Goodbye my Lovelies. . .

Since this entire blog wasn't really a blog and was actually and English assignment (Matrix?!), and today I am writing in response to a prompt given by the English teacher himself. How have I changed this year? Well, sitting here thinking about it, I have changed quite a bit, in many different parts of my life. I have improved as a dancer, I figured out how to french braid my hair, and I went through a leggings and sweatshirt everyday phase. But, I'm assuming Mr. Parker wants me to talk about how I've changed academically, so here we go.

First, I learned how to write as if I weren't a college professor from the 19th century. In other words, I learned how to write in a non-formal way, although I don't think I would actually know how to write like a college professor from the 19th century. Did they say thou back then? I don't know. Because of this blog, I stopped treating every writing assignment like a persuasive essay, even most of the time they were. Through this blog, I found my voice, but I can still write a kick ass formal piece of writing. If you look at my very first post, It is so stiff, and proper. But, those days are behind me, and now its all my voice, all the time. Except during essays.

Second, I learned time management. Although throughout the year I still had my fair share of panic attacks about an assignment that I didn't do that was due in 5 minutes, I have improved of my non-procrastination skills. And, I think that this blog forced me to do that, kind of. No one likes a blog that is dead silent for three months, then has 6 posts within 2 hours. Like, eww. So, I had to force myself to spread out my writing, or I would become OCD about how the dates and times are too close together. I may have not succeeded at that all the time though, and I'm pretty sure I'm not actually OCD, even though I do occasionally have to re-organize my closet before I can fall asleep.

Another thing that I have learned, that you may or may not agree on, is that I'm absolutely hilarious. If I make myself laugh, than that definitely means you, my non-existent audience, are laughing.

A picture of me being Hilarious with cute puppies

So, there you go, my probable last post ever, as funny as ever. Lets hope I get an A.

~Mia

Naturebox to the Rescue!

Hello internet. Today I'm going to tell you about this wonderful new subscription/product/thing that I've discovered in the recent months. It is probably the most amazing thing to ever happen to me, and I want to share it with you. Since one of my favorite things to do is eat, and snack, and that kind of stuff, I was on a mission to find healthy snacks that are also delicious. Like, who wants to eat kale chips? Those are so not delicious.So then one day, as I was exploring the internet, I found this thing called Naturebox. Naturebox is this wonderful beautiful amazing subscription that sends you bags of snacks once a month. They are so delicious, and they don't have any food coloring or artificial flavors or any weird chemicals, which is hard to find in this day in age. You pick the snacks that you want to get every month, and when you pick your snacks you can refine your search to things like gluten free, nut free, low sugar, non-GMO, less than 150 calories, and like 20 more. It's kind of amazing, and is my new favorite everything.

So far, I've gotten three boxes, a total of 15 different kinds of snacks. And, my favorite ones (so far) are. . .

Sea Salt Pop Pops- these are like popcorn, but 100 million times better. because it doesn't have any gross stuff like butter on it. Literally, the only ingredients are Whole Corn, Soybean or Sunflower Oil, and Sea Salt. Like, what even? How can something this delicious have practically nothing in it. I would recommend this snack a million times, but that would take to long and I have a 500 word limit. 

They come in the cutest little bags, too!

Pistachio Power Clusters- Holy lord these are delicious! They're little squares of nuts that are so yummy! Each bag comes with, like, eight squares, but one square is enough to fill you up for your entire life! These are super amazing, especially if you like nuts. It you are allergic to nuts, avoid this product. 

Uh, YUM. Courtesy of Happy Mothering

Something that I've learned from my Naturbox experience is that when you have a food that you like, and you are going to eat, you have to hide it from the rest of your family. I learned this the hard way when I came home and my brother and his girlfriend had eaten all of my Naturebox snacks! Like, come on guys, go buy your own food.

~Mia

OH MY GOD I'M STUCK HERE

Today I have the pleasure of spending 15 hours at Herriman High School for a dance competition. I will be dancing a total of 7 minutes and 10 seconds, but I get to spend 15 HOURS in this terrible, windowless choir room. I'm bored out of my mind, to say the least, and am so tired that I am literally drifting off while I write this. The saddest thing is that I've passed the time by watching old Barbie movies. I think I need an intervention, because now I know all the words to all the songs.

The Terrible, Windowless Choir Room as seen at 5:37 pm.
Shoutout to Sami for posing for my picture.

The point of may rant is that I realized that lots of people probably have to go through these terrible days, and its hard to eat healthy, especially when you're in Herriman, Utah. If I walked down the hallway right now, I could buy pizza, a donut, and a soda for 5 dollars. Or, I could buy one small Jamba Juice for 5 dollars. Not the best options. So, I've decided to tell you what to do in these situations, when healthy food is impossible to find.

First, you need to PACK SNACKS. Snacks will save your life. One of my favorites for dance events are my Flax Seed Energy Ball Things, because they are delicious and nutritious. Another great snack is protein bars. They're super delicious, and not messy to eat, and you can hide them almost anywhere. Today, I have been relying on Quest Bars and Luna Bars, which are both completely amazing. Another great snack is fruit, because it gives you a quick burst of energy without the perils of artificial sugar.

 My bag of snacks. I already ate most of them.

Now, I will address the issue of boredom, which, I know, has absolutely nothing to do with food, but I think that I've learned a lot about boredom today, and I want to share my newfound wisdom.

Number One- Don't bring your homework, because you will never end up doing it. You will always find something more interesting to do, like play with string or *ahem* watch Barbie movies. So, it's just a waste of energy to bring homework, so don't do it.

Number Two- Bring movies, and a way to watch them. This came in very handy for me, and lots of other people, too. Apparently lots of people at my dance studio like watching Barbie movies, so we all watched them together, like a team bonding exercise. You could maybe even say it was productive. You can also bring other things to watch, like TV shows or whatever. I chose Keeping Up With the Kardashians as my TV show choice, which, looking back, I now regret.

Number Three- People watching is always an option. The people watching in Herriman at a dance competition was especially entertaining. That was definitely my favorite activity of the day. Besides dancing, of course.

There you go, my personal survival guide to a day destined to be mind-numbingly boring, and when bad food is unavoidable.

~Mia

Three New Ways to Not Run

Do you hate running more than anything else in the world? Well, I''m here to help. Hi, I'm Mia Taylor, a student at a junior high. I have some important information that you need to hear. Do you ever think, "gosh, boy do I hate running, but I have to so that my heart doesn't fail." Well, I have good news for you. With these new, top of the line exercises, you may never need to run again! If you do them now, you can loose an unspecified amount of weight! But wait, theres more! Exercise now, and you will loose double an unspecified amount of weight in an unspecified amount of time! It's almost to good to be true, so you better go quick!

Say no to running! Courtesy of Sync Fitness

My first magical exercise to replace running is the stationary bike. Its like a regular bike, but when you pedal, it doesn't go forward- crazy right? But, spinning on these bikes can burn calories like nothing else, and is a great way to get in your daily dose of cardio (or monthly, if you're like me). Another plus? If you have really bad joints, like knees or ankles or something, spinning on a stationary bike can actually help you joint pain. It really is like magic. You can go just six minutes on this thing and get all the cardio you need for the day. If you don't have any idea what to do on a spinning bike, you can go to a class (the one I linked to is for a really good spinning class at Silver Mountain Sports Club), or look up one of the billion routines that are on the world wide web. Here's one that Japanese speed skaters do, where you get your total cardio workout in jut 4 minutes! Wow, how exiting, only 4 minutes of exercise a day.

Ooh, how realistic. Courtesy of PixShark

So, there you go, something to do instead of running. I hope you enjoyed this infomercial. 

~Mia

Infinite Reasons Why Sugar is Bad for You

I am here today to crush all your hopes and dreams. My previous posts may suggest that gluten is the worst thing you can eat, or simple carbs, or the paleo diet. But no, all of those guesses are incorrect. The absolutely worst thing you can possibly put into your body is sugar. There is so much wrong with sugar it's not even funny. The astounding wrongness of sugar can be proved through biology, evolution, and my blog.

The average American eats 170 pounds of sugar a year.
Sorry if this exploded your brain.
Parks and Rec is amazing.
Courtesy of Tumblr

Lets travel back through time to when the human race lived in caves, and didn't have iPhones or glowing mice or Obama. These people were primarily hunters and gatherers, but mostly gatherers and a nice hunk of protein was a treat for them. Sugar, along with simple carbs and m&m's (no, not m&m's) were so extremely rare that they practically never had it. Think about it, you can't go outside in nature and find a naturally occurring thing that has sugar in it (fruit has good sugar, so be quiet). So, if you think really hard about evolution and stuff you realize that the human body is not meant to have sugar. Just like we aren't meant to have processed foods. If we aren't biologically designed to eat it, then it will obviously have terrible effects on our body. It's almost like feeding cows skittles (yes, there are companies that do that. Buy organic, free range beef!)

Because of this, sugar has several horrible effects on your body. Number one is that it makes your insulin levels go whacko, which is why you get a sugar high, then you crash, etc. Bad insulin levels from eating to much sugar is how people get Type II Diabetes, which is a super awful disease that is and epidemic in the US. Europeans are skinny because there is literally no sugar in their grocery store. Trust me, I went there once so I know everything about Europe.

This is the market in Versailles, France, and I was totally here,
I just didn't take a picture. Sorry.
Notice- there is no sugar.
Courtesy of Trip Advisor

Second, sugar feeds cancer, and oxygen kills cancer. Since cancer is the uncontrollable division of cells, and insulin is one of the hormones that contributes to that process, sugar feeds cancer, literally. Now, since oxygen kills cancer, you should breathe a lot. Just Kidding, if you have cancer you should go to a hyperbaric chamber. They give you oxygen there.

Third, sugar makes you fat. There is no better way to say it. It's what gives you high cholesterol, it makes you swell up like a balloon, and it's highly addictive so you can't stop eating it (it causes major dopamine release in the brain, which is pretty much the same thing that illegal drugs do. And most non-illegal drugs).

In conclusion, don't eat sugar. Also, if this post doesn't make sense it's because I drank a latte before I went to ballet so I wouldn't fall asleep during adagio. I'm still super amped up. So just don't mind me over here laying upside down listening to Coldplay, but definitely do what I say. Always.

Ooh, now I'm listening to Hozier. Like Real People Do is the best song ever.

~Mia

Blogosphere

Hello Mia's Blog! I'm Juliette and I own Verde Sauce! You guys should definitely check it out! I don't write about healthy foods but I am actually a comedic genius . . . So if you get the chance, hop on over to Verde Sauce!

Protein Bars - Everything You Need to Know

Today I would like to discuss the issues I have with protein bars. Protein bars are not something that you should be eating constantly. There is a specific time and place (not really a specific place, but. . . ) for protein bars, and it is not 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. One of my biggest pet peeves is when I'm in third period and I see someone drinking a protein shake, or eating a protein bar. I don't like this because you are only supposed to eat protein bars (or protein drinks) after you exercise a lot. If you have the right kind of protein, you can drink it first thing in the morning, and thats okay. But, you should not eat protein bars as if it's kale. 

First of all, protein bars need some extra stuff to get all of that protein in there. Most protein bars have an insane amount of calories, sugar, and fat, which is okay to eat if you just burned a lot of calories and need the amino acids (those come in proteins) to build up your muscle. Protein bars/drinks are not something you should eat all the time if you want to gain muscle without doing anything, because it'll have absolutely no affect, and probably make you fatter. 

These are literally so delicious. Courtesy of Penny Pinching Mom

But, protein bars are a good thing to have when you're on the go, and you're starving and you have to have a snack. You just have to pick the right kind of bar. A bad protein bar to eat in this situation would be something like a PowerBar, which has a crazy amount of protein only fit for a bodybuilder. A good bar to eat, that I have found, is something like Nature Valley's Protein bars. They have enough protein to fill you up for a little bit, but not a bunch of extra sugar and stuff. But, be warned, even though these are better protein bars doesn't mean than you can eat 20 of them at a time- you still have to be careful, and mostly eat them after some kind of physical activity. So, don't be that kid stuffing 50 grams of protein in their mouth before 10 in the morning. At least wait until lunch.

~Mia

DON'T SKIP MEALS

Well friends, recently while I sit in the school cafeteria from 12:22 to 12:51, I've encountered a problem. I'm constantly hearing people (mostly girls, because they all want to be skinny) talk about how they skipped breakfast, or how they don't eat lunch or whatever. If you had read my previous post, you would know that BREAKFAST IS THE MOST IMPORTANT MEAL OF THE DAY, so you really should eat it, even if it makes you sick. Also, every meal is the most important meal of the day. I cannot stress enough how horribly horrible it is for you to skip meals. This isn't just my inner old person saying "oh, dear, you're much to skinny. Here, have a snickerdoodle," it's my actual self with actual scientific evidence saying that you're wrong.

Don't skip meals. Courtesy of My Food Diary

Now, logical reasoning would lead you to believe that skipping meals makes you loose weight. Yes, at some point it does, but then it's called anorexia, which is a serious disease and not how you should live your life. Right now, if you're thinking that just skipping one meal once and a while isn't bad, and hey, it can't hurt your weight loss goals, then you're dead wrong. I can't even tell you how wrong you are. Because, when you skip a meal, you're body immediately goes into starvation mode, and stores all the fat it can. Fat storage is exactly what you don't want when you're losing weight. Part two is that when you skip breakfast, specifically, you're metabolism doesn't get started, and that throws off you're whole life. You're body realizes that it's awake when you eat breakfast, then it starts all the stuff it needs to do in the daytime. Skipping meals is just really, really bad. And, it becomes even worse if you do any kind of exercise, because then you're muscles don't have enough energy to rebuild. And, it's also really bad if you're young and you're cells are still dividing, because then your cells don't have the energy to divide. So, don't skip meals. Period.

I know that some days it's really, really hard, and you're running late, and you just stabbed your eye with the mascara wand, and you just don't have time to eat anything. I definitely know this feeling. Just this morning I forgot to eat breakfast (oops, guess I should practice what I preach) and I didn't have any food until 12:22. But, I now regret my decisions, and will not go down that dark path again. Literally, all you need to do is grab a banana, or a protein bar, or even a raspberry, and that will be enough to tell you're body to wake up. And at lunch, even if the option is unhealthy, you should still eat something.

The moral of the story is to never skip meals.

~Mia

Panko-Crusted Sesame Chicken is My New Life

In my mother's never ending battle to find fast, easy meals for her family, she has recently discovered a recipe for Panko-crusted Sesame Chicken. For possibly the first time ever, every single member of my family loved what she made for dinner. It's also super healthy, so I'm going to give you the recipe.

I want to eat it so badly. Courtesy of In Sock Monkey Slippers
P.S. I'm sorry I didn't take my own picture. 

Ingredients-

• 3 1/2 pounds chicken, cut in serving pieces - My mother used boneless, skinless chicken. She also advises to cut the chicken into "finger shapes," whatever that is.
• 1/2 cup corn starch
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup sugar - In my families never ending goal to be healthy (and skinny), my mom took the sugar completely out of the recipe. If that sounds like hell to you, just cut the sugar in half.
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 5 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1/4 cup sliced green onions, including 3 inches of the green part
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4 cup toasted white sesame seeds
• 1/4 cup safflower oil - My mom also decided to take this completely out of the recipe, because she thought that it would make it to oily. She was probably right.
• 2 1/2 cups panko (Japanese bread crumbs) - The chef of this recipe (a.k.a my mom) advised me to tell you that you will need way more panko than that. She said that you should add about an extra 1 1/4 cups.
• Peanut oil for frying - Because peanut oil is horrible for you (I think), my mom used coconut oil instead. P.S. coconut oil is magic sauce, and it makes the chicken taste like coconuts.

Directions- 

1. Wash the chicken and pat dry.
2. In a small mixing bowl, combine the corn starch, flour, sugar (or no sugar), and 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt.
3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, soy sauce, onions, garlic, sesame seeds, and safflower oil (remember, no safflower oil if you want to be awesome).Whisk in the corn starch mixture.
4. Place the chicken pieces in a sealable plastic bag.
5. Pour in the batter and turn to coat. - basically "turn to coat" means to get the chicken covered in gross eggy stuff.
6. Marinate in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours, or as long as overnight, turning the bag to keep the marinate combined. Overnight marinating enhances the flavor of the chicken.
7. Season the panko with the remaining salt and spread on a work surface. Remove the pieces of chicken from the bag, allowing the excess marinade to drip back into the bag. Roll the chicken in the panko, making sure each piece is well coated. - It is impertinent that the panko doesn't get wet, or else it all stick together. So, use one hand to grab the chicken and drip off the marinade, then use the other hand to roll it around in the panko. 
8. In a 12-14 inch skillet, heat the peanut oil (coconut oil) to 350 degrees. Fry the chicken until golden brown, turning frequently. The chicken is done when the thickest part of the thigh is pierced with a fork and the juices run clear. Drain on paper towels. Serve warm or at room temperature. - In order to fully cook the chicken and keep it warm well she was finishing frying the rest of the chicken, my mom would pop the pieces into the oven after she fried them, at about 300 degrees. 

Recipe courtesy of California Heritage Continues: A Cookbook

This chicken is literally the most amazing thing on the planet, and you should definitely make it. It makes amazing leftovers, and the day after my mom made it I had it for lunch, and was looking forward to coming home and eating more, but then it was all gone. I'm still kind of bummed that I didn't get more of it. So, the moral of the story is to make a double batch and eat as much of it as possible, before the rest of your family can get to it. 

~Mia

A Complete Guide to Not Eating

My favorite thing to do always is eat. Especially when I get home after school. I walk into my kitchen at eat everything in sight, except for my dogs and anything healthy. I've noticed that this is a problem outside of my particular home, and it probably happens in your home. Eating because you're bored is a very bad thing, and so is overeating. So, I have a few tricks for you so that you don't eat half the world when you get home.

This is my favorite food, minus the twinkles.
Courtesy of Shopbuy

My very first trick is to chew gum. If there is something already in your mouth, then you can't eat anything. Also, after you spit the gum out, your mouth will be all minty, and who wants to eat when your mouth is minty? A variation of this trick is to brush your teeth when you get home. Then, your mouth will be really minty, and you really won't want to eat anything. Also, your breath will smell amazing.

My second trick is to drink green tea. First, since it's mostly water, it will fill you up with water. Second, green tea curbs your hunger, so you won't be as hungry. And, an extra plus, green tea has a bunch of antioxidants, which are very good for you. My favorite kind of green tea is Bigelow, and Numi Jasmine Green Tea.

Do people really put lime in their green tea?
Courtesy of Higher Perspective

My third trick is prepare stuff to eat the day before. If you always have healthy leftovers in your fridge when you get home, you can just microwave them and eat them right then and there. But, you shouldn't wait to make an actual meal right when you get home, because chances are you wont want to make it, then you'll eat chips instead. So, the night before make a really big dinner, then put all the leftovers in the fridge. The next day, you can eat that instead of a bag of corn starch.

My very last trick isn't as good as my first three. If you are 100% determined to eat snack foods when you get home, this trick is for you. Don't just grab the bag and sit in front of the TV. Grab the bag, then grab a bowl. Put some chips or whatever in the bowl, then eat out of the bowl, and not the bag. If you eat out of the bag, you are more likely to eat way more than if you were to eat out of a bowl.

I hope with these amazing tricks you will begin to eat less.

~Mia

Being Sick is Death

I had six amazing, beautiful ideas lined up to write about today, but when I woke up this morning, I felt like I was swallowing glass. In other, less disgusting words, I had a sore throat. So, then I had this ingenious idea to write about ways to stop being sick, and also ways to prevent being sick. For those of you who don't know, your immune system is responsible for making you sick, or not sick. If you barely ever get sick, and are only sick if someone in your household got you sick (thanks Dar), then you probably have a good immune system. If you are always sick and are convinced that you have a chronic illness that no doctor can figure out, then you most likely have a bad immune system, and you should fix that right away. But, today I'm bringing you some tips for when you are sick- good immune system or not.

This giraffe is also sick. Courtesy of Cliparts101

Tip #1- Since I am sick with only a sore throat, this tip is about how to fix a sore throat. I know if you go on the internet and look up "how to not be sick," there will be 10 billion super weird home remedies, and all of them probably contain eye of newt, or vinegar. But this one actually works. Take really, really hot water, like the hottest that you can possibly put into your mouth without dying, then add enough salt to make it taste really, really salty, then drink it and watch as your cells implode from osmosis. Just kidding, don't actually do that, it would be very bad. Instead of drinking the salt water and dying, just gargle with it instead. Do that a few times, then your throat will pretty much immediately feel better. It's honestly a miracle worker. Disclosure- this doesn't fix your sickness and make you healthy forever, it just makes you feel better for a few hours.

Tip #2- My next tip is possibly even weirder that the first, but it's even better and actually makes you not sick anymore. This trick can be done while sick to stop being sick, or the rest of your life to prevent yourself from getting sick (ahem, people with bad immune systems, this one is for you). Take a mug of orange juice. Then, put a spoonful of coconut oil in the orange juice (you can get coconut oil at Costco, and the regular store, and kind of anywhere, it's really not that uncommon). After that, microwave the orange juice and coconut oil until the coconut oil is melted in the orange juice. Stir. Drink. Trust me, it is as bad at it sounds. But, I also hate orange juice and coconuts, so maybe it'll be better for you. This also is a miracle worker, and I'm only ever sick for a day because whenever I think I'm getting sick, I just drink this, then I'm all better.

Tip #3- This tip is much less weird than the last two, and much more well known. Drink tea. That will help you with a sore throat. You could drink other warm beverages, but stuff that has sugar in it like hot chocolate isn't good, because you should try to stay away from sugar if you're sick. Correction, you should always stay away from sugar. My favorite tea to drink when I'm sick is mint tea, with cream. It's super delicious and your breath smells good after drinking it. \

Does anybody actually drink tea out of glass coffee cups?
Courtesy of Pintrest

Tip #4- I'm running out of words, so my last tip is to take vitamin C. This doesn't help you not be sick, but it helps you not get sick. In less confusing words, it's good for your immune system.

I apologize if this post is weird, but I'm sick so. . .

~Mia

The Best Way to Eat Pulverized Fruit

Smoothies are super fun, and can also be super healthy, and there are many ways to make them amazing. But, they can also be super unhealthy. Kind of. If you go on the internet thing and search "smoothie recipe," chances are it will tell you to dump 10 cups of sugar into the blender, along with some chocolate and probably skittles, too. So, the best way to make a good, healthy smoothie is to completely wing it and not follow a recipe. It works almost every time.

Step one to making a perfect smoothie- freeze your own fruit! If you have a bunch of fruit (like strawberries, raspberries, tomatoes, blueberries) that are about to go bad, then stick them in a bag and stick it in the freezer. Or, you can go get a bag of frozen fruit from the store, but before you spend your money on it check to make sure it doesn't have any added sugar. It's obviously going to have sugar in it, because fruit has natural sugar in it (What!?), but it's natural so it's okay. But, if you're Ted Ligety you should definitely stay away from sugar (Ted Ligety is a professional ski racer and the fastest man on earth, so he can't have any sugar. Poor thing. P.S. Ted, I'm totally not dissing you I think you're awesome). Also to avoid unnecessary sugar, don't buy the pre portioned fruit packets that have like yogurt in them and stuff, and they add a lot of sugar (I'm looking at you, Yoplait Smoothies). 

Instead of eating sugar, Ted gets to eat gold. Lucky.
Courtesy of Thrive Sports

There are a few basic things that need to be present in any good smoothie. First you obviously need fruit. If you put in frozen fruit, you don't need any ice. But, if you use just a banana or fresh fruit, you need to put in ice to make it cold. Another thing I love putting in smoothies is peanut butter. It adds some protein to the smoothie, and adds kind of a nutty taste. You could also use almond butter. Most smoothie recipes will call for some kind of fruit juice, but I always use milk or almond milk. Less sugar. Also, if you want it to be more sweet, you can add a touch of honey.

Here are some of my go-to smoothie recipes (I have absolutely no clue about the proportions, but I'll tell you a trick to get it kind of right. The trick is to completely guess and give the extra to someone else, or put it in the fridge, or give it to the sink if it tastes bad. 

Go-to smoothie number one- 

• About one cup of frozen fruit -  any fruit you want, but I usually stick with the berry family.
• A banana - or half a banana or ten bananas, I don't really know
• Almond milk/cow milk/soy milk- add this last, and make sure it barely hits the top of all the other stuff that you put in. Does that make sense?
• Peanut butter/almond butter/cashew butter - if you add this, don't add to much because then you might have to eat it with a spoon. I definitely haven't done that before. 

Sadly, I don't have any fancy straws. Courtesy of Parade

Go-to smoothie number two-

• Ice
• Peanut butter/almond butter/cashew butter - I tried it with sugar-free peanut butter once and I couldn't eat it, so then I used regular peanut butter, but you're not allowed to do that because you're not allowed to eat sugar. Again, don't add to much of it 'cause then it will be like, really thick.
• Honey - honey makes it delicious, so add a lot
• A banana
• Almond milk - this recipe is delicious with almond milk, but you can try it with regular milk or soy milk

Confession- these recipes might end up with servings for 13 (a bakers dozen), and you might have to mess around with the proportions and stuff, but it's totally worth it. 

~ Mia

Why I Keep Dissing the Paleo Diet

If I'm remembering correctly, I have mentioned my "strong disliking" (hatred sounds too mean) of the Paleo Diet fad. The Paleo Diet is when you only eat things that "early humans"(cavemen) ate, which is mostly meat, and very few fruits and vegetables. This diet isn't necessarily bad, but it actually kind of is. If you are truly reflecting what cavemen ate, it would be almost 100% meat, and only fruits and vegetables that the cavemen had scavenged - which are very, very few. Personally, I don't really trust a diet that doesn't include a ridiculous amount of fruits and vegetables, and I think it can be very bad for your body to be so protien-heavy in a diet.

We are not this. Courtesy of Crossfit Lakewood

I recently read a book called The China Study that was all about how society is told what to eat and what's wrong with our government. That sounds very pessimist, but it was all about a study that this guy (Thomas Campbell) did in a bunch of little villages in China (hence the name “The China Study”). The study showed that the poor people, who couldn't afford a lot of meat and protein, tended to get bad diseases less often than the richer villagers who could afford meat. After seeing this connection, the scientist did decades worth of studies on lab rats and observed other villages that had prominent health issues. So, essentially the book is saying that you can have a higher risk of diseases like cancer, diabetes, and autoimmune diseases if you eat high amounts of protien. I'm probably completely butchering the explanation, so you should probably read the book. Anyway, Dr. Campbell’s solution to all of this stuff that he had found out was to eat less meat, and more vegetables. Because I trust Dr. Campbell and don't trust the internet, I don't like the Paleo Diet. 

I think that since the Paleo Diet is the exact opposite of everything that The China Study goes into excruciating detail to explain is not good. I’d rather listen to an actual doctor who actually knows what he’s doing than listen to the people who are like, “cavemen were skinny so lets eat like they ate, even though they were starving and they didn’t have houses.” If you are a strong advocate of the Paleo Diet, feel free to leave an angry comment and start an internet fight. Maybe it’ll give me more page views. 

~Mia

P.S. I’m very sorry for completely ranting about this, and I’ll try my hardest not to rant again anytime soon. 

Why Gluten is my New Worst Enemy

I have become part of an age-old feud, almost like the Capulets and Montagues (except literally not at all). Thank you, Mr. Parker, for putting that in my head. Anyway, I stopped eating gluten. I have a few very good reasons, and I'm not saying you should absolutely do it or you're not healthy and you can't read this blog anymore, but I'm just going to inform you of my decision.

First, I'm going to tell you what gluten is, so you can know what you're not eating. Gluten is an agent in wheat that gives it elasticity. If you didn't understand any of that, its just something that's in wheat that makes it stretchy. Gluten is in stuff like cake and cookies and bread and doghnuts and cake and literally everything else that tastes good in the world, unless you actually like vegetables (does anybody?). So, gluten is what makes everything stick together, but it's not all perfect.

Even this beautiful thing has gluten. Courtesty of King Arthur Flour

My biggest thing about gluten is that it makes me feel bloated. It makes a lot of people feel bloated, actually. There is this thing call gluten sensitivity, or non-celiac gluten sensitivity, that is very common. You pretty much have it if you have any kind of bad reaction to eating gluten, like being bloated. There are lots of other examples of bad bodily functions that are related to gluten, but I didn't want to read them all.

I know that there are like a billion diet fads out there, and most of them are completely ridiculous (like what even is the paleo diet? It makes no sense), but cutting out gluten is really something that you should try. There's no way that it could be bad for you, so why not? And, if you cut out gluten you're also cutting out most foods that contain refined sugars, which are really bad for you. And, hopefully, you'll feel a million times better. It's a win-win-win, so why not? Whenever I decide to eat gluten free I regret ever not eating gluten free. I have so much more energy, and I feel so much less lethargic. And, even though you may think it's really hard to find gluten free foods, it's definitely not. If you walk into a grocery store and throw a rock you can hit something without gluten. Especially if you go in the produce section. So, when you come home from work or school or skydiving or whatever, instead of having some crackers or cake, have an apple. Even though I told you earlier that I wasn't saying you should absolutely cut gluten out of your diet, now I'm saying that you should absolutely cut gluten out of your diet. You're welcome.

~ Mia

Flax Seed Energy Ball Things

So I'm back with an all new recipe, and this one is actually healthy, unlike my last one. If you have already read my most recent post about what to eat while you're exercising, you've heard about these magical delicious-I-don't-know-what-they're-called ball things. When the nutritionist was at my dance studio (again, refer to my last post for more information), she showed us a recipe that is super easy and fast for these energy balls to eat before you exercise , that give you the right kind of energy. At first, I was suspicious because she put coconut in them, and I'm a strong opposer to coconut. But, I decided to give it a try, and it changed my life. Now, these mysterious spheres of excellence are all I eat- it's probably not safe. Now I am here to share this excellence with you- here we go!

Look it's them! Courtesy of Gimme Some Oven

Ingredients:

• I cup uncooked quick oats -Make sure you use the right kind of oats- one time I used steel cut oats and they were the weirdest flax seed ball things I've ever tasted. You can also use gluten free oats. 

• 1/2 cup peanut, almond, or cashew butter -I always use almond butter. Whole foods has a lot of really good brands. You can also use any other kind of "butter," except regular butter. 

• 1/3 cup honey or maple syrup -I usually use honey because it's healthier and less sugary-tasting. Also, if you don't have honey or maple syrup, you can use agave. I tried it once, and it tastes pretty good-it's just sweeter.

• 1/2 cup wheat germ, flaxseed, or flax meal -I've always use flaxseed, and I think it tastes really good. But, my dad has mentioned that you could also try chia seeds. My only concern with using chia seeds is that when they touch liquid, they get really goey and weird.

• 1 tsp vanilla extract -You could always use almond extract instead.

• 1/2 cup Craisins, dried blueberries or sour cherries, shredded coconut (unsweetened), or chocolate chips -You can pretty much put anything you want here, but make sure not to add to many things- this can amp up the calories. My favorite is the shredded coconut. 

All you have to do after mixing all of the ingredients in a bowl is put it in the fridge for half an hour. Then, you can either roll them into balls, or just smush it all into a tubberware container and eat it with a fork, which I may or may not do.

Since this recipe is designed to be eaten to boost your energy while you're working out, it's kinda higher in calories than some other foods (like celery). Not so much that you'll have to go to fat camp, but enough that you can't just eat it whenever. The best time to eat this is right before a workout, or during one when your energy is low. You also don't want to eat a huge quantity at once, because if you do some math that means you eat even more calories. 

Eating for Maximum Energy Utilization

Over the summer my dance studio brought in a real-life-its-her-actual-job-nutritionist. They had her come so that she could teach us about how you're supposed to eat when you're constantly exercising.  She showed us a delicious recipe for these energy balls that have flax seed and honey and coconut and a bunch of other stuff - maybe I'll show you it sometime. She also gave us three pages of information - eating before exercise, during exercise, and after. Those three pieces of paper have been so helpful to me and are my lifeblood when I'm dancing for five hours straight.

Like honestly though? Courtesy of Apples and Arteries

Eating Before Exercise

• Eat a carbohydrate-rich snack or meal before exercise - but avoid simple sugars cuz those usually just make you fat.
• A little bit of protein before you exercise, because this can help reduce muscle soreness after your workout.
• Choose a meal that is low in fat and fiber so that you can digest it, and hopefully not throw up when you are doing jumping jacks. 

Some good foods that you can eat a few hours before you exercise are:

• Peanut butter & honey on whole-grain toast 
• Fruit & yogurt smoothie + low fat granola
• Turkey & cheese sandwich and some fruit               

About an hour before you workout, you would want to eat something small like some fruit or a sports bar. Another thing that I find helpful before I exercise is not eating a lot of food. If I just have a small snack and make sure I'm not super full when I go to dance, then I feel like I can actually dance.

Eating During Exercise

• Drink the right amount of fluids. You need a good mix of water and a drink with electrolytes. A good general rule is for the first hour of exercising, drink water. After that, you want to start ingesting something that has electrolytes but not too much sugar. 

• Make sure you drink enough water to make up for the sweat that you're losing. Dehydration is not fun when you are exercising.  

• Experiment with different foods and drinks to see what keeps your energy up the longest. Everyone is different and unique, like a snowflake.

While you're exercising, here are some foods and fluids that you should try:

• Coconut water - this is the best thing you can drink because it has a ton of electrolytes and other amazing things, but not as much sugar as something like gatorade. Gatorade is the worst thing you could drink while exercising. 

• A banana, bread with jam or honey, low-fat sports or granola bars

When you are eating during a workout, the goal is to boost your energy up for a short period of time. So it's also good to eat some fruit, or even something like fruit snacks to boost your blood sugar levels for a little bit. 

Eating for Recovery

• Restore fluid and electrolytes lost in sweat(a.k.a drink water and coconut water).
• Replace muscle fuel utilized during practice(a.k.a eat complex carbohydrates)
• Eat protein to repair damaged muscle tissue
• Eat a snack or meal within 15-60 minutes after your workout

Fun Fact - Did you know that when you do a hard workout your muscle tissue actually tears apart a little bit? Amino acids rush there to fix the broken muscle, and thats why you get sore muscles. When the muscle knits back together, it gets stronger. If you are strength training, you should pay attention to how long you're sore. If your muscles hurt for more than two or three days from the same workout, chances are you're going too hard on yourself and could injure yourself. Take it down a notch!

Some good recovery foods are:

• Chocolate milk- this is perfect 15 minutes after your workout because chocolate milk is one of the few drinks with a perfect protein to carb ratio to mend your ripped-up muscles.
• A home made smoothie- try to put in extra blueberries, because those are the best fruit for recovery. you can also add some peanut butter or almond butter to your smoothie. 
• Banana and peanut butter

Now that you know all of the ins and outs of eating food when you're working out, you can be the buffest person around. 

~Mia

Breakfast- The Hardest Meal of the Day

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day!

Can you count on your fingers how many times you've heard that phrase? Personally, I despise hearing it. It's ridiculously overused, and is it even true? No one ever tells you why breakfast is the most important meal of the day. But, despite the annoying phrase, it actually is. In the morning, when you feed yourself, you are letting your body know that you're awake, and it's time for another day. Then, your body jump-starts your metabolism. Keeping your metabolism stable is the key to staying healthy, and not gaining weight. And, as you get older, your metabolism naturally slows down. So, to keep your metabolism stable, you do need to eat breakfast. 

Ooh, Yum! If only I could actually Make this. Credits to Johnsonville

The hard part in all of this is what to eat for breakfast. I personally have so many issues with finding something I like to eat in the morning that's easy and quick. I don't have time to make a three course meal with some fresh squeezed orange juice. And, at six in the morning I'm not really up for making myself food either. I've experimented with many breakfast dishes, and have finally picked my favorite. But, before I reveal the winner, I will show you a timeline of breakfast foods past- some good, some bad. Who knows, maybe I'll give you some ideas for your early mornings. 

I used to eat cereal for breakfast, like lots of people do. But sadly, that is one of the bad breakfasts. It has no protein to keep you full until your next meal, and it is almost pure sugar. Those are reason enough not to eat it. 

Then, I went to instant oatmeal. You know, the ones in the brown packets? I would always have the brown sugar flavor, because if you add your own sugar, you'll probably put way to much in, and thats not good. Honestly, I just got sick of eating this every morning. But, it is a relatively okay choice to eat, if you don't mind the sugar and extra chemicals. Its quick and easy.  

After that I think it was a cut up banana and peanut butter. This is a very good option, because you get a beautifully vitamin rich banana, and some protein in the peanut butter. If you can choke down the sugar free peanut butter or almond butter, that would make it even better. I stopped eating this for breakfast because, again, I got sick of it (I get sick of foods easily).

And finally, the winner! Right now when I get up at, like, practically four in the morning, I drink a protein drink. Not an Odwalla bottle of chemicals or anything, though. I have two different powders that I put into water every morning, shake up, and chug. It takes maybe two minutes, and doesn't taste that bad. The two powders that I use are Nano-pro and Nano-green. These both come from the company Nano-greens.com, but I buy them off of Amazon. The Nano-pro is a protein powder (don't worry, you wont look like a muscle-builder), and the Nano-green is like eating a plate of kale, but without having to eat kale. You all know how much I hate kale. I put two scoops of Nano-pro, then one scoop on Nano-green in some water, then chug it. This is a really good option if you have a weird stomach, and eating solid foods in the morning makes you feel sick. I don't know if that's an actual thing, but I've hear people say that. And, I've been drinking it for a whole four months and I still haven't gotten sick of it, which is actually kind of rare. The only bad thing about this drink is that the powder in pretty expensive, and it runs out fast if you use it everyday. My family decided to buy an entire case of it at a time, and that way it's also cheaper. But, if you can't afford the powder there are always other alternatives that you can have for breakfast. Like, say, a fruit smoothie. 

~Mia

What is Clean Eating?

As I've been roaming the internet in the past couple of days, I've seen the term "clean eating" more times than I can count. I honestly had no idea what this meant. Do you have to put your food in the dishwasher before eating it? Or take a shower before eating your food? It was kind of driving me crazy, so I looked it up. Clean eating is just another one of those many diets, like vegans and paleo eaters. I have never payed attention to these diets because they are always so extreme, and I believe in moderation. Clean eating, however, is much more reasonable.

Courtesy of Feminspire.com

Essentially, the idea of clean eating is to eat foods as close to their true form as possible. So, no ultra-processed foods, or refined grains, or sugar. Wait, what is ultra-processed? This word is good to know if you want to be food-savvy. I'm sure you all hear about "processed foods," and how they are all bad for you, and thats true in a general sense. But, If you want to get really knit picky, processed food is anything not in its 100% completely natural state. For example, steaming your broccoli and mashing your potatoes makes them technically "processed" foods. It's nearly impossible to avoid all processed foods, because almost everything we eat is processed- we cook it, we mash it, we juice it, and we grill it. So, ultra-processed foods are what we usually called processed foods- the Marie Callender's Frozen Pot Pie, the jelly Donut that you had for desert, and the Big Mac you had on your way home from work. So, no, clean eating isn't cutting out everything that is cooked, or altered from its original state. It's cutting out ultra-processed foods as much as possible.

Another thing to know is how to tell if something you're eating is ultra-processed. The key is to look at the ingredients list. If there is anything that you can't pronounce, or don't know what it is, or sounds like some sort of awful chemical (like thiamin mononitrate), it's most likely ultra-processed. So don't eat it. Another useful tip is when you go grocery shopping, stay on the edges of the grocery store- where the meat, the fruit, the dairy, and the vegetables are. Unless you have a really weird grocery store, it'll probably be laid out like that.

A few other points of clean eating are to eat five to six times a day, and drink a lot of water. If you look at my post on water, you will know exactly how to do that. Now for the eating five or six times a day, this is just the best way to have energy all day long. If you eat six small meals a day, you will burn calories all day, and your body wont ever think that you are starving- because then it stores more fat. So, just eating six small meals a day can help you lose weight. Another part of clean eating is to try to eat local foods, and organic foods. This is just generally better for your body and better for the environment.

Now you have the whole lowdown on clean eating, and you can show off to your friends. Have fun.

~Mia