Picture Breakfast

This morning my husband--a photographer--shared with me a site (http://www.jpgmag.com/)  that is sponsoring a contest for people to enter pictures of breakfast.  Some of them are very art-y and do not even include food!

But I found it fascinating to see what people all around the world have for breakfast.  Some are hearty meals, some are on lovely plates, and many are just busy people drinking coffee in their car or at their computer.  There are eggs and pancakes and franks and beans.  There are boxes of donuts and platters of pastry.  There are muffins and waffles and plates of fruit.  Some people are eating in their dining room and others in restaurants.  Some have beautifully decorated place settings and others are eating on the go.

Coffee definitely dominates.  Eggs are abundant, as well as cereal (typical in American breakfasts).  Some of the pictures are quirky and some are not even of humans!  That just shows what you get when you leave things open to interpretation.

This one was my favorite because it looks healthy and colorful and filling.  It's titled "decadent breakfast" and it's submitted by David Province.

Check out the photos and see what you think.

What does breakfast look like to you?

Donate Your Jeans for a Good Cause

If you're like many women (myself included) you have some jeans stashed away in your closet, hoping to fit back into them one day.



Maybe you know you won't fit back into them but you just wish you would.



Maybe you associate them with memories of a time when you were younger (and more fit).



Maybe by the time you do fit back into them, straight legs (or acid-washed or bejeweled pockets or seams down the front) will not be in style any longer!



Here's a great idea: Donate your jeans to your favorite charity! It'll help clear your clutter, and give someone else a pair of jeans they can use right now :)



Hop on over to JeansForGood.com and see Stephanie explain more.



Here's the badge I proudly post to announce "I am getting rid of my skinny jeans"


Mine are going to the Belleville women's shelter where I hope someone likes wearing jeans that fit way low down on the hips.... I decided I don't!

5 Warning Signs You Are Sabotaging Your Diet

If you've been on a diet for weeks-or maybe years-and are not losing any weight, you may be sabotaging your diet by sneaking in calories unknowingly, and skipping out on healthy nutrients your body needs. Are you engaging in the following behaviors that are keeping the weight on?

1. Sneaking treats to reward yourself for weight loss:
Once you've been following a low-calorie diet for a while you might feel like you deserve a reward! Unfortunately we are a society that rewards ourselves with food, so you might just hand yourself a candy bar or a cookie because you've been so "good". This may undo all the calories you went without during the rest of the day in your concerted effort to lose weight. Thinking "just this one won't hurt" is only fooling yourself.

The fix: Consider giving yourself a day or two each week where you can choose a treat, and stick strictly to your lower-calorie plan the other 5 or 6 days.

2. Not knowing how many calories are in what you eat: If you aren't used to reading the label on every food you eat (or looking it up on the internet) you may have a vastly different calorie intake than you think you do. One co-worker I used to lunch with was convinced she needed to be on an 800 calorie diet to lose weight-but she was actually eating twice that.She just did not know how many calories were in the foods she was eating, and she wasn't a very educated guesser.

The fix: Be aware of what is in the foods you eat by reading up on labels, restaurants, and fast food items that provide you with this information.

3. Skipping meals because you believe it saves calories: It's so important to keep fueling your body with energy at least every four to five hours. If you skip lunch and think you'll just wait until dinner time, stop and think about how often that actually happens. More often than not, we get too hungry to wait and sabotage our diet by grabbing something quick when we're desperate-as a result, it's usually something high in calories.

The fix: Be sure and take a break at 8 am, 12 noon and 6 pm (or thereabouts) to give yourself a nutritious boost of energy. If you really aren't hungry or don't have time, use a meal replacement beverage or bar to give you the calories, vitamins, and minerals your body needs to get you through the next several hours.

4. Shunning fruits, juices, and other nutrient dense foods to save calories: I know a lot of women who will skip the oj at breakfast time to save 60 calories, but will ignore the 100 calories they're drinking in a glass of wine with dinner.

The fix: Make room in your low-calorie diet for fruits, low-fat dairy products, and other foods that do contain calories, but also provide a concentrated source of vitamins, minerals, or protein. Do away first with those that aren't contributing anything necessary to your diet.

5. Avoiding the scale: If you find yourself avoiding the scale for long periods of time, you know you're due for a weigh-in. Putting your head in the sand won't make your weight gain go away!

The fix: Get on the scale right now and take a good hard look at where you're at and where you want to be. What do you need to do to get there? Sit down with a pencil and paper and write down just one goal you feel comfortable with that you can take action on this week: having fruit for dessert, eating 3 meals a day, starting an after-dinner walking routine, or something else that is reasonable and simple.

If you've been trying to lose weight for a long time, and failing despite what seems to be endless dieting, take assessment of what you are really doing instead of what you wish you were doing!One step at a time, you can get back on that healthy eating plan you were aiming for in the beginning.

If you really can't figure out why the weight is not coming off, submit your questions to Ask The Diet Coach at http://askthedietcoach.blogspot.com/ and we'll figure it out together!

Put the Brakes on the Junk Food

If you like to treat yourself once in a while to a sweet--cake, cookies, candy bar, soda, ice cream--here's an eye-opening fact about the average American diet: An article in a recent scientific journal published data showing that one-third of the calories came from so-called junk foods!

Think about how often you have a snack like a cupcake or a handful of chips--foods that taste good but don't provide you with much in the way of nutrition...just many extra calories! Could you replace these once in a while with a healthier choice: a piece of fruit or some string cheese or a bowl of cereal or peanut butter on a few crackers?

You'll be saving lots of calories and improving your diet by increasing the nutrients you take in.

Remember that an average diet contains 2100-2400 calories: this means junk food is contributing 700-800 calories a day in many cases.

If you can save 300 calories a day (not a difficult feat, considering it means giving up less than half your junk food) you can start losing nearly 3 pounds a month--losing about 35 pounds at the end of a year, without going on a diet!

Cheap Junk Food Sabotages Efforts for Healthy Eating

This week's Time headlines announce how difficult it is to eat healthy on a dollar. The article explains (falsely) that for $1 you can buy just 175 calories of fruit, 250 calories of vegetables, 875 calories of soda, and 1200 calories of potato chips. I can't buy ANY of this for a dollar.

A bag of chips, which provides about 1200 calories, usually costs over $3 at any store I've ever shopped in. A 20-oz bottle of soda has about 220 calories but I've never seen one for less than a dollar--so 4 times this much would cost $4 (about what a cup of fruit or 2 cups of vegetables would cost).

Whoever wrote this needs to recalculate the calories purchased for their dollar.
And, by the way, instead of a bottle of soda, what would be wrong with eating a peach or an apple? Instead of a bag of chips providing little nutrition, wouldn't 2 cups of raw vegetables be quite a bit more filling, if not just more nutritious (even if one was only interested in feeling full?)

No, I think the point is that people would rather spend their money on chips, sodas, and candy bars (along with tatoos and ring tones for their phone) than to spend it on some chicken they have to cook, some rice they have to boil, a package of frozen vegetables for some vitamins, and some medication to control their blood pressure that they don't feel like they should have to pay for.

Where do you weigh in on this? Would you rather spend your money on things that contribute to your health, or something providing a fix for an immediate gratification?

Quote for the day

If someone tells you your house is dusty ... hand them a dustrag!

Help for Overweight Teens

My colleague Suzane sent me this list of 100 great resources for overweight teens.
Check out websites, books, even tv shows to help a teen you know to start getting into better shape. Find resources, fitness information, and recipes for a well-rounded plan to start eating right, becoming more active, and moving toward a healthier weight!

http://www.physicaltherapyassistantschools.org/100-tools-and-resources-to-help-your-obese-teen/