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Last week I mentioned that my wife's cholesterol was off the charts in a very bad way. This is despite her healthy eating habits and exercising 4-5 times a week.
A reader, Kitty, sent us this Heart Attack calculator from the American Heart Association. When my wife took it her risk was actually 1% despite the high cholestrol. I don't know if that invovled some rounding, but even 1% ...
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Last night, I had to run an errand for my wife. Her car was due for the 60,000 mile check-up, so she dropped it off at the dealer after work. I picked her up, but time was getting tight for her Body Pump class. The Body Pump craze has spread so fast that you have to register a half hour to an hour before the class begins. Even though time was short, it didn’t make sense to skip dinner. I didn’t want to risk her having dehydration issues like WeightLadder did earlier this week.
We thought about where we could go for a quick healthy dinner. And if you read my Lazy Man and Money site, you know that I was also looking for something cheap. That’s a tall order, but I think we made the decision in going to Taco Bell. Taco Bell is not typically at the tops of the “healthy eats” list, but in the last year, it’s gotten a lot better. They’ve figured out that simply by offering the option to substitute the cheese on anything on the menu with some pico de gallo, it can be a healthy meal. If you want this, you just ask for something Fresco style. They’ve even created a whole Fresco Menu, to make ordering easier.
I got a couple of the soft taco’s. That came in at 360 calories and 14 grams of fat. It ended up costing me under $3. My wife went for two chicken soft tacos which were 340 calories and only 8 grams of fat. The chicken version was probably a dollar or so more. From a combination of speed, health, and cost, it was so much better than we could have done at many other places.
We might be mixing a little more Taco Bell into our diets when we can’t cook things ourselves.
Posted by Lazy Man on May 8, 2008
in fast food.
My wife mentioned before that she sometimes has problems with people at work pushing unhealthy foods on her. As part of a plan to combat this we’ve tried to stock the house (and her work) with some healthy snacks for in between meals. Here are some of the healthy snacks we try to have on hand all the time:
Microwave Popcorn - We find the “100 calorie pop” is perfect for one person and occassional split a bag at night before dinner. Though it’s not the protein content that I would typically look for in a food, the amount of chewing and time that it takes to eat 50-100 calories make it appear to much more food than it is.
South Beach Diet Cereal Bars - We found a great deal on these at the military commissary (24 bars for $10). They are 140 calories with 10 grams of protein. It has 5 grams of fat and 9 grams of net carbs, but it tastes like a candy bar. In contrast to the popcorn above it’s a dense 1.23 ounces. Few foods beat it for portability and speed to eat. I have a friend who is a busy doctor and keeps them handy because she might only get 2 minutes here and there to eat during the day.
Slim-a-Bear ice-cream sandwiches - At 100-calories per sandwich, these are a perfect substitute for the full fat ice cream. You wouldn’t want them to be your whole diet, but you feel completely guilt-free after eating one.
Fruit - Nature’s candy is an easy choice here. We keep apples and oranges around all the time because they have a good shelf life. Occasionally we will have bananas, but they go bad in a couple of days.
Whey Protein Shake - I’ll blend some whey protein and milk and have a shake every now and again as a snack. It’s not very portable, and it’s not going to taste as good as the South Beach Diet bars or Slim-a-Bear ice-cream sandwiches, but the thought of 25-30 grams of protein makes my analytical mind excited. Occasionally, I toss in some frozen berries for more anti-oxidants - other times I will use a Splenda-based low-calorie chocolate syrup for taste. Another similar idea is to use a Carnation Instant Breakfast package instead of the whey protein.
I find that most of these healthy snacks stay under 200 calories. They give me a variety of choice depending on my mood: popcorn for when I want to pick at something, cereal bars when I need something on the go with no preparation or refrigeration/cooking necessary, and ice-cream sandwiches for cravings.
When you want a healthy snack what do you go with?
Posted by Lazy Man on May 5, 2008
in Healthy Meals.
I like watching The Biggest Loser. I don’t look forward to it like Heroes, but it’s still a good show to watch while I’m multi-tasking. Sometimes it sits waiting on my DVR for a few weeks. I just finished watching the season finale, which is old news by this point. Something hit me though…
…The way they evaluate weight loss seems flawed. Everyone has a healthy minimum weight. The doctors wouldn’t allow a 90lb woman to continue to lose weight for example (unless she was really short). More than likely, they would probably stop her from dropping under 110. Watch Ali, this year’s winner end up around 120 pounds is pretty much a good range. That means she had a “limit” that depended on where she entered the contest. If she entered at 200 pounds that limit would be about a 45% before she hit the 110 mark, not enough to win the competition this year without going to the unhealthy site.
And what of the men? I believe they allow some men to start at the 400 pound weight. One could imagine that a healthy weight for a guy could be 170. We could argue that it’s much lower - Bernie weighed around 153 at the end this year and looked great. If we use that 170 number, the 400 pound man’s limit would have the potential of 57% weight loss. It seems like those who start out the worse have the potential to do much better.
So what’s the solution? I’m not sure I know. Perhaps you take into body fat measurements? That’s difficult as well because women are supposed to have more body fat than men. Maybe you can do that, but crown a King and Queen Biggest Loser?
In the end, I’m being nit-picky. It seems like all the contestants lost a lot of weight, while inspiring many viewers to do the same. That’s a really the point right?
Posted by Lazy Man on May 2, 2008
in Weight Loss.
Eighteen months ago, I wrote about a cheap, healthy, quick, hot breakfast that I had incorporated into my daily schedule. It was high on protein and fiber and low on carbs. Unfortunately it didn’t have any fruits or veggies, so it wasn’t a complete breakfast. It was still better than the average breakfast which consists of a cup of coffee most of the time.
Today, I’d like to bring you a new breakfast. Like the other breakfast, this is cheap, healthy, and quick - but it’s not hot. As a bonus, I’ve found that I can buy everything at Trader Joe’s. There are only five ingredients. This breakfast will take you a total 210 seconds a week to prepare - that’s 3.5 minute for you math majors.
A cheap and healthy breakfast:
- Gather ingredients - Trader Joe’s High Fiber Cereal (Fiber One is a good, but more expensive substitute), Kashi GoLean Crunch, sliced almonds (or chopped walnuts), dried cranberries (feel free to substitute banana chips or other dried fruit as well).
- Mix ingredients - See, this is easy…
- Store in a container… …for use later on in the week
- Add Milk… … when you are ready to eat.
- Eat… … preferably with a spoon.
You’ll notice that this healthy breakfast is high in fiber from the cereal. It has bit of protein from the milk and almonds. This cereal has some antioxidants from the cranberries (or dried fruit) and almonds (or other nuts).
The most important part is that it’s really good - I look forward to eating this every day. I am going to switch off between this breakfast and my old breakfast, but try to mix in an orange or apple as mid-morning snack. I feel healthier just having a plan in place.
Posted by Lazy Man on April 23, 2008
in Healthy Meals.
I got an e-mail from Amazon letting me know that the Wii Fit
is available for pre-order - due to come out May 21st. After discussing it with my wife, we decided that at $90 we would purchase it. It’s a very pricey for a game, but when you think of it as entertainment and fitness equipment in one package, the price seemed fair.
We’ve been looking forward to the release of the Nintendo Wii Fit in the United States. There are times when my wife works late - the last thing she wants to do is go to the gym. However, there’s a good chance that we’ll fire up the Wii and play a few of the games. As a bonus, the Wii Fit will keep track of our weight and BMI and graph it over time.
I can’t wait for it.
Posted by Lazy Man on April 16, 2008
in Video Games.
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