I'm not a big fan of the words "health food" because I feel that ideally, most everything we eat should be healthy. Unfortunately, as a culture, we have become so far removed from what real food should taste like that anything that's really good for us is thought of as boring, bland, etc...
I tend to straddle the fence between eating pure, unadulterated food and pure, junky, crappy food. But one thing is for sure, when I eat a bunch of junk, my body starts craving something healthy and wholesome. It is usually at that point that I make something with one or more of these healthy ingredients.
1) Short-grain brown rice: I had tried long-grain brown rice several times before first trying the shorter variety. I never could get into the longer-grain kind because they always came out mushy and gross. When I first tried the short-grain rice at a Chinese restaurant, I instantly fell in love with its chewy texture and almost nutty taste. I will even go as far as to say I prefer it to white rice. If you haven't tried it, give it a whirl.
2) Spinach: Before I started drinking green smoothies, the only time I really ate spinach was when I made a Nigerian dish with it or ate spinach salad. Now it's appearing more and more in my consciousness. You can't go wrong with this powerful vegetable
3) Kashi Go Lean Crunch + Vanilla Silk Soy: I list these two together because this is my breakfast staple. The combo is so perfect together. Kashi's cereals are filling and healthy but I tend to have to soak the Crunch for a little while as the grains are quite hard and might be detrimental to my dental work.
4) Plain Greek Yogurt: I love the thickness and creaminess of this yogurt. It's also slightly tart so I love the fact that I can control the level of sweetness by adding a touch of honey. I usually will cut up some fresh fruits like apples, peaches, or mangoes in the yogurt with a few walnuts or almonds. YUM!
Anyway, I just wanted to share some of my favorites. What are your favorite health foods? Do share, I always needs suggestions!
Happy Eating!
Lara.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Zumba!!!!!!!!!!!
So, as I mentioned in the previous post, this past week, I decided to branch out of my gym and kickboxing rut and try something new. For the past couple of years, every other month, I would go to the website of a local Dallas dance/pilates studio (www.movestudio.com) and browse through their list of classes thinking I would some day join. Well, last week, I did that and noticed that they had a one week trial for unlimted classes at $15 for the whole week and icing on cake, they also had a Zumba class. Now I'd tried Zumba once before but did not particularly enjoy it. It was held in a small martial arts gym with navy blue carpets in the exercise room. Seriously, who exercises on carpet? It lacked a lot of energy and so while I got a good workout, I wasn't particularly interested in going back.
Well, when I saw this studio had a Zumba class, I decided to check it out. If you haven't already heard about Zumba, it's a cardio dance routine that combines latin, reggae, hip hop, etc dance with fun, funky music. Check out this link for an example:
SO, last Sunday, I signed up for the one week trial and went to the studio. It was a calm, quiet, really zen studio which I immediately felt comfy in. This particular zumba class was held by a first time teacher. She said it would be a non-verbal class so we basically had to follow her cues which took some getting used to, particularly since she was sometimes off beat and my body was trying to do its own thing, but overall, I got an awesome workout and left sweaty and sore.
On Tuesday, I tried another Zumba class held by another instructor with a coworker I convinced to join me. That was mega fun. The music was great, she threw in some country line dancing, reggae, jive, etc, and her movements were spot on with the music so I will definately keep going back to that. Then on Thursday, I went for what was described as a Cardio Latin dance class which was taught by this big, burly man who immediately told us the dancing was modeled after Arthur Murray's dance classes. Needless to say, I spent the whole hour spinning around in circles trying to figure out what the hell he was doing. My coworker and I decided we didn't care too much for that one. It was very ballroomish and wasn't what I was looking for. Silver lining: I still got a good workout(and a few dizzy spells) just from trying to keep up.
Afterwards, on our way out, we noticed a hip-hop class ending. It looked like a lot of fun and my friend and I decided to stay for the next class which was hip-hop level 2. Whew! We were already sore and tired but decided to milk our one week trial. That class was HARD! It was highly choreographed and the tiny a$$ instructor wanted us doing floor work. At one point, I had the class cracking up because I told her I had to get off the floor piece by piece, not bouncing off it like she was doing. Thankfully, I wasn't the only one who couldn't get on and off the floor like a limber teenage street dancer so she modified the moves. By the time we left that night at 9:30pm, all either of us wanted to do was go home, shower and sleep!!!!
So, I've decided to stick to just the Zumba. I'll go twice a week on Tuesdays and Sundays. The classes are incredibly pricey but they are worth the extra workout and fun. After all, if I was to hire a personal trainer, I'd be paying at least $50/session and with this, I'm paying about $11/class so... I'm frugal(read: cheap) but I will just have to blindly go into this one and keep telling myself that the end justifies the means.
Anyone else try Zumba? What are your thoughts?
Till next time,
XoXo
Lara
Well, when I saw this studio had a Zumba class, I decided to check it out. If you haven't already heard about Zumba, it's a cardio dance routine that combines latin, reggae, hip hop, etc dance with fun, funky music. Check out this link for an example:
SO, last Sunday, I signed up for the one week trial and went to the studio. It was a calm, quiet, really zen studio which I immediately felt comfy in. This particular zumba class was held by a first time teacher. She said it would be a non-verbal class so we basically had to follow her cues which took some getting used to, particularly since she was sometimes off beat and my body was trying to do its own thing, but overall, I got an awesome workout and left sweaty and sore.
On Tuesday, I tried another Zumba class held by another instructor with a coworker I convinced to join me. That was mega fun. The music was great, she threw in some country line dancing, reggae, jive, etc, and her movements were spot on with the music so I will definately keep going back to that. Then on Thursday, I went for what was described as a Cardio Latin dance class which was taught by this big, burly man who immediately told us the dancing was modeled after Arthur Murray's dance classes. Needless to say, I spent the whole hour spinning around in circles trying to figure out what the hell he was doing. My coworker and I decided we didn't care too much for that one. It was very ballroomish and wasn't what I was looking for. Silver lining: I still got a good workout(and a few dizzy spells) just from trying to keep up.
Afterwards, on our way out, we noticed a hip-hop class ending. It looked like a lot of fun and my friend and I decided to stay for the next class which was hip-hop level 2. Whew! We were already sore and tired but decided to milk our one week trial. That class was HARD! It was highly choreographed and the tiny a$$ instructor wanted us doing floor work. At one point, I had the class cracking up because I told her I had to get off the floor piece by piece, not bouncing off it like she was doing. Thankfully, I wasn't the only one who couldn't get on and off the floor like a limber teenage street dancer so she modified the moves. By the time we left that night at 9:30pm, all either of us wanted to do was go home, shower and sleep!!!!
So, I've decided to stick to just the Zumba. I'll go twice a week on Tuesdays and Sundays. The classes are incredibly pricey but they are worth the extra workout and fun. After all, if I was to hire a personal trainer, I'd be paying at least $50/session and with this, I'm paying about $11/class so... I'm frugal(read: cheap) but I will just have to blindly go into this one and keep telling myself that the end justifies the means.
Anyone else try Zumba? What are your thoughts?
Till next time,
XoXo
Lara
Back after a small hiatus...
Behold! Your prodigal blogger is back! I didn't go anywhere, my mind has just been in a million different places and trying to chill out enough to gather my thoughts has proven quite difficult. But, the good thing about having a blog is that it calls and nags at you till you finally sit down and put down all those posts you've had swimming in your head. SO, here I am.
The past two weeks have been interesting, weight wise. My weight has fluctuated around 230 lbs. I have been gaining and losing the same couple of pounds every other day. I've seen 228, 229 and 230, and 232 on the scale. My WW weight last week was 230lbs. The week before, it was 232 lbs. Yesterday, I went over to a friends and had a couple of drinks, some chips, gumbo and crab legs. The food was great but far saltier than I've grown accustomed to. This morning, the scale registered at 232 lbs. I know a lot of it is water retention so I'm attemping to combat that today before my weigh-in tomorrow. I also had sushi on Friday at a sushi buffet(all you can eat) so needless to say, I've been doing tons of salt lately.
I've also been in and out of tracking. I've gotten better about it but by Wednesday usually, I start slipping. Personally, for me, I know I have only one of two choices when it comes to whether or not I'll lose weight: I either have to track religiously or cook my own food. If I eat out and don't track, I'm in deep doodoo. So which is it going to be, Lara?
Anyway, I've also tried a few new things exercise wise. I'll write more about them in my next post.
Ciao!
Lara
The past two weeks have been interesting, weight wise. My weight has fluctuated around 230 lbs. I have been gaining and losing the same couple of pounds every other day. I've seen 228, 229 and 230, and 232 on the scale. My WW weight last week was 230lbs. The week before, it was 232 lbs. Yesterday, I went over to a friends and had a couple of drinks, some chips, gumbo and crab legs. The food was great but far saltier than I've grown accustomed to. This morning, the scale registered at 232 lbs. I know a lot of it is water retention so I'm attemping to combat that today before my weigh-in tomorrow. I also had sushi on Friday at a sushi buffet(all you can eat) so needless to say, I've been doing tons of salt lately.
I've also been in and out of tracking. I've gotten better about it but by Wednesday usually, I start slipping. Personally, for me, I know I have only one of two choices when it comes to whether or not I'll lose weight: I either have to track religiously or cook my own food. If I eat out and don't track, I'm in deep doodoo. So which is it going to be, Lara?
Anyway, I've also tried a few new things exercise wise. I'll write more about them in my next post.
Ciao!
Lara
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