Believe it our not there is a way to enjoy the holidays without overdoing it this year. You may be in turkey-coma still as you read this. You may still be snacking on leftover pumpkin pie that still lingers in the kitchen and the guilt hasn’t sunk in yet ’til sometime after monday. It’s the typical holiday routine. Probably something your used to and even comfortable with at this point, but there is actually a way to enjoy your turkey and not become one.

A few things to keep in mind it:

1. Eat to fuel, not to stuff yourself. It’s really common to think you need to starve all day because you’re heading to a dinner or party that night, but that is the worst thing you can do. You will like be ferociously hungry, eat too much and not even be able to enjoy it. So make sure before parties or family meals during the holidays to eat and eat healthy the day of.

2. Eat only what you like. If you don’t like it, don’t eat it. Unless of course your boyfriends mom is asking if you’ve tried her pumpkin pie yet or Aunt Sue slaved all day over her

3. Leave your plate 80% full. You don’t have to feel the need to take off your belt to know your satisfied. Leaving that extra room will make everything easier to digest and your eating throughout the day so it’s not like you’ll never eat again.

4. Focus on filling half of your plate with greens and veggies. I’m talking spring mix green, broccoli or green beans not so much the potatoes and starchy stuff. Keep that to about 25% of your plate. All in moderation…

5. Fill about 25% with carbs and 25% of protein, give or take. Granted you just have to get used to listening to what your body is craving and remembering how foods make you feel. Make sure to get about 3 oz of lean protein. Fish, turkey & chicken breast, eggs or even wild game such as venison.

6. Taste your dessert, don’t devour it. If you know there is going to be dessert that you will want to eat you may want to leave a little more room. A calorie is a calorie. And you don’t always have to eat a whole pie of pie or chocolate cake to get your satisfy your sweet tooth.

7. Drink lots of water. All drinks have calories or dehydrate most of the time, so you are much better off sticking to water. If you do choose eggnog, punch or coffee stick to one cup.

8. Don’t throw in the towel. We all have slip ups. We all eat too much pie or have had our fill of stuffing, but it doesn’t mean all your work is at a loss over one meal. And it doesn’t mean you have to encounter these “slip ups” every holiday. So if your feeling crappy over too much food go play a game of football or go on a long walk (on the beach if you’re in Florida ) and tomorrow you can start with a clean slate.

I’m an idealist. This can be a good thing and an absolute curse (totally inflicted upon me, by myself.) And they always say you learn more about yourself while teaching, it couldn’t be more true. Most everyone in my classes will, at the end of my spiel, look at me and ask “How do you cut calories?”, “What do you eat?” “What can & can’t I eat?” Ok, it’s not as hard as it looks and no I’m not going to direct you to Realage or Eatingwell to learn  healthy eating like it’s a science. Eating good should be good. Good and simple. So the idealist in me sees the web as a massive gift from God, full of instantaneous creative and personable resources. And as far as food is concerned, eating well is finally a beautiful thing! So I want to share with you (those attending the class and those not) a few places that keep me coming back.

101Cookbooks

We all tend to assume that cooking healthy means bland and boring. Heidi Swanson proves that philosphy to be a farse. This site is incredible for learning to work with herbs,  spices, whole grains, what goes with what and her healthy baked goods are actually good! Mainly a vegetarian feast can be found here, but that doesn’t mean you won’t find an occasion stick of butter or a need for cheese .

Sprouted Kitchen

Talk about aestically appeasing, this couple (brilliant chef and photographer duo from Cali) have created one of the most beautiful sites for food, let alone creative and fresh. Healthy sweets, the best lentil dish  ever (aka meat to vegetarians – which I no longer am, in case you were wondering) and a great french press tutorial (and  if you haven’t tried a french press you may want to check you’re pulse to see if you are indeed living and breathing.)

Have I ever mentioned coffee is good for you?

Sunday Suppers

Learning  how to cook well means together. This “art of cooking for yourself” is far from appealing to me. Family meals are memories I’m so indebted to my mom for and finally there seems to be a demand for it again. Incredibly tasty and and seemingly highly-involved cooking, this site is a great guide to cooking a meal. It’s all about cooking & eating together. And I could eat every thing on this site !

Bon Appetit

An indispensible resource for any weathered or aspiring cook. Apps are available on ipad (might just be one of the first I buy the day I have an ipad.) Or check out Epicurious, for it’s slightly-less-aestetically-appeasing iphone app equal.

Great  Free Apps:

Fooducate - Scan and rate food before you buy it. Now I really think common sense and the ability to read should be enough for us to be smart about what we eat, but hey it’s free. Watch them have this for rating  people some day…

Whole Foods Recipes – Simple, whole food. You can’t go wrong.

Jamie Oliver recipe app - What a beauty, eh?

                                                                       Bon Appetit!

Because there is so much more to living than food and fitness, I like to make this a place about all things that shape life. Music being one of them…

I can’t tell you how the sound of Diana Krall singing “The Look of Love” surrounds my head with autumn leaves and begs me to throw on a big burly sweater. I can’t explain why hearing John Mayer singing “3×5″ brings me to my naive and  unassuming state as a college freshman, or even why the chords of  “Lord, I Lift Your Name on High” faintly depresses me (due to countless Sunday nights I would let myself become quite upset about spending the last night of my weekend at church, knowing the school week was only hours away. Odd, I know.)

Music has a way of transporting us almost supernaturally. It’s a universal language that has the power to awaken the soul. A song can bring instant ease or immediate irritation. A song can make me high or make me miserable. My family has always had a deep connection to music. Awfully opinionated, but deep. Maybe it was being raised with a Dad who would come home from work just to immediately blast anything from Billy Joel to Steven Curtis Chapman, and get all  us kids wired before dinner, that marked the moods of music for me. That or it was the headphones that were on my Mom’s tummy all those 9 months. Still, ever since I was young (and to this day) my mom could tell what kind of  music I was currently listening to ( or more so, what I wasn’t listening to) just by being around me. Music is powerful and moods are the makeup of our personalities and character.

Moods are more easily altered, thoughts more quickly formed and hearts more swiftly swayed by a song than we dare say.

So here are a taste of songs that sway me.

For just making me happy to be alive…

For chilling out…

For setting me at ease…

For bringing me down to the dumps. ( Don’t get me wrong. I think his music is beautiful. It just depresses me. Don’t know why…)

For battling stressful situations. Don’t ask…

For the love of God that leaves me at a loss for words…

What songs move your moods?

Writing about “Cooking for One” has never been something I’ve been dying to do. The whole “Meal for one” craze never bit  because, well let’s be honest here, cooking for one is not nearly as fun as cooking for more than one. Whether it be 2, 4 , 6 or really any number over one (except for when you hit 30 +. Like this summer when I had my cooking class and was preparing to feed 30 mouths. Not so much fun. Quality in any catering seems afterthought for the sake of quantity. Not my kind of cooking.)

 But I do this to help you guys and “cooking healthy for one” is an area some of you have asked about.

Like I said, it’s a rare occasion when cooking alone, I get the urge to pull out all the pots and pans to cook and fork out some $30 on one solid meal that I plan to partake of in solitude. No thanks. I’d rather spend $30 on a night that consists of  sushi, a movie and coffee with the company of friends. When I do have a spare night to cook, I make something simple like roasted fish or herbed chicken stir fry along with a simple salad or roasted vegetables. And normally enough for leftovers. Cause I’m weird and I love leftovers.

 So how do you eat healthy and under $10? Simple, make the dish satisfying and sustaining. 

This meal I had last night and sat down realizing, gosh this is probably the kind of stuff people want to learn about.

A few random leftovers I had in the fridge:

 Baby Romaine Salad with carrots, celery & cucumber

&

Lime Balsamic Vinegarette : a squeeze of lime, a drizzle of balsamic vinegar & extra virgin olive oil

Cilantro Chicken Stir-fry

Avocado wedge with sea salt, pepper and a squeeze of lime

Whole grain toast

 To the side was a little bubbly (aka sparkling WATER, always drinking water – diet drinks are a joke and sugary sodas are like sucking on a lollipop during your meal.)

When eating on your own it’s easy to eat too much or too much of one type of food. So here are some things to keep in mind when concocting your solo meal.

1. Make 50% of your meal greens or veggies

2. Include lean protein lik fish, chicken, turkey, venison or tuna

3. Add fresh herbs (like cilantro, basil, oregano, italian parsely, mint), spices ( ginger, red pepper, paprika) and fresh citrus ( like a squeez or lime or lemon) to add flavor and depth to your meal.

4. Don’t snack while your cooking or just before, because it’s too easy to loose your appetite due to handfuls or pretzels or m&ms.

5. Try something new. We tend to be creatures of habit & habits are great, but try a new fish or a new recipe. New doesn’t always have to be difficult and time-consuming.

6. Pay attention to what you’re in the mood for (granted this doesn’t mean whip up kraft mac & cheese every night) but maybe one night your feeling pasta with fresh basil, lemon and some grated parmesan with a salad and another your craving roasted chicken or maybe even breakfast for dinner. Don’t be dogmatic about being healthy. Healthy should taste good.

7. Get creative with leftovers. Leftovers are sometimes my favorite, because you just open the fridge and voila, there’s dinner.

 Some ideas:

Toss last night’s roasted veggies in some greens (like baby romaine or arugula) with balsamic vinegar & extra virgin olive oil. My favorite Italian restaurant in NYC serves this as there house salad (soooooo gooood.)

Use leftover chicken meat in fajitas or leftover fish  in tacos.

Make dinner more like a meal of tapas with several small portions of leftovers: cut up  leftover frittata, chicken, some cheese and crackers, cold brown rice made into a salad. leftover grilled broccoli & garlic with lemon juice, then maybe some olives and pickles.

Though I’m not married to this “cooking for one” concept, I’ll send more meal ideas as they come…

There are times I feel like there is nothing left to say on the topic of eating better, that hasn’t already been said. I’m aware there is nothing new under the sun. Of course I realize most of you aren’t health-foodie book worms like myself and probably don’t spend your time at Books A Million browsing through the latest books on Gastronomy, that is if you choose to enter a book store at all. And likely most of you wouldn’t be spending time online catching up at  New York Grubstreet or Mark Bittman’s lastest “Opinion” on food.  At least I don’t suspect so. While there is little left new under this ever-beating Florida September Sun, this may be news to some. So here you go…

About a year ago, while training at Strala in the lovely Lower East Side of NYC, I touched a little bit on the topic of Michael Pollan’s philosophy on food. Michael Pollan is a brilliant journalist (0nce the editor of Harper’s Magazine) who’s interest in our Nation’s culture of food has exposed hidden truths of the food industry through such books as ”In the Defense of Food” and the documentary “Food Inc.” His latest book,”Food Rules,” is a collaboration of rules to eat by, for better health and a better environment.

So I want to introduce you all to some of his sensible “Food Rules”.

 # 1 Eat Food :

For a quick wrap up on this, watch my video from last year.

# 2 Don’t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as edible.

Now when I first read this I thought, “my grandmother might eat canned meat every now and then.” I think many people my age would say they’re grandparent’s are quiet accostumed and comfortable with donuts holes, Happy Meals and Lean Cuisine Weight Watcher frozen dinner. But my Great-Grandmother? That’s a different story.

When I think of the times I ate at my Great-Grandmother’s, who we called “Mommie,” meals were never light or necessarily healthy by any means. Not in South Carolina. But they certainly were memorable. I can’t think of one thing she put on my plate that wasn’t made from scratch or freshly baked: chicken and dumplings, collard greens with black-eyed peas and rice, pound cake, fried eggs and freshly baked bisquits. I can even recall  a rare occasion of Mommie cooking at my Grandma’s, making chicken and dumplings. The two argued as Mommie searched for butter, flour and baking powder, even though my Grandma insisted Bisquick would be an easier route.

Mommie is with Jesus now, so it been sometime since our family fought over the last dumpling at a family dinner. Granted southern food isn’t always “healthy” per say. She did make the best sweet iced tea, back when I would drink syrup in a cup. Typically she’d just pick up a 5lb bag of sugar and pour it into the freshly brewed tea. So not to say everything your great-grandma makes is heart healthy. But I think you get the idea.

What do you eat that your great grandma wouldn’t recognize as food?

So this video doesn’t entirely apply I just had to get it in here, cause I couldn’t get it out of my head…

Someone please tell me why we eat things we know we shouldn’t? And I’m not badgering here cause I’ve been there. I can easily go back there. I guess it’s the memory of that first bite. That initial taste that we find so satisfying and continue to eat assuming it will satisfy every craving thats lingered. And so we indulge in something maybe we shouldn’t be indulging in. Anyone that knows me knows I like good food. Real (as in actual, not artificial) good food. And I don’t mean just plant-based food, though we all could be eating more of that. I mean cheese, chocolate, bread, chicken… real food. And I’m sure most would agree. But still our culture turns time and time again to foods we just know aren’t good for us. If you saw last week’s video I have up it should make more sense why out bodies reject, or aren’t always pleased with things like ice cream and candy. Often it just makes us all the more hungry for something real.

You hear someone say, as they’re polishing off a seven layer chocolate cake (from a well-known restaurant that will remain nameless,) “This is so good, I don’t even want to know what’s in it.” Of course they don’t want to know what’s in it. Who wants to know they’re paying top dollar to consume a cake drenched in sugar-laden mayonnaise? Then it won’t be so good. So we say “I don’t want to know” though we know we should. And typically we leave feeling stuffed, exhausted and lethargic. At some point we will discover the alarming truth. Better sooner than later.

Sometime last year I posted a video on food after reading Michael Pollan’s book when I was in NYC. His book “In the Defense of Food” exposes the horrific truths of what we accept as “food” and promotes a more plant-based diet for America. Jamie Oliver has certainly done his part leading this “Food Revolution” as well. (Though it’s sad we need a food revolution, when our world first needs a revolution in Christ’s love.) Jamie Oliver, as a ”celebrity” has a large audience already and is exposing America and many parts of Europe to truths that we decide to keep hidden.

In two weeks I’ll be teaching a class on healthy eating at Victory Church here in Lakeland FL. As I’ve been brainstorming on how and what to teach I’m realizing people don’t know or necessarily want to know what is in food. So that is where we will start.

 Last week when I posted the ice cream video someone thanked me for ruining ice cream (commercial ice cream, that is – go eat your Breyers or Hagen Daaz 5) for them forever. Next, the chicken nugget…

Recently a good friend from college e-mailed me that he’s made some drastic changes in his diet, lost 30 lbs. and I couldn’t be more proud of him! I’ll be bugging him for more info on his new lifestyle to share with you all, but first I want to share with you the video that did it for him. I never thought the guy who would always clean off a slice of 9-layer chocolate cake at Cheesecake Factory every weekend we’d go out would admit being picky about his ice cream.

Here’s why:

For the full video check out  http://eater.com/archives/2011/06/06/watch-jamie-oliver-ruin-ice-cream-and-candy-forever.php

Thanks Aaron!

1. Looking forward to the weekend and lazy (hopefully uninterrupted) breakfasts.

2. Already eagerly anticipating fall, layers and warm tones.

3. Wishing there were a greater demand for timeless music and performance.

4. Thinking about making slushies cause it’s so freak’n hot outside! (And I don’t even like slushies.)

5. So glad to have seen my friend who finally came home from being in South Korea all summer and brought me back a taste of the culture !

6. I’m a little confused at Congress’ means of motivation.

7.  George Clooney, Ryan Gosling, Paul Giamatti and Philip Seymour Hoffman all in one film ???

Genius, or…

The Ides of March.