Meal Planning 101

Something I have done recently is planning my meals. This means writing everything you’re going to eat down on paper, typed or other ways you could write this down so you have a physical form of what you’re going to eat. This has really helped me get healthier because it’s something I can look at for my meals like dinner to know and not end up eating a frozen pizza or frozen dinner, which seems to happen too often.

In The teen eating manifesto, Stollman includes a section about meal planning and provides templates for the reader to see. The section also includes around how many calories should be eaten for genders which showed for females about 1500 calories and for men about 1800 calories (Stollman 178). For the meal plans, it even planned snacks along with the 3 major meals.

Not only does it show examples of “menus” but it also said how often you should be eating, “Try to eat every three to five hours. If you don’t eat regularly, you may find that you get excessively hungry and then eat too much at the next meal” (Stollman 177). I hope some of you consider meal planning and try out being a healthier you! Thanks for checking out my blog posts.

Do you believe in calorie counting when trying to eat healthier/ lose weight?

MLA: Stollman, Lisa, MA, RD, CDE, CDN. The Teen Eating Manifesto: The Ten Essential Steps to Losing Weight, Looking Great and Getting Healthy. Northport, NY: Nirvana, 2012. Print.

Working out

Eating healthy is hard but something I have trouble with is working out. I’m a lazy teenager who doesn’t like working out so I never have the pull to go to the gym or go on a walk and etc. but then once I’m ready, I never seem to know what exactly to do or how to work out properly.

When you work out, there are so many benefits including, “improved energy levels, increased ability to handle stress, improved mood, reduced risk of many chronic diseases, enhanced self-esteem, more positive outlook on life in general” (Stollman 33). I personally know I should start working out more to receive some if not all of these great benefits.

Now onto what to actually do to work out, the book detailed some ways to work out including: Walking, Using a Work out DVD, Cardio, Strength training, and flexablitity training (Stollman 33-39). I’m going to try to start committing and doing these different exercises often to obtain some of these benefits as noted before.

The last section Lisa Stollman added about Exercising was 10 tips to make exercise part of your routine which includes trying to walk a lot each day, sign up for activities, and make sure to move at least 60 minutes a day. These are just some of the tips for daily exercise!

Do you like working out? What do you do to exercise?

MLA: Stollman, Lisa, MA, RD, CDE, CDN. The Teen Eating Manifesto: The Ten Essential Steps to Losing Weight, Looking Great and Getting Healthy. Northport, NY: Nirvana, 2012. Print.

Healthy Recipe: Roasted Tofu

Healthy Recipe: Roasted Tofu

Recently I had decided to go pescatarian which basically means your vegetarian except you eat fish and seafood. I’ve been needing to find new recipes to try while I’m not eating other meats that I used to eat often for dinner and other meals. Here’s the recipe which was under Entrees.

“Yield: 4 Servings

Ingredients:

1 package extra firm tofu

2 tablespoons canola oil

2 teaspoons canola oil

2 teaspoons rice vinegar

2 teaspoons honey

2 teaspoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 teaspoon chili sauce (such as Siracha)” (Stollman 237).

While making the recipe and gathering the ingredients, I realized I had bought the wrong kind of tofu. There are 3 different kinds of tofu including soft, firm and extra firm. I accidently bought firm tofu but it still worked but it sort of got misshaped. I also didn’t have chili sauce in my house but it still turned out fine.

Here’s the Directions:

  1. Cut up the Tofu

  2. Line a bowl with paper towels, put the tofu inside and refrigerate for 15-20 minutes.

  3. Preheat oven to 425 degrees

  4. In a large bowl whisk together all ingredients besides tofu

  5. Add tofu to bowl of sauce and gently toss to coat.                             

  6. Transfer to sheet pan and bake for 20-25 minutes and turn once until golden brown

  7. Enjoy (Stollman 237).

In the end I tried the tofu and honestly thought it didn’t taste like much. I was slightly disappointed when trying it along with getting the wrong kind of tofu so while preparing it, the tofu was breaking into small pieces. I feel like next time I should let it marinate in the sauce for about an hour so that maybe the tofu will absorb the sauce and become more flavorful. I would recommend it though because it’s not that bad and if you doctor it up a little it can be really tasty!

What’s your favorite dinner? Do you like or ever eat Tofu?

MLA: Stollman, Lisa, MA, RD, CDE, CDN. The Teen Eating Manifesto: The Ten Essential Steps to Losing Weight, Looking Great and Getting Healthy. Northport, NY: Nirvana, 2012. Print.

Reading a Food Label

Reading a Food Label

Picture this, you’re at the grocery store and you can’t move your cart full of unhealthy food because someone is looking at the ingredients and label on a box of crackers or something like that. Yes, it can seem annoying but maybe we should all be looking at the food label and seeing what’s really in our food like that person in the store. “For my clients eating cereal, reading the label would have saved them about 200 calories at breakfast (and a potential weight gain of about 20 pounds in one year)” (Stollman 75). This shows that maybe that person knows what they’re eating and is especially helpful when trying to lose weight or maintain a healthy or healthier lifestyle like I’m trying to do.

Here we have a picture of everyone’s favorite sugary cereal with a leprechaun mascot. Looks innocent right? Kids eat this so it must be healthy. Well that’s a wrong assumption, Lucky Charms is not a cereal that should be eaten every day for breakfast based on the food label.

You can learn so much more about the food you’re eating by reading the label. The book mentioned all the different nutrients you’ll find the specific amounts for like fiber, sugar, sodium, fat and more (Stollman 75). Knowing these things could make us all more mindful eaters and allow all of us to know what we’re actually putting in our bodies instead of eating unknown substances. Also knowing the ingredients and how much of each nutrient you’re eating can help you eat healthier which I know I will be using to help me start eating better.

Lastly we’re going to talk about ingredient lists on food. We all should know what we should look out for in our foods. “You may also want to avoid products with harmful colorings, additives and preservatives” (Stollman 79). This section of text is flat out saying ingredients you don’t want in your foods. Another thing to look out for is in the past I was taught to avoid foods that contain ingredients you can’t pronounce the names of. Now we can all be more mindful while eating and know what we’re really eating. 

What’s your favorite cereal? Is that cereal considered a food to avoid?

MLA Citation:

Stollman, Lisa, MA, RD, CDE, CDN. The Teen Eating Manifesto: The Ten Essential Steps to Losing Weight, Looking Great and Getting Healthy. Northport, NY: Nirvana, 2012. Print.

Healthy Drinking

I’ve wanted to start eating healthy for a while now. A lot of people want to eat healthy but what we drink isn’t thought about a whole lot because we focus on food and what we’re chewing; but maybe we should start thinking more about what we’re eating and if it’s good for us. “Many people make the mistake of getting the fluids we need during the day from sodas, flavored milk, fancy coffee beverages, and juices. These drinks are high in calories from sugar,” (Stollman 43). This seems so bizarre that most of us are worried about what we’re eating and calories but aren’t really considering that what we’re drinking could not help with trying to eat healthy and possibly lose weight.

Now that we’ve talked about why you should avoid most drinks, let’s talk about what we should be drinking. Water, W-A-T-E-R. It’s one drink we should be drinking lots of throughout the day let some of us including me don’t seem to drink enough. The book mentioned about not thinking water is the only thing you can drink, there are other beverages out there for you if you don’t like water or want to shake things up like Seltzer water, tea and low calorie, low sugar drinks (Stollman 44).

Why do we need fluids? Ever been hungry and then not felt satisfied after eating? That’s probably because you weren’t hungry, you were thirsty. Yup, thirst disguises as hunger causing us to eat more when we aren’t actually hungry. Now what happens if you don’t drink enough? “Here’s what can happen if you don’t drink enough water every day: -You can get problems such as palpitations (irregular heart beat) or feel very tired. –You may notice that you often get a headache later in the day” (Stollman 45). Water is vital for all of us so we need to get more H₂O in our diet. The amount we should actually be needing is approximately 8-9 glasses of water every day. I’ll definitely be taking this information to mind next time I go to grab a can of soda. Let’s all work to drink more water and stay hydrated!

How much water do you drink a day? Are you going to try to cut out soda and other sugary beverages from your diet? 


MLA Citation:

Stollman, Lisa, MA, RD, CDE, CDN. The Teen Eating Manifesto: The Ten Essential Steps to Losing Weight, Looking Great and Getting Healthy. Northport, NY: Nirvana, 2012. Print.