Sunday Summary

February 9, 2014

Well, this weekend was incredibly slooooow which was in direct contrast to my very busy and hectic week. I really should’ve expected this (I am a grad student after all) but after having that month long holiday it was just a big reality check for me.

To deal with the weekday hectic-ness that is now my life, I have had to start making meal preps at the very start of the week. During the holidays I was kinda lazy and was like, eh I don’t need to meal prep because I have all the time in the world. Hah, that was nice while it lasted … last Monday morning I made a huge pot of beef chili with chickpeas and plenty of fresh veggie which was basically lunch for the entire week which was awesome. This week I am planning on making a huge pot of Thai chicken curry 🙂

My yoga program has been going well and I am so happy to say that I am getting much more flexible. And my arm strength has improved too!!!! I two sets of 6 negative chin ups now, which is a huge accomplishment for me. I incorporated a variety of resistance band and cable machine moves this week to challenge my upper body from the usual weights and machines. I haven’t been able to go to the gym at the same time as any of my friends, so sorry I cannot show you photos of any of the moves I did.

Okay onto a more serious topic now .. have any of you heard of the 80:10:10 diet? I heard about it a while ago, but I recently came across an article on www.fiterazzi.com that talked about the dangers of it. Fiterazzi is fast becoming a favorite new health and fitness website of mine because unlike other websites that just talk about ‘losing 10 pounds fast’, they talk about issues tend not to get talked about, or which are hard to talk about. I recommend you check them out and the specific article I am talking about. I would love to know your thoughts about the diet, and whether you know anyone who is attempting it.

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Honestly yours,
Alice

Friday Fare, Health

Valentine’s Day Raspberries Dipped in Dark Chocolate

February 7, 2014

Ahhh, Valentine’s Day; you either love it orrrr you hate it. I happen to quite like it, but the fact that I have a boyfriend and have had the same (awesome) one for the past 5 years may have helped with that 🙂

Unlike other special days though, when one thinks of Valentine’s Day, you tend to think of two things: the color red and chocolate. These two factors directly influenced what I made for you all today. Which is …… Valentine’s Day Raspberries Dipped in Dark Chocolate!!

Valentine’s Day Raspberries Dipped in Dark Chocolate

Okay okay, I know they are not completely guilt free, but hey. Gotta live a little once in a while. Plus, raspberries are high in fiber and low in calories, whilst dark chocolate (when eaten sparingly, not every day people!) allows our bodies a greater capacity to absorb antioxidants found in chocolate, whereas the milk in normal milk chocolate actually interferes with our bodies absorption of antioxidants from chocolate. I added in cacao as well because that has also been shown to have a high amount of antioxidants. Reality check though people, eating mass amounts of dark chocolates will not necessarily ward off disease .. it will more likely make you gain lots of weight, so be sensible and eat it in moderation pleeeease 🙂

Alright, so let’s get down to making this stuff! You will need the following:

Raspberries Dipped in Dark Chocolate

Alice Williams

A perfect Valentine's Day Treat!

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Ingredients

1 bar of unsweetened dark chocolate
1 bar of dark chocolate or cacao
1 6 ox box of raspberries

Instructions

Step 1: Start boiling a pan of water (fill your pot about 1/4 to half way full) with boiling water. Get two bowls out. Fill one bowl with your raspberries and then put them aside as you will come back to the bowls once you have melted your chocolate.
Step 2. Once you have your water boiling, quickly turn down the temperature of the flame to low. Too high of a heat will cause your chocolate to melt. Get a big metal bowl, or a bowl that fits easily on top of your pot and is heat resistant. Break up the bar into small pieces and slowly add them into the big metal bowl (it will not melt well if you just chuck the bar in).
Step 3: Merrily stir the chocolate slowly until it melts. it really does not take long, it took me a grand total of 3 or 4 minutes.
Step 4: Mmmm, the best part. Get a towel or something to grab a hold of the bowl with and then scrape out the chocolate into your bowl (that I told you to get in step 1, remember). Then, get your skewer (thank you Alyssa!) or fork, whatever, and pierce one of the raspberries and simply … dip into the bowl of hot chocolate!

Valentine's Day Raspberries Dipped in Dark Chocolate

Ahh, it melted so fast!!!

And there you have it, the finished product!! If you find that you would like it sweeter than this, feel free to add some honey, stevia or brown sugar and let me know how that makes it taste. If you have celiac’s disease use pure unsweetened chocolate and pure cacao (mine is 75% so not pure). If you want it completely sugar-free .. I am afraid that will not happen, because fruits have naturally occurring sugars in them.

Nutritional Details (for whole bowl of chocolate and raspberries)
Calories: 1222 (as you can see it is NOT low calorie, so eat sparingly)
Carbohydrates: 122g
Sugar: 81g
Fat: 79g
Protein: 9g
Fiber: 22g

I know these numbers seem daunting, and I could’ve chosen not to include them. But you know what? I do not want you to be ignorant. I hate how people have gotten the notion in their head that healthy automatically means that you can eat as much as you want … NO. No foods should ever be abused in this way (except perhaps celery). Eat too much of anything and you will gain weight, although the quality of the foods you eat will certainly make a difference. I have said this a lot: eating 500 calories of grilled chicken and quinoa is so much better for you than eating 500 calories of ice-cream and pizza. Okay, rant over guys, sorry!!! Love you really, I just want you to be aware 🙂

I hope you have all enjoyed this weeks Friday Fare!! If any of you make this, please let me know how it goes. And feel free to make any suggestions as to things you would like to see in the future. Hope you all have a great Valentine’s Day next week.

Honestly yours,
Alice

Health

Carbs are not the devil

January 28, 2014

It seems like everyday I hear someone demonizing carbs; “Yeah, today I’m not gonna eat any carbs” or even worse “I am on a low carb diet.” But guys, carbs are not the devil!

With the rise of diets that claim you can ‘lose weight fast!’ by reducing your carbohydrate intake, or dropping this macronutrient entirely, it is no wonder people automatically assume that you will lose weight if you cut your carbohydrate intake. And to be honest it works at first, because when you reduce how many carbohydrates you eat, your body reduces the amount of insulin produced which in turn makes your body use protein or fat as its energy source.

The Problem With Low-Carb Diets

The problem with this however, is that you cannot be on a life long low carbohydrate diet. Sure, it may work in the short term, but the body, and especially the brain, requires carbohydrates for energy. The brain cells ONLY use glucose as an energy source and because it cannot store glucose, they depend on the bloodstream to deliver glucose to it. Carbohydrates get broken down into glucose, so if you remove carbohydrates from your diet, how is your brain supposed to function? Protein gets broken down into glycogen, and fats get broken down into glycerol and fatty acids, but they are nowhere near as efficient as glucose. I want a healthy and working brain thanks. There are many other dangers that can happen to you if you follow a low carb diet for you long such as

-feeling extremely tired all the time
-loss of muscle mass because you just don’t have the energy to workout
-constipation and bowel issues (from a reduction in fiber)
-dehydration
-longer term health issues such as your immune system becoming weaker

Carbs are not the devil

It is really not worth it. Seriously, I went on a verrry low carbohydrate diet last year and although I lost a lot of weight, I was tired all the time, and honestly it put me through a really hard time as I gained most of the weight back plus some (which thankfully I have lost through a HEALTHY and BALANCED diet!). I tried going back on my low carb diet at first, exercised like crazy but literally nothing worked because my body was so used to not having carbohydrates that even though I was eating completely healthy foods, I could not lose the weight. It seriously freaked me out because I have never had so much trouble losing weight in my life. My body had adapted to having such a low amount of carbs, that even eating a normal amount of carbohydrates would make me gain weight.

What We Should Be Focusing On

If anything we should really be more focused on cutting our sugar consumption, and not just the obvious things like chocolate and soft drinks like coke. You would be so surprised at how much added sugars are in such innocent products. An example would be ketchup, it is practically all sugar! And I am talking about sugars such as sucrose, high fructose corn syrup, beet sugar, cane sugar, and liquid fructose. Although fruits are very healthy, unfortunately a lot of companies have been adding fructose (fruit sugar) to products to make them sweeter. If you want a more in-depth explanation about how bad added sugar (not naturally occurring sugars, I am not trying to demonize anything natural) can be for you, click here.

My Advice?

Just be sensible everyone and realize that carbs are not the devil; nor is any other macronutrient. There is no need to completely cut out any food group. Balance is the key. And sure, you can still enjoy your guilty pleasures too, just make sure that they aren’t an everyday occurrence. And again, if you eat too many carbohydrates then you may gain weight. But quite frankly, if you eat too much of anything, there is a high chance you will gain weight. Calories are calories, although not all calories are created equal (give me 300 calories of shrimp over 300 calories of non-nutritious rice cakes any day).

Let Me Know What YOU Think

What diets have you heard about? I would love to hear what they are, as I am always discovering weirder and weirder ones .. someone told me about a 500 calorie diet a day and I just about died.

Honestly yours,
Alice

References
The Hidden Dangers of a Low Carbohydrate Diet
Low Carbohydrate Diets: Going Against The Grain