my feet and lower legs are a little sore, but nothing outrageous. I'm guessing that I spend so much time barefoot that I didn't need as much of an adjustment period as most people might. So you can count me in as a new advocate for barefoot running!

Winter Advice

Double dose of snowmageddon and snowpocalypse got you down? Or is it the snowacane? Or maybe it's just AccuWeather trying to scare the bejeebes out of us all! Whatever, I'm pretty sick of it. I'm not sick of winter or even snow, I'm sick of one doomsday snowstorm report after another. There's an old saying, "We'll weather the weather, whatever the weather, whether we like it or not."
I mean, yeah, there's snow and, yeah, it's deep, but compared to the REAL catastrophes that have taken place recently (like earthquakes, for instance), we're pretty fortunate.

Since it is winter here in the Northern Hemisphere (Pennsylvania) and every winter we people of the more northern latitudes do have things like cold, snow, ice, wind, etc., the best thing to do is accept that fact graciously and take responsibility for maintaining your own happiness.

There are several things that I know of that are very effective in dealing with cabin fever and the winter blues:

Get as much daylight as you can, especially in the morning. This is known to regulate your body's production of chemicals and hormones that contribute to a positive state of mind, as well as helping you sleep well at night. Even if it's overcast outside, the light is still going to help you. Also, I think that feeling trapped inside your house gives you a feeling of powerlessness, which is sucky. Take back the outdoors and tell the weather report to stick it where the sun don't shine (Ha ha! That was a good one).

Exercise. You've heard it a thousand times before, I'm sure, and it's still true! It really does work, even if it's just a little exercise.


Listen to music that grabs you by the butt and makes you move. You know best what music you like. I'd say that the middle of winter (as in NOW) is the perfect time to invest in a few new CD's or downloads. It's waaay cheaper than antidepressants and doesn't have the nasty side effects.

Eat clean. Too much sugar (especially high fructose corn syrup, also known as "evil itself"), refined carbohydrates, and artificial ingredients will make your body sad and confused. Come on, the holidays are over and it's time to clean up your system. Drink lots of clean water and green tea, and eat whole foods that nourish you.

Minimize your exposure to outrageous weather reports. It's good to know what's going on (if you're planning to drive somewhere and a snowstorm is on its way, for instance), but dwelling on doomsday scenarios and the kind of emotionally charged language that weather and news reporters are now using is just contributing to people's anxiety, sadness and a feeling of helplessness. Don't fall for it!

Don't forget that you really are the one who's in charge of how you feel and how you experience each day. Take good care of yourself!

Ben Stiller

I was recently inspired by Ben Stiller's arms in the movie, "Tropic Thunder" to up my weights at the gym. If you haven't seen it, it's a really fun movie and Ben Stiller is in great shape. In fact, even if you have seen it, watch it again! It never hurts to see a terrific movie, right?
Anyway, I've been doing weight-training workouts in a more fitness-oriented way (rather than traditional bodybuilding) for a while now and it's time for a few changes. What I've been doing is based on Giant Sets of six or more exercises that work the whole body, using light weights and high reps (20). It went something like this:

Do 20 reps of each exercise with no more than 30 seconds rest in between. Then
repeat the entire sequence 2 or 3 times:

Lateral pulldowns (for upper back)
Squats (legs and core)
Dumbbell chest press (chest, shoulders)
Lunges (legs)
Dumbbell shoulder press (shoulders)
Crunches (abs)
Bicep curl (biceps)
Dips (triceps, chests)

This is great for general fitness and cardio work. It also gets you out of the gym faster than a more traditional bodybuilding workout because you're jumping from one exercise to another that uses entirely different muscle groups. Your heart and lungs are going like crazy the whole time, but your muscles still get a chance to recover.
Great for getting leaner, but if you want to increase your muscle size and look like Ben Stiller, you'll want to do less repetitions with heavier weights.
So I've decided that for a while, I'm going to go a little heavier, but still keep my reps no less than 8 (I am a 51 year old lady, after all, and the days of lifting super heavy are soooo over), which means that my poundage can't be super high, just higher than it was when I was doing 20 repetitions of each exercise. I'm also going to bring back the "pyramid system" that I used in my bodybuilding days. Here is an example of how it works. You can do this with most exercises:

Set 1, use a weight that you can comfortably do 15 reps with.
Set 2, increase the weight and do 12 reps.
Set 3, increase again and do 10 reps.
Set 4, increase again and do 8.
Set 5, decrease back to the weight you used in Set 2 and do 15 reps.

And, voila! Your lats are all pumped up!

For now, I'm sticking with the Giant Set arrangement that works the whole body because it's just such a great time-saver. But if I really wanted to grow new muscle, I'd arrange it like this:

Day 1, pushing exercises (those that work chest, shoulders, and triceps)
Day 2, pulling exercises (those that work back and biceps)
Day 3, legs
Each day would also have 3 sets of ab work at the end of the other training.
Day 4, rest

Poor old bodybuilders! It's a rough game and people can take it too far. But it's good to use some of their exercise philosophy where it's helpful. The best thing is to mix it all up and not do the same routine year after year.