Eating is more about you, it's about the world.

When most of us begin to diet or be more aware of our food intake, our purpose is to improve ourselves.

However, few of us change our diets to make them more friendly to our earth.

Why is that? Why is our way of thinking all about "me"? And not about "us" or "the world"?

The nice thing however, is that we can eat for both. We can achieve our body composition goals while still bettering our planet.

And, eating "Green" as it should be termed, does not have to mean being a vegetarian or only paying for high-priced speciality foods.

You can make foods choices that are friendly to our environment that are easy, but that will also help you change your body composition for the better.

For example:

When choosing fruits and vegetables - become a Localvore. Choose those that are found in your immediate area and that vary with the seasons. Buy from local farmers, support Farmer's markets, read the label on the fruits and vegetables in your grocery store and try to buy those that come from no farther than a 150 mile radius. The benefit of farm-fresh products, is that they are usually less preserved, fresher, and then organic. This equates to better taste as well!

When choosing meat, poulty, and eggs - again, buy those that come from local farms or that support animal-friendly farm practices such as free-range animals and no hormone useage. For example, the goat yogurt that I eat comes from a very animal-friendly farm.

REDWOOD HILL FARM & CREAMERY, based in California makes the goat products that I choose to eat. I recently emailed them to tell them how much I love their products and this is what they had to say:

Thank you so much for your wonderful comments! They are the best compliments that we can get! We are so happy to know that our products have met your expectations. It warms our heart when we get comments like yours. Lets us know we are on the right track:)

We have over 300 goats and they all have different names because they all have different personalities. They are amazing members if our family thatwe treat with love and respect and we can taste it in the yogurts, cheeses and kefir.

Yes, you read that right: this farm loves their goats so much that they've named them and call them family! They respect their goats, and the goats respect them back.

When choosing animal foods, like goat dairy, it's best to find companies and farms like Redwood Hill who really care. This translates to less animal cruelty in our world to produce foods that we love and benefit from.

When choosing all other foods - remember that you're looking out for the sustainability of our world. You're avoiding overpackaging, which contributes to waste, you're saying no to chemicals and additives, and you're not supporting cruelty to animals. Buy purchasing earth-friendly, organic, farm-raised, and natural foods, you're helping your waistline while preserving the world for our future population.

For the love of yogurt.

It's been years since I've been able to eat yogurt, or any cow's milk products for that matter, but just recently I've discovered something that makes this possible again.

My intolerance to cow's dairy started as a child (about 10 years old). My father used to force me to drink my milk for breakfast, but I always whined and complained that it make me feel terrible and hurt my stomach. But, he wanted my bones to grow strong and figured milk was the answer.

When I was old enough to choose my own morning beverage, it definitely wasn't cow's milk. Basically, I haven't drank cow's milk since I became a teen and I'm MUCH happier and less bloated.

I did, however, still enjoy cottage cheese and yogurt. One of my favorite high-protein combinations was cottage cheese with vanilla whey protein powder and slivered almonds. Another I enjoyed was plain yogurt with ground flax seeds and vanilla whey protein powder. But... as of about 6 years ago, my body just stopped being tolerant to all dairy, no matter what form it was in. And, the issue wasn't just lactose, because I tried all the Lactaid and low-lactaid products you could imagine (i.e. mozzarella) and it did no good. I really suspect the issue is the casein milk protein because if I eat anything with that in it, I get a ragging headache and intense bloating. Not fun. Whey protein is only a problem if it's not highly purified and contains added digestive enzymes. The brand I use and recommend to my cow's milk sensitive clients is Dymatize Elite Whey Protein Isolate. It tastes great and doesn't come with the gas and bloat that other brands of whey can sometimes cause.

Some people feel that adult on-set allergies are not really due to our body becoming intolerant to a food, but to the fact that our food supply is completely overprocessed and contains more preservatives than it can handle. I tend to agree. For example, my issues with dairy became worse when I moved to the US, versus only somewhat terrible when I lived in Canada (who has different milk processing methods).

In any matter, I don't have to worry about cow's milk any more (or miss yogurt). I've now discovered the wonder of goat milk . Through this wonderful little animal, I can now enjoy goat cheese on my salads and omletes, and goat yogurt for a mid-day snack (with nuts and nutritional yeast :) ).

If your body really has an issue with cow's milk, I encourage you to give Goat's Milk products a try. They really taste good and give you the chance to love dairy again without the discomfort.

Don't sit to exercise! or, Seated machines should be banned!

(Warning, this blog post contains my rant of the week.)

Picture this: Your day begins as you swing your legs out of bed, hit the shower and make breakfast. You then, walk outside to your car to drive your regular 20 to 30 minute commute to work. Once at work, you walk about 2 minutes to get in the door of your office and sit yourself down at your desk to begin your work day.

For the next 4 hours, you sit with little movement other than to fill up your coffee mug and visit the bathroom. During lunch, you either get up to get your meal from the lunch room and eat it seated at the lunch tables or your desk. Then, you continue to sit for the next 4 to 5 hours until your work day is over.

Once your day is done, you get back in your car, and drive yourself to the gym. After changing into your workout clothes, you walk to the cardio equipment and sit down on one of the bikes to peddle your heart rate up for about 10 minutes. You then head to the weight machines and sit down to perform seated hamstring curls, seated shoulder press, seated ab crunches, seated lat pulldowns and whatever other seated machine you can figure out how to use.

After this vigorous workout, you change and drive yourself home. At home, you quickly throw together a meal for dinner and then eat it either sitting in front of your T.V. or your computer. Besides taking a shower, you continue in this seated position until it's time to lay yourself down to bed.
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Notice anything repetative in this usual day? Well, what I was trying to point out was that this "demonstrative" person sits for more hours a day than they actually move their body in an upright position. And, what's even more frustrating, is that this is how 80% of our population lives their lives everyday!

We've got to stop this seated madness! Sitting all day long (even at the gym!) is one of the main reasons people struggle with thier body weight and have increased skeletal-muscular issues! But, it doesn't have to be like this!!

Yes, I understand that many of us can't change the fact that we have a desk job, where the majority of our working time is spent sitting. But, we don't have to exasperate this problem by mimicking the rest of our day in this same position!

To start: STEP AWAY FROM THE SEATED EXERCISE MACHINES!!!! If I had it my way, those things would be completely banned from any exercise facility. You DON'T need to sit to exercise your hamstrings, shoulders, chest, etc. All of these same movements that you see locked into a machine can be performed in a supine, prone or standing position with dumbbells, bars, bands and balls! For example, if you're doing the lat pulldown exercise, why not stand while performing the motion? This way you activate your glutes, abs, and legs to keep you from being pulled up and you have to work harder to pull the weight down since your knees aren't locked under a knee-pad. Trust me, I do this everytime I lift and wouldn't sit down if you paid me to do so.... If you feel uncomfortable doing any of these exercise, enlist the help of a reputable certified personal trainer or learn from the many excellent books and websites on the topic.

Next: Increase upright activity in your daily routine as much as possible. For example, if you can't ride a bike to work, or even walk, start your day a bit earlier with exercise around your house or neighborhood. Even something as simple as starting your morning with a 15 minute walk is better than no exercise at all!

Then, at lunch, skip your eating time and replace it with a walk around the block. If you don't have a block to walk around, then walk the stairs for 15 minutes (your building has those, I promise).

After your evening workout, spend less time sitting. Yes, you should sit to spend time with your family at the dinner table, but afterwards, spend it doing things that can require you to stand, like sweeping the house, doing laundry, folding laundry, pulling weeds from your flower bed, etc. Anything but spending more time seated is the most ideal situation.
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I've become very passionate about this anti-sitting crusade because for my dietetic internship I have to sit at a desk for 8 hours a day. So, during my day, I get up as much as possible to fill up my stainless steel water bottle, tea mug or visit the bathroom. I also take a walking break to cruise the block before lunch, at lunch and before my day is done. In the mornings, I start my day earlier so that I can either get to the gym (no seated exercises), do a bootcamp class at the track, run stadiums at the track, or do exercises in my bedroom. After work, I workout again, doing either a workout at the gym, track, or at the local yoga studio (the pilates V-pose is one of my challenges to master!).

Overall, I've learned that even with an 8-hour desk job, your life does not have to be completely seated. There are so many things you can do to get away from this detrimental lifestyle; it only takes a few modifications, but you can do it and you'll feel better (and look better) because of it.

Now go forth and be upright like nature intended you to be!!!

Nutrition Thoughts in No Particular Order

In the last few days, I've had several phone consults with new clients. When I first start with a client, I usually try to connect via voice rather than just email so that they can completely communicate their wants, needs, experiences and goals. I feel that this is lost in the email process.

Through these conversations, I've been exposed to some common beliefs and trends among women with respect to eating and exercising for their ideal body composition (not a competiton body though, as that doesn't exist in real life anyhow unless that's all you dedicate your life to; and, if you have a family or a full-time job, that's mostly not the case). So, rather than go into excessive detail about these ideas, I'm going to list a few of them in bullet-point like my good friend Tony Gentilcore does in his blogs for the Boston Herald. Mine may not be as facetious, but I'll do my best to be somewhat as entertaining:

(Oh, and I threw in a random wedding pic because... well... I can)

1) To get the body I want, I can never eat bread again.

True and False.

Yes, white flour products are pretty much useless foods and don't need to be eaten by anyone. But, if you're really a bread-lover and you enjoy your toast in the mornings, why not reach for bread made without flour? If you've never heard of sprouted grain breads, you have to give them a try. They're much tastier than white flour or whole grain flour, and contain more protein, more vitamins and more fiber than any flour-based bread you'll find on the market.

To make these breads, the whole grains are soaked until the turn into a paste-like consistency. They then are risen and baked just like bread. The result is the whole grain without any fake vitamins or minerals to make them nutritious again.

My favorite ones are Food for Life's Ezekial 4:9 bread in Sesame and Cinnamon Raisin flavors. They're just amazing!

You'll find these products in the freezer section of the bread aisle or in the Natural Health Food section. They have to be kept frozen or refrigerated because they lack the preservatives that other breads contain. Check them out today! Whole grains are good for you and can be part of an ideal body composition diet.

2) Is it really important to eat vegetables to lose weight? What should I eat?

Yes! Most definitely.

Vegetables are low-calorie foods that can be used to fill you up during/after a meal without putting you over the caloric edge. They also are necessary for balancing out the acid-base balance in your body, which is important both for ideal health and maintenance of lean muscle tissue.

It may seem like a dauting task to eat vegetables, but they are many ways to get them into your normal eating routine:

a) Add low-calorie vegetables like cucumbers, tomatoes, mushrooms, celery, greens, peppers, and squash to any meal or snack. Even baby carrots with hummus can be a great treat.

b) Make one of your meals a salad, with proteins and a variety of vegetables of choice (don't forget to add heart-healthy olive oil dressing).

c) Create your own soups or stews with baby red potatoes or yams, carrots, celery, parsley, and onions.

d) When eating out, substitute pasta with steamed vegetables and/or a salad.

e) Drink vegetable juice like V8 or other similar products with any meal or as part of your daily snacks in conjuction with a protein source. If you prefer low-sodium products, those are available too.

f) Remember that frozen vegetables are still vegetables and can be used to help you create a quick stir-fry or add more veggies to any meal you're eating (my favorite is green peas...).

g) Make your morning eggs with spinach, cilantro and parsley. Yum!

Those are just a few ideas. Work with what you have available to you in your area and try to by local produce as much as possible. For example, in my area, squash, tomatoes, corn and cucumbers are being sold at road-side farm stands. I pick some new ones up each day and cook/eat them with every meal.

3) To lose weight, I have to eat protein with every feeding/meal.

Yes and no.

When women think protein, they often think of protein-dominant foods like chicken, fish, egg whites, and whey (or soy). Then, to incorporate that with their morning or mid-day snack seems like an undesirable task. I mean, do you really want to eat chicken 24/7?

Eating protein-containing foods is important because it helps to increase the amount of energy expended during eating (called the thermic effect of food), and promotes more satiety than eating meals or snacks without.

Thus, I do agree that it is very useful to eat a complete protein sources (originating from animal products) at your main three meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. But, when you eat meals between these three (i.e. snacks), you don't necessarily have to eat a high-protein containing pure animal-based protein source. Foods like beans (hummus, dips, whole beans, etc), yogurt, cheese and nuts can be a great choice between breakfast and lunch or lunch and dinner. They do supply your body with some of the same components as high-protein animal proteins (amino acids), and they also add things like fiber and good fats that you don't get otherwise.

So, don't lose your mind that you're not eating fish at your morning snack. You can enjoy yogurt with almonds, or red-bell peppers with olive-oil based hummus and still fill statisfied while reaching a healthy and lean body composition.

I'll continue later this week with more tips and ideas. In the meantime, if you have any thoughts or ideas in this area, I'd love to read about them.

Enjoy your holiday weekend!

Who says muscles on women aren't attractive?

To your left is a picture of my best-girl and best workout partner at my wedding a few weeks back.

She and I have been training together for more than two years and it was our love of weight-lifting that brought us together. We were always the only women in the weight room, navigating around grunting men who thought they were the kings of the room. But... as you can see by this picture, they had to give respect for the weight-lifting queens since were definitely NOT lifting anything pink or less than 5lbs.

My girl and I challenge each other every day we train. We love to see how much weight we can lift and always work the hardest we can work. The only day we play around is on "Social Saturday Mornings" when we get in some good laughs while talking with our fellow gym -lovers, male and female alike.

One of our favorite movements, and one of the reasons we have great arm development is due to an exercise called Renegade Rows: in this move you set your body into an elevated plank/pushup position holding two dumbells in your hands on the floor. One rep is counted when you complete one pushup and then one row of each arm while maintaining a rigid body in a plank/pushup position. To see an example of this, check out this great youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyHls4EKqxU (this gal has great arms too! we just add the pushup movement into this exercise which she doesn't demonstrate) As the exercise model points out in the video, this movement is also great for abdominal stability and strength; no crunches required!

Ladies, you won't get big or bulkly doing a movement like this (do we look big or bulky?). You also won't be able to get arms like we have by doing simple (and ineffective) bicep curl exercises with small pink dumbbells. Lift hard and lift heavy to really shape and define your body - muscles are sexy and will keep you healthy and fit for the rest of your life.

For more ideas of how to lift hard and heavy, check out either The New Rules of Lifting for Women, or the Women's Health Perfect Body Diet! Both include great exercise routines and very detailed pictures so that you will perform the movements correctly.

Enjoy!

Wedded Bliss

I have a really good excuse for not posting for over a month: I got married!

On August 2nd, I married the love of my life: Justin.

Justin and I met on http://www.match.com/ in 2005. After being together for a year and a half, I knew he was "the one" and proposed to him on Christmas day, 2007. (yes, I bought him an engagement ring too!)

We got married in Huntington, VT near Burlington. Ninty-five of our closest friends and family were there to witness our love for each other.

The whole day was great, but it took a lot of planning and preparation. That's why I've been MIA for so long.

Also, during the time from July 2 to the 19th, I wrapped up the last experiments for my PhD dissertation. So, now all I have to do is run the stats on the data, interpret the results and write my entire dissertation. I plan to accomplish this by January 2009.

In the meantime, after our wedding, Justin and I went to Canada for a second reception and just got home this past Monday.

Then... a day later (Wednesday), I started my dietetic internship through UMassAmherst and am now on my road to my RD status by next June.

So... I've got a lot going on, but I will be back to blogging right away. Just a few last things to tie up with the wedding (mostly bills and thank you cards) and I can get into the thick of my dissertation (the writing) and complete my RD internship.

I hope everyone has had a great summer as well and is looking to a fantastic fall.

Thanks for reading my blog!

Eric and Cass at Cressey Performance

The seminar that Eric Cressey and I gave this past Sunday at Cressey Performance was excellent. My talk was 3 and a half hours long, and Eric wrapped it up for the last hour. The crowd learned so much and we got requests to do another again in the near future. Here is a picture of us from the event. We were so co-ordinated!