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One of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving is the leftovers. It seems while everything was delicious and beautifully presented during the holiday meal itself, leftovers give us the opportunity to experience those same delicious tastes - with a twist.

In my kitchen, potato soup is created from the leftover mashed potatoes. Leftover cooked vegetables go into breakfast (or even lunch) fritattas. Any remaining raw vegetables are incorporated into salads. I bet you have your own family favorites as well!

Check out these delicious and healthy tips for Thanksgiving leftovers from the American Dietetic Association’s Kids Eat Right campaign. Be sure to fit in some outdoor activity inbetween the cooking, shopping, clean-up - and eating! http://www.eatright.org/kids/tip.aspx?id=6442459987

I’m not talking romantic dates - I’m talking fresh, delicious, dates that you eat.

Growing up in the Midwest, dates weren’t a part of our usual weekly fruit choices. In fact, I can only remember eating dates as part of my mom’s date nut bars that she made every holiday season. Last year I was introduced to fresh dates, and this summer I really enjoyed nibbling on dates as a snack or dessert.

Here are some cool date facts:
- in several countries, a bowl of fresh dates is always on the table as a sign of hospitality
- dates contain less water than any other fruit - they’re fresh, even though they seem like a dried fruit
- dates are fat free, saturated fat free, cholesterol free, sodium free, and a good source of fiber (1/4 cup provides 12% of the daily value for fiber).
- 3 dates are a serving (about 50-60 calories)
- dates keep for up to 1 year in the refrigerator - and you can even freeze them!

If you’re looking for a tasty fruit to add to your weekly choices, consider dates!

Today I tasted lower salt potato chips. Let’s face it - most of us love chips because they’re crispy, crunchy, and salty. If I didn’t know these chips contained less sodium, I would never have guessed. They also had a more pronounced potato flavor, maybe because the salt wasn’t masking the potato.

Lay’s Lightly Salted potato chips have 90mg of sodium per 1 ounce serving. I know what you’re thinking - who eats just one ounce? You can - if you serve a portion in a bowl, or purchase a 1 ounce package and eat mindfully. The regular chips have twice as much sodium - 180mg.

Full confession:  I used to love salt. I would eat celelry just so I could load it up with salt. Instead of sugar, I sprinkle salt onto my grapefruit. Over the past few years I’ve made a conscious effort to eat less salt, and I’m proud to say I now eat celery with no salt (but I still sprinkle just a bit on my grapefruit).

I like the new lightly salted chips, and while I don’t make chips a regular part of my food choices, I’ll certainly look for these in the store whenever I decide to purchase chips.

My take away message:  make small, simple, good-tasting changes in your food choices and you’ll inch your way toward better health.

Here in the Northeast, we’ve already had several inches of snow on top of our mountains and snow flurries down in the valleys. Until the time changes this coming weekend, it’s not light until after 7am, and dark enough to need a headlamp to run after 5:30pm.

Along with the darker days and colder temperatures, I’m finding myself looking for a change in beverages. This summer I loved brewing sun tea, switching up flavors from green tea to traditional black tea to even trying out some fruity teas. Tea is a great source of antioxidants to help us stay healthy and feel great, and I like that the sun brews my tea. All I add is ice!

Now I’m switching to hot, brewed tea. It’s fun to choose between several different tea varieties and flavors, and all types of tea have some health benefits. I recently found this interesting online quiz all about tea:  check it out! http://www.teausa.org/general/teatest/teatest9.html

Let me know how well you did on the quiz, and tell me about your favorite brewed tea.

I’m always looking for exercises that work a whole bunch of different muscle groups. These types of execises maximize time, which is always at a premium in our busy lives. Plus, how often do we use just one, isolated muscle? When we perform exercises that require the use of many different muscles at once, we gain strength AND improve our ability to live a full and active life.

Here’s one of my favorites:  inchworms

Give it a try, and let me know what you think!

People always tell me that if the dessert tastes good, it can’t be good for them.

Wrong!

There’s no reason why great-tasting foods, including desserts, can’t also provide essential nutrients and be low in fat, saturated fat, sodium and cholesterol.

Here’s one tasty example Cranberry Pear Tartlets

  Continue Reading »

Do you ever wonder what you should eat or drink after exercise? Or even IF you should eat or drink anything specific once you’re done working out?

If you exercise for longer than an hour, or do a shorter but very intense workout (like runing sprint intervals), then your body craves nutrition within 30 minutes after you finish exercise. This 30 minute window is the optimal time to refuel so your body is ready for the next workout. A combination of carbohydrate and protein gives your tired muscles the nutrients they need.

Many companies want you to believe that you have to use one of their commerical products for optimum post workout-out nutrition.

Guess what? Chocolate milk works even better than commercial shakes and supplements! That’s because chocolate milk contains two types of protein:  casein and whey. These types of protein are key for muscle recovery. The carbohydrate naturally present in chocolate milk from the lactose plus the sugar from the chocolate help move the amino acids in whey and casein into your muscles, plus help rebuild stored carbohydrate in your muscles.

Drink 8-16 ounces of chocolate milk within 30 minutes after finishing your workout, and you’ll find you recover faster and have more energy for the next workout. Plus you’ll get the benefit of the calcium and vitamin D in chocolate milk. Choose fat-free chocolate milk for the best nutritional profile.

Who said good nutrition can’t taste good, too?

Here’s one time you definitely don’t want to be aligned with the majority. A recent telephone survey of almost 80,000 adults over age 20 shows that the most frequently reported nonsleep, nonwork activity is….eating and drinking!

I find it difficult to believe that 95.6% of the people in the survey report that they get most of their activity from eating! Not so difficult to believe is that 80.1% have a primary activity of watching TV. We all know we’re primarily a nation of couch potatoes.

Remember this initial statistic encompasses all types of activity. The story gets even worse.

The most frequently reported moderate activity, where you actually get your heart rate up a bit, is: preparing foods and beverages! I don’t know about you, but I can’t remember the last time I felt that fixing dinner was moderate intensity exericse. Maybe the time I lugged the 20 pound turkey up the stairs from the basement, but hey - that only happens once each year on Thanksgiving.

Only 5% of the people surveyed said they ever get vigorous activity. Thank goodness that doesn’t have anything to do with chewing and swallowing.  The most frequently reported vigorous activity is using cardiovascular equipment (2.2%) and running (1.1%). They didn’t include data on people who are eating while they run, or who prepare meals while riding their exercise bike.

I’m going to think about this information tomorrow when I go out for a hard, vigorous run.

We routinely hear about people who are searching for happiness. We even talk about the ‘pursuit of happiness’. Does this mean that we have to find happiness? We might think that making a lot of money, finding the perfect mate, living in a fantastic house or perhaps losing weight will make us happy.

Or is happiness something that we can create within ourselves?

According to Sonja Lyubomirsky in her book “The How of Happiness”, happiness is in our power to fashion for ourselves. Instead of chasing happiness, we can create it by changing our habits. She encourages us to look for happiness in how we behave, what we think, and the types of goals we set for ourselves.

There are several helpful quizzes included in the book designed to not only evaluate our current level of happiness, but also to help us start creating more happiness in our lives. I’m working on two of these goals for myself right now: 

• Savoring special moments throughout the day, from noticing the pink sky at the very moment before dawn as I head out on an early morning run, to listening to the raindrops fall on my deck outside.
• Doing something for other people, sort of planned random acts of kindness. When we do something thoughtful for someone else, perhaps calling a friend, or bringing flowers from the garden to a neighbor, or even smiling and saying a cheery hello to a stranger on the street - it fosters our own happiness.

Believe it or not, it makes me happy to know that happiness is present within ourselves, just waiting to be noticed and appreciated. I’ll end with a quote that I love:

Happiness is not a matter of events; it depends upon the tides of the mind. Alice Meynell

This year the weekend of August 21-22 is the third annual, nationwide Run/Walk for the Fallen to honor our soldiers killed in the Middle East. The BattenKill Valley Runners are hosting a 1-4 mile free, noncompetitive run or walk in West Arlington at the covered bridge off Route 313 at 9am on Sunday, August 22nd. The group who started this nationwide event is producing a video:  http://www.tothemthatsgone.com

You have nowhere more important to be on Sunday, August 22nd at 9am than at the covered bridge in West Arlington. See you there.