Tips Tuesday!

Welcome to "Tips Tuesday!" 

Okay, through my Human Anatomy & Physiology class I'm taking online through BYUI and the superfluous amount of Netflix documentaries I've watched since I've been home, I've learned all of this cool stuff about the science behind health! Health takes so much discipline and consistency. However, I have also learned that progress occurs much faster through celebrating successes rather than focusing on failures. So here's some tips that I've gathered...


1. Don't judge a food by its nutritional facts. But also, judge a food by its nutritional facts.

Just because something says that it has 0g of trans fat doesn't actually mean it has 0g of trans fat!

So trans fat is terrible for you. We've all heard this, right? But WHY? Well here's a cool video that describes it on a scientific and molecular level, in simple terms.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8WJ2KENlK0

Trans fats are rarely found in nature. Since nature rarely creates them, nature cannot break them down properly. Why use them then? Well, there are many things that have been created by man for convenience. For example, most peanut butters have trans fats in them (labeled as hydrogenated oil.) If you've ever seen natural peanut butter, you'll notice that gross looking oil on the top that separates. That is unsaturated fats separating from saturated fats. Peanut butter that has hydrogenated oil is made so that separation won't happen, which is nifty, and it tastes better most of the time, BUT most of the important nutrients that come from monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats (the "good fats" found in nuts and avocados, etc.) are taken out.

The FDA requirement for food labels is that if something has <.5g of trans fat per serving, they can round down and just say zero. This explains why many serving sizes are so small. (I mean, who eats 7 chips, right?)
SO HOW ON EARTH ARE WE SUPPOSED TO KNOW WHAT WE ARE PUTTING IN OUR BODIES??? Well, we can either not eat anything unless it comes from our backyard OR, slightly more realistic, we can look at the labels. If what you are eating has anything with the word "hydrogenated" in it, STAY AWAY. That is just trans fat. Being Mr. Sneaky McSneakerson. Or Mrs. Or maybe the whole McSneakerson family going by their hydrogenated nom de plume. Bleh.

For more on trans fats, here's some cool articles
https://healthyforgood.heart.org/Eat-smart/Articles/Trans-Fat
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/high-blood-cholesterol/in-depth/trans-fat/art-20046114
https://authoritynutrition.com/why-trans-fats-are-bad/

2. Don't eat vampire foods.


What I mean by this is, don't eat things that last forever. (Or sparkle, for that matter. Heaven knows what that does to your intestines...) Foods that are good for you generally die, rot, and decay after long periods of time. As much as I love my chex mix, not much is going to happen to it if I leave it in my cupboard for 6 months. It would sort of be like when you find a 5 dollar bill in your old pants pockets. Only this 5 dollar bill can lead to heart disease and obesity... ;)
General rule of thumb, eat more plants and things that you COULD grow in your backyard if your life were put together and you didn't live in Orange County. (I realize those are not valid excuses, just humor me, okay?)

3. REPLACE, don't RESTRICT!

Eating well has been part of my life pretty much always and forever, but I definitely still like unhealthy things. Why? Why do I crave Oreos when I know eating them won't help me out at all. This happens because our bodies are engineered to like lots of calories as conveniently as possible. #ThrowbackTuesday to when it was every man for himself and the more calories you could eat, the longer you lived. The problem is nowadays, high calories usually equals low nutritional value, and unfortunately very tasty. I would eventually love to be the person that eats 100% clean and cooks every meal and whose meal planning is on fleek. (Is that even still cool?) But realistically, it is going to be a while before I get there.
My mantra in the mean time is REPLACE, don't RESTRICT.

We live in the age of Pinterest and Google! There are so many recipes to try, my recipe board on Pinterest is literally called, "Food I'll Probably Never Make" because there are just too many things.

When I was living in Missouri as an LDS missionary, I remember one day my mission companion and I saw this really weird looking fruit and we just decided to try it! It was so fun! And delicious! Food can be fun. Mealtime can be an adventure! With a plethora of resources to help you, you can look at what you have in the fridge and then see what you can buy to add fresh fruits and veggies, and whole grains to your diet.

When you are excited to try something new, you don't even think about those Doritos you almost bought or the ice cream calling your name. It takes practice and time. Restriction just leads to binging and sadness. Replacing leads to a change of lifestyle. THERE ARE NO QUICK FIXES. Nothing lasting is yielded by anything instant.


Well, thanks for reading this! I hope this can help you. I don't want to be that health blog that makes you feel guilty for even breathing the same air as cows. Or causes you to look at yourself like you're one of those people in Wall-E who lives in space and just sits all day and can't walk. The point of this post is that things that matter take time, effort, and practice.

Yoga Camp Day 1- I Accept

So YOGA.

There was a time on my LDS mission that I was really stressed out. (Okay so like the whole 18 months...) But from about 9 months to 12 months, my missionary companion that I had been assigned to really loved yoga. There's a really great YouTube channel called Yoga With Adriene. This certain mission companion's mom had downloaded some of the videos from that channel and put them on a DVD, and she was given permission to use them while exercising every morning. At first, I was hesitant and would just do my thing while she did hers. But after a while, I joined sometimes, and learned how to love it. We focused a lot on cardio in my mission, so we didn't do yoga very often, but I learned that it was something I wanted include in my life.

So now here I am! I get to do as much yoga as I want!

I decided to start with the YOGA CAMP - 30 DAY HOME PRACTICE, which turned out to be a very good choice for me. I hope y'all can find some joy from taking care of yourself as well. I've found that yoga is great exercise, but also helps me feel more connected to my body, mind, and spirit. While I believe that other forms of exercise are important to have in addition to yoga, there are some serious benefits to including it into your routine.

What I absolutely LOVE about Yoga With Adriene is she has her practices organized according to what you need. For example, if I only have 15 minutes, I can still do a practice. If I need help winding down before bed, she has a playlist for that too! The possibilities are endless, I hope you check it out!

Remember to be nice to yourself!

YUMMY VEGGIE BOWLS!

   OKAY so the other day I was watching a couple of documentaries on Netflix. "Fed Up" and "Food Choices." If you ever need motivation to eat well, I highly recommend those two documentaries! I was scared straight... straight into the local Sprouts to buy some healthy food. My goal was to have as many colors in my meal as possible. This is sort of a recipe, but I didn't really measure everything exactly. In the future, I will be sure to measure out more exactly and take more pictures:)

These bowls can be made with any variety of vegetables & grains, but I used:

-Carrots

-Red onion

-Brussels sprouts

-White sweet potato (they are a thing, I promise--it was an accidental purchase, but they are pretty yummy!) (about 1/3 cup maybe?)

-Red bell pepper (1/2)

-Seeds of Change quinoa and brown rice with garlic (1 package)

-Green lentils (1/2 cup)

Step 1: cook the lentils (I used half a cup)

Step 2: Start cutting and cooking veggies

It's best to start with what will take the longest. I started with the sweet potatoes, onions and bell peppers. Then I actually microwave steamed the carrots and brussels sprouts before throwing them in with the other veggies and oil to save time. Not ideal, but I was in a rush.

Step 3: Microwave the quinoa and brown rice

Since I would be cooking it more later, I only microwaved it for 60 seconds.

Step 4: Combine grains

Put it on low heat and wait for veggies to be done. Add spices--garlic salt, salt, taco seasoning, or whatever sounds good to you!

Step 5: Forget to take pictures because your little sister is going to be late for dance and can't find her ballet shoes so you have to go find yours.

Step 6: Mix together in a medium bowl, add cilantro and lime juice.

Step 7: ENJOY!

Welcome to My Blog!: An Introduction

I recently returned from serving an 18-month mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. While I was out in the foreign lands of Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Kansas (*wink wink*) I learned a lot about myself, and it was a wonderful experience. I learned how to treat others better, and see them how God sees them. I learned how to find joy in the journey and how to choose happiness! There was one thing I learned that I was not expecting--but I was SO blessed to learn it. I learned that our bodies are truly gifts from our Heavenly Father. That being said, when we treat our bodies with love, it increases our spirituality and overall happiness.

"Health" is such a broad term, and I understand that it means something different for every single person on this earth. Now that I am home, I have a new world of possibilities concerning what I can do to help my body to be happy. This blog was created for the purpose of documenting my journey, while perhaps helping and encouraging others who are bogged down by the overwhelming magnitude of the many options for health in the world. The plan is just to take it one day at a time. Hopefully this blog will increase my feeling of accountability as well :)

HAPPY HEALTHING!,
Kiara