Slim Tree

It's New Year's Resolution time once again. My subscription to Healthy Cooking provided a link to a website that is new to me, Slim Tree. Though I haven't had much of an opportunity to check out the content, it offers free viewing of a number of exercise videos. They have videos on Pilates, Yoga, cardio workouts, martial arts/kickboxing workouts, abs workouts, aerobics, strength training, etc. The videos are available in 1, 5, 10 and 20 minute blocks, which makes it easy to customize things to your individual needs or to supplement your existing exercise routines.

Since these are mostly body weight exercises, this site provides a very inexpensive way to get or stay in shape. At most you'll need to invest in some hand weights (dumbbells) and perhaps some resistance tubing. And if you don't have a comfortable exercise surface, you might want to get a yoga mat.

Enjoy!

An Easy Side or Salad

It always great to try new recipes to build a library of healthful recipes, but you need a small number of quick and easy options to round out a meal. One of our favorites revolves around two ingredients - cucumbers and tomatoes.

The simplest variation is equal parts diced cucumbers and tomatoes with an olive oil and balsalmic vinegar dressing. From there you can add a can of salmon, tuna or chicken to make a full lunchtime meal.

Adding a few grapes to the basic cucumber and tomato combo is an easy way to sweeten it up a bit. Be sure to slice the grapes in half to release some of the flavor and to make it easier to spear the grapes with your fork. We often use a pre-made dressing with this, usually a greek dressing that we buy at Fred Meyer. Or make your own Greek dressing, as follows:

3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp ground pepper

Enjoy this great snack, lunch or dinner side salad!

Gilad

A big key to staying lean is having a regular exercise program. You don't have to exercise for hours a day to stay lean and fit. You'll find that just half an hour a day for a few days a week is enough to increase your muscle mass, which will help you to burn more fat. Last year I used routines from Cyclo-CORE to get in shape and lower my body fat percentage. While I will likely go back to those routines when cycling season starts up next year, I've decided to go with a Bodies in Motion program by Gilad, who has a daily program on FitTV.

I actually followed his show on weekends for a while last year before getting on the Cyclo-CORE program. I enjoyed it, but wouldn't always remember that the show was on, so it was a bit hit or miss. So this time I've invested in his Quick Fit program. It has a 12 week plan for increasing your overall fitness and a very minimalist (read: not too complicated) eating plan to help you get lean and fit. There's lots of exercise routines, so things should stay fresh through the entire program. One of primary benefits that I am looking for is to get rid of my hunched over, sit-at-the-desk-all-day posture. My posture improved a lot using Cyclo-CORE last year, but I'm betting that this will do the trick in the next 12 weeks.

If you have satellite TV and get FitTV, I highly recommend that you find a workout routine that interests you. There is a ton of stuff there to entertain and motivate you, you just need to tune in once in a while. On DirecTV its on Channel 261.

Easy Weeknight Dinners

These aren't the best meals if you're looking to stay lean and fit, but they're fairly good for you if you don't go overboard on portion sizes. But they're quick and easy to fix when you don't have a lot of time, and they make great leftovers so they'll save you even more time later on. I wouldn't advise these as a frequent addition to your diet, but once or twice a week probably won't hurt. Of course in the summer when you're really active portion size won't be as big of a concern.

We've tried a lot of new recipes over the past several weeks, and these are three that stand out as being tasty, easy to make, and pretty healthly choices:

Easy Layered Meatloaf: Meatloaf and veggies in one easy casserole.

Easy Bake Strata: A simple egg-based casserole. We plan on doubling the recipe next time and baking it in a 9"x13" casserole. We may also add some chopped broccoli as well.

Ham and Spinach Bake: This is probably the healthiest recipe of the bunch. We were pretty excited about it because of the interesting mix of spices. It makes it pretty unique compared to our usual eclectic menu mix. Substituting parmesan for the mozzarella can drop the calories a bit if you want to make it healthier.

Enjoy!

Healthy Cooking

I recently did something that I rarely do anymore - browsed the magazine rack at the local store. I came across a copy of Taste of Home's Healthy Cooking magazine. It was chock full of interesting recipes, so I thought I'd give it a try. It turned out to be a great purchase. We've tried a few of the recipes this past week and everyone was a keeper!

I went looking to see if they have a website, which of course they do. The healthy section of the website has a ton of interesting recipes, though those that have been published are only available to magazine subscribers. The site allows you to request a free copy of their magazine and get access to their archive of published recipes (I tried this a number of times with no success, but perhaps I was having a bad day).

As we cycle through our new found recipes, I'll experiment with making a few changes to suit our tastes and will share any successes that we have in future blog posts. For now, go explore the website. The Italian Cabbage Casserole and Autumn Whipped Vegetables were great!

Popeye Was Right!

It turns out that Popeye was right - spinach really will make you strong. Author Joe Friel in his books The Cyclists' Training Bible and Cycling Past Fifty asserts that kidney function gradually changes as we age, causing us to have a net loss of nitrogen, and with less nitrogen we produce and maintain less muscle. The lack of nitrogen basically causes our blood to become more acidic, and Coach Friel states that "the key to reducing, even avoiding, this situation is to lower the blood's acid level and increasing its alkalinity."

With that in mind, he recommends some nutritional changes to get your body's natural acid/alkaline balance back in line. It's pretty simple - in general, fruits and vegetables increase alkalinity. Fats and oils have a pretty much neutral effect. It's everything else that helps to cause the problem. That means that "grains, meat, nuts, beans, dairy, fish and eggs" can be problematic - if you eat too much of these at the expense of fruits and vegetables (note that these are many of the same culprits in most of the anti-inflamation diets).

Of course if you're set in your ways and can't stomach a drastic change in your diet, the simple shortcut is to at least eat more of the most alkaline foods out there. And it turns out that spinach is at the top of the vegetable chart and that raisins (and presumably grapes?) are at the top of the fruit chart. With that in mind here are a few spinach recipes to try out:

Spinach Quiche

Quick Italian Spinach Pie

Spinach, Fruit & Feta Salad

Sweet Potato, Apple & Spinach Salad

For more information on nutrition and age related muscle loss, check out The Paleo Diet for Athletes, which is co-authored by Joe Friel and Loren Cordain (author of The Paleo Diet).

Broiled Salmon

I recently found an interesting broiled salmon recipe and used it as an opportunity to learn how to broil for the first time. It turns out that broiling is the fastest and easiest way to cook salmon (though poaching and baking in foil are very easy and also pretty fast).

If you are as broiler-challenged as I very recently was, broiling uses the top oven heating element at very high heat to quick cook meat that is placed just 2 to 4 inches below the heat. You actually keep the oven door cracked open while broiling, so this is a great technique for the fall and winter, when you appreciate your house being a little warmer now and then.

Here are a number of great broiled salmon recipes from CookingLight.com in printer-friendly format (some recommend cooking techniques other than broiling, but they are easily adapted to broiling, generally by simply broiling for about 8-12 minutes or until the salmon flakes easily when tested with a fork):

Broiled Salmon with Marmalade-Dijon Glaze
Sweet Orange Salmon
Pastrami-Style Salmon
Honey-Glazed Salmon
Margarita Salmon
Cinnamon-Apricot Glazed Salmon
Bourbon-Glazed Salmon
Sweet Salmon with a Kick
Lemon Soy Salmon
Spiced Salmon with Mustard Sauce

The Pastrami Salmon is one of our all time favorites!

Chicken and Grapes

I stumbled across this recipe a few months ago when looking for some ideas for inexpensive meals. Since then we've been using grapes a lot in our cooking, mainly because we always seem to buy more grapes than we can snack on in a week's time. The recipe comes from the What's Cooking blog (it focuses on recipes with a Mexican twist), where it was adapted from a recipe from the California Table Grape Commission, which offers a ton of great recipes.

The ingredients:
2 TBSP butter or margarine
2 pounds chicken breasts, cut in strips
4 TBSP flour
1 1/2 cups red or black grapes
1/3 cup honey
2 cinnamon sticks, broken in half
3 to 5 whole cloves
1/2 tsp ground ginger
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 tsp cumin

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 325ºF
Melt the butter in a heavy saute pan or casserole over medium high heat.
Dust the chicken with the flour and brown slowly in the melted butter.
Move the chicken to a baking dish and add grapes, honey, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, salt, pepper and cumin.
Cover and bake for 45-50 minutes or until the chicken is tender.
Serve hot and enjoy with your favorite side dish or salad.

The Movie Star Breakfast

Several years ago I was suffering from some skin conditions. Never being one that was eager to visit a doctor (and having no health insurance at the time), I went looking for a self-help solution. I came across the website of Dr. Perricone and ended up buying his book, The Perricone Prescription. Either in the book or on his website he shared the secret breakfast that television personalities use to assure that their complexion was always at its best (this, plus a good jolt of caffeine, is also great just before going on a job interview!):

• Cooked Steel Cut Oats, about 4-5 ounces.
• Canteloupe, about 1/8th of a melon.
• Blueberries, a dozen or so.
• Salmon, fresh, preferably wild. The portion should be about the size and thickness of your palm – 4 ounces or so. Poached or baked in foil are best.

I eat something close to this for breakfast every day, using mostly lean meat in place of salmon (which I eat once every week or two for breakfast) and varying the fruits according to what is available or in-season. It’s a simple, nutritious meal – some lean protein with good fat, both soluble and non-soluble sources of fiber, plenty of extra vitamins and minerals, and not a lot of calories. If you pre-slice the cantaloupe and make the oats ahead (store it in individual portions in the refrigerator and then reheat in the microwave) it only takes a few minutes to prepare.

Dr. Perricone is another advocate of a diet to reduce the amount of inflammation in your body. Recent research has shown that low levels of inflammation are the precursor to many diseases and are the cause of many of the outward signs of aging. Check out his three day nutritional face lift for a healthy way to eat better and look younger.

Get Organized!

I like to think of getting organized as investing in your self and your family. You invest some of your time and money now in order to save greater amounts of time and money in the future*. Getting organized can also reduce stress levels by providing an extra degree of certainty in your life. As far as nutrition, my organizational tips revolve around recipes and food storage.

Recipes
Start by making your own cookbook in a three ring binder. As you find recipes on the web or in your existing cookbooks that you like, add them to your personal cookbook. Categorize them within index tabs so that you quickly find what you need (use existing cookbooks for ideas on how to do this). We plan our dinners once a week, taking out the recipes that we are going to use and putting them in the front of the notebook in the order that we’ll use them. In preparing our menu, in addition to seeking to eat tasty, healthful meals, we also seek to:

• When possible, we buy local foods that are in-season. We use this guide to Idaho produce to help determine what’s in season.


• Plan meals to have leftovers. Most one-dish meals make great lunches, while it is easy to cook extra lean meat to reheat for use with breakfast or lunch. We try not to have leftovers for dinner, assuring that we have one fresh cooked meal every day.

Food Storage
For most of my life food storage meant throwing a bunch of canned food in a cabinet. But as we’ve reduced the amount of processed food that we eat (yes, even canned peas are processed food, though not as highly processed as a TV dinner), we’ve had to rethink how we store food. Being just the two of us, it doesn’t always make sense to buy large packages of staples, and since we want to enjoy our meals, we likewise can’t always justify buying packages of nuts or spices that we won’t use often. Our solution is to buy food and spices in bulk from a store like Winco or Fred Meyer whenever possible.

We store dried fruit, nuts and similar items in disposable food containers, as they are inexpensive, stack easily and use space very efficiently. We purchased empty magnetic spice containers for storing most herbs and spices. They stick to the side of our refrigerator, so it’s easy to find what is needed and to determine when it is time to buy more (these don’t work so well for finely ground spices (especially cinnamon), which end up getting stuck between the lid and container, making it all but impossible to reopen the container). And buying spices in bulk will save you a ton of money. We recently paid 8 cents for bay leaves that cost more than $2 prepackaged, and 27 cents for enough oregano to equal two $3 jars! The same goes for nuts and dried fruit – bulk offers considerable savings over buying pre-packaged.

There are tons of other ways to organize aspects of your life to save space, time, money and reduce stress. These are just a few tips that make it easier for us to live a healthier, happier lifestyle.

*Remember that the money in your wallet is worth than the wages that you earn because you’ve already paid payroll taxes on it. Most of us need to earn around $1.25 to $1.50 before taxes to replace each dollar that is in our wallet. You can learn more about this concept and other frugal living tips at websites like www.thepennypinchergazette.com.

Dr. Mirkin

I subscribe to a free weekly e-newsletter from Roadbikerider.com. It's got lots of great tips for cyclists, and of course I need to scrutinize each issue to see if there is some new tip for climbing better.

This week they passed along a tip from Dr. Mirkin about aging and dieting that is important to pass along. Even you aren't old yet, you will be soon enough and you no doubt know someone that is old enough to benefit from this information:

The Doc is asked: Why do so many people fail to keep weight off after they diet? And the doc's answer is:

"A new study shows that older people who diet without exercising lose huge amounts of muscle. When weight loss was combined with exercise, they did not lose muscle (Journal of Applied Physiology, October 2008).

"Loss of muscle slows metabolism even further because larger muscles burn more calories at rest.

"In the study, elderly sedentary people were placed in three groups: (1) diet only; (2) exercise only; (3) diet and exercise.

"Those who dieted and exercised for four months lost more fat and less muscle than those who only dieted. Most of the exercisers chose to walk on a treadmill, which is not a very vigorous endeavor.

"This also explains why losing weight repeatedly through dieting shortens a person's lifespan.

"Many people go on diets and lose weight, quickly regain their lost weight, and then go on a diet again. These people then become fatter at the same weight because they have lost so much muscle. Therefore, at the same weight, they have fuller fat cells.

"Full fat cells produce an immune stimulant called cytokines that turn on a person's immunity continuously to cause inflammation, which increases risk for cancers, heart attacks, strokes, diabetes and other harmful diseases."

I visited Dr. Mirkin's site for the first time tonight. What a find! His wife has posted a ton of recipes that look to be very tasty and healthful, so I'm looking forward to trying out a lot of new recipes next week. And he also provides a subscription to a free weekly e-zine with tips on eating and living well. I can't wait to get the first issue. While you're at the site, also get your free copy of The Good Food Book!

And check out his page about salt and blood pressure. You'll be surprised by what he tells you, but my recent experience has validated his advice.

Peloton Race Snacks

The Saris Cycling Group posted some great videos featuring Allen Lim that share their recipes for in-ride snacks. These are great recipes, though I would only recommend them for in-ride fueling. They are pretty high carb. If your body can't use the carbs it'll turn 'em to fat to use later, so go easy.

Here are links to the videos:

• Rice Cakes. (Add a little honey when making the rice, then add cranberries, golden raisins and sliced almonds for a sweet version)
• Wrap Ups.
• Panini.
• Boiled Potatoes.

Fat Loss Tip #1

Get some exercise before you eat breakfast.

How simple is that? But it works. You don't need to change a thing about your diet to start losing weight with this simple tip. Go out for a 20 minute walk, or develop a ten minute exercise routine based on exercises found in The Complete Idiot's Guide to Core Conditioning (focus on the beginner body weight exercises) or a similar program.

When you exercise before you start eating you get your body into fat burning mode. When you eat first, especially if you eat too much, you put your body into fat storage mode. This tip is just a way of telling your body it's more important to burn fat than to store it. Exercise can also help curb your appetite, so there's a great secondary benefit as well.

And if you have a dog, be sure to take him/her with you on your walk. They'll also be happier and healthier. By the way, the dog in the picture is Nala, my personal trainer.

Too EZ Coleslaw

My wife and I ate at a Claim Jumper Restaurant earlier this summer. I ordered a salad that was basically coleslaw, but with dried cranberries, golden raisins and almonds, plus some sort of meat (I forget, probably chicken or fish) and some fancy chutney stuff. It was great! It got me looking for a way to liven up plain old coleslaw. The result is that we use coleslaw as an almost daily snack. It's inexpensive, good for you and very easy to prepare. Here are our basic recipes. Once you try a few of these you'll quickly come up with your own variations. We split the recipe into roughly 6 oz portions and store them in 9.5oz Ziplock storage containers.

The basic no-brains recipe:
16 oz bag Coleslaw
½ jar (6.5 oz) 13 oz Lighthouse Coleslaw dressing (or your favorite brand)
1/3 cup Dried cranberries
1/3 cup Golden raisins
1/3 cup Almond slivers

Mix it all together. Refrigerate an hour before serving, if possible.

And Endless Variations:
Variation #1
¼ cup Raisins
¼ cup Coconut
8 oz Pineapple tidbits

Variation #2
1 cup Diced apple
1/3 cup Toasted walnuts
1 cup Halved red grapes
¼ cup Blue Cheese (optional)

Variation #3
½ lb Shrimp (bite size)
1 can Pineapple tidbits, or sliced mandarin oranges

Variation #4
2 cups Cantaloupe

Variation #5
¼ cup Chopped, toasted walnuts
1 Small orange, chopped
2 Tbsp Raisins

Variation #6
½ can Mangoes
½ Red pepper, diced
½ Yellow Pepper, diced
3 Green onions, sliced

Variation #7
1 Mango
1 cup Green apple, diced or julienned
1/3 cup Dried cranberries
¼ cup Halved red (or green) grapes

Variation #8
½ cup Golden raisins
½ cup Dried cranberries
2 Green onions, sliced
3 Tbsp Shredded coconut
½ cup Halved red (or green) grapes (optional)
½ cup Dried apricots, chopped

Variation #9
1 Diced green apple
½ cup Celery
2 Tbsp Chopped, toasted walnuts
2 Tbsp Raisins
1 Tbsp Honey

This Ain't Rabbit Food

Not long ago I thought the main part of making a salad was picking out the right salad dressing at the supermarket. It's no wonder that I was never too keen on eating "rabbit food." But one day I was googling for Greek recipes and stumbled upon Athenos.com (currently under construction and not working correctly). They've got a number of easy and very tasty salad recipes that are worth a try. Our favorites include:

• Cranberry, Feta and Toasted Walnut Salad
• Mixed Greens with Pear and Pecan Salad
• Spinach, Fruit and Feta Salad

There's a ton of great recipes at Athenos' parent company, Kraft Foods.

Steel Cut Oats

This is one of those foods that is so good for you it’s worth the extra time that it takes to prepare. It’ll help lower your cholesterol and provide you with some great fiber in your diet. It’s very flexible, as you can do all sorts of things to zip it up a bit. A little sugar, cinnamon and butter is a classic from my childhood (as long as you go easy on the sugar), but nowadays I quite often will add flaked coconut and coconut oil, or I’ll add some whey protein and a square of dark chocolate. Cooked oats go with just about anything, sweet or savory, so let your imagination run wild.

Steel cut oats are also cheap. The price here in Boise, ID recently went up to 61 per pound if you buy from the bulk food bins. My wife and I eat this stuff every day for breakfast and I sometimes eat it as an evening or afternoon snack, and we probably only use a pound every few weeks or more. So we’re talking about 10 cents per week per person here! This is a great way to stretch a buck!

About once a week we’ll cook up about two cups of dry oats in a large 6 quart pan. Once it’s done we’ll let it sit for a while, then transfer the oats into 9.5 oz disposable storage containers (only about 6-8 oz per container). We refrigerate these, then reheat them by microwaving on high for 1 minute, 20 seconds. It’ll be sort of congealed, but add some flavorings and mix it up and it’ll be almost as good a fresh!

For cooking instructions, check out the Bob's Red Mill site. And look for their Oat Pilaf recipe. It's excellent!

Salmon Doesn’t Get Any Easier Than This

Not long ago my wife and I were what you would consider cooking-challenged. Anything more difficult than boiling water or grilling a steak was way out of our league. I got the following simple tip from a butcher working for Fred Meyer. From that positive experience our cooking ability has blossomed.

Dilled Salmon Fillets

Preheat oven to 450º.
Cut a sheet of aluminum foil big enough to enclose the fillets.
Spray it with olive oil or your favorite cooking spray.
Place the salmon on the foil, skin side down.
Slice some ¼” cucumber slices on the salmon.
Seal the foil.
Cook for about 25 minutes.
You’ll need to adjust either the time or temperature depending upon the thickness of the fillet. 25 minutes is a good starting point, and you’ll soon figure out how to fine tune things. Until then, if it's not quite done, just toss it back in the oven for a few more minutes.

The result is that the cucumber will infuse the salmon with a mild dill flavor, your salmon will remain moist and tender, and you’ll get some good cooked veggies to boot! Who knew cooking fish could be so easy?

Nutritional Strategies

About five years ago I started running into some health problems. I decided to look to the web to find ways to live healthier, rather than heading to a doctor and getting a handful of pills. My search led me to a number of resources worth sharing.

The first is The Zone Diet. There are lots of other similar diets, and by mentioning The Zone I'm not necessarily endorsing it, though the general strategy is very sound. Basically it allows you to control blood sugar by removing breads and starchy foods from your diet, and uses frequent meals and snacks with some protein and a little good fat to control your appetite. It works. It's a huge dietary change for most of us, so it'll require a willingness to change a life time of eating habits. But by following this diet I managed to painlessly loose 10 pounds less than when I was on WeightWatchers (and hungry all the time). Team Slipstream is using the same diet to give their team an edge. Check out their blog here to learn more about the value of this approach to nutrition.

The second is mercola.com. This site reinforces many of the principles of The Zone diet, but with a ton of great information on taking control of your own health. If you're currently on meds for common diseases - high blood pressure, Type II diabetes, high cholesterol, auto-immune diseases, I highly recommend subscribing to his 3 times a week newsletter. Even if some of the stuff seems a bit out there, don't discard the rest. There is a ton of great info. You'll be glad you took the time.

The third is the Cyclo-Fuel nutrition plan and the Cyclo-Club. The value of Cyclo-Fuel is that is very similar to The Zone, but specifically targeted to cyclists. There's a seven day fat loss plan designed to break your sugar addiction that's an important first step for most folks. And in the Cyclo-Club there's a seven day fat loss boot camp along the same lines (no need to buy Cyclo-Fuel). The one thing that sold me on Cyclo-Fuel was that before buying it I had been monitoring my blood pressure daily for about a year. It was borderline high - often around 128/80, once in a while even higher. I watched the Soffritto demonstration on Cyclo-Fuel and was intrigued by the flexibility of this cooking technique in creating a number of interesting one dish meals. I tried it and the next day my BP was 112/70. And while following the principles of the plan it has consistently stayed 10 points below what it had been previously. I can't say that everyone will have the same results, since there is so much variability how people eat and their genetics. But for me that made it well worth the price of admission for the plan.

Italian Bowtie Pie

It's hard to find good Italian meal that helps you maintain your weight (unless you use wimpy little portions). Here's a tasty recipe that's a great substitute for lasagna. It trims calories by reducing the amount of pasta and substituting cottage cheese for higher-calorie ricotta cheese. It also incorporates a great superfood - broccoli! Skip the garlic bread, or limit yourself to just a modest slice - a side salad is a better choice. It makes great leftovers, so the time spent making this supper is paid back with some easy and very nutritious lunches.

Enjoy!

Italian Bowtie Pie

1 lb 90% lean ground beef
2 small onions, chopped
1 can (16 oz) diced tomato or 6-8 Roma tomatoes, diced.
1 can (8 oz) tomato paste
1 clove of garlic, crushed or minced
1/2 cup dry red wine
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp basil
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp ground pepper
8 oz uncooked Farfalle (bowtie) Pasta
4 eggs
2 Tbsp butter or margarine, melted
8 oz shredded mozzarella cheese
16 oz small curd low-fat cottage cheese
2 cups fresh chopped broccoli
4 oz Parmesan cheese

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Cook beef and onion in a large skillet until beef is browned. Drain fat.

To beef mixture, stir in diced tomato, tomato paste, garlic, wine, oregano, basil, sea salt, ground pepper. Heat to boiling, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat, cover and simmer 10-15 minutes or until thickened. Stir occasionally.

Cook and drain bowtie pasta per package instructions.

In a medium bowl, beat two eggs and the melted margarine/butter. Stir in bowtie pasta.

In a medium bowl mix the cottage cheese and two eggs.

Layer ingredients in a large (9" x 12") casserole dish as follows:
- Bowtie mix.
- Mozzarella cheese.
- Cottage cheese mix.
- Chopped broccoli
- Meat and tomato mixture.
- Sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top.

Bake uncovered for about 30 minutes. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving.