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Halloween is here and that means it’s candy time!  Yep, Halloween has been one of my favorite holidays since I was a child.  When else do you get to go to random strangers’ houses and ask for candy?  And then there’s the day after Halloween, when you pour out that bag full of candy on your bed, pick out the things you like best and gorge on sugar until you feel like your teeth are about to fall out.

Now back when I was a kid, that was ok.  I had a relatively healthy diet the rest of the year and I was really active, so a single day of nothing but sugar didn’t hurt me much.  That’s true these days too, with one exception.  Back then I had a limited supply of candy, only what I had picked up while trick or treating and a mother who wouldn’t let things go too far.  These days I’m the one with control of the candy bowl and I have no parent around to tell me “that’s enough Gal, save the rest for another day”.  So what should a healthy adult who loves chocolate do on Halloween?

1. Walk - How many times have I said that walking is the best exercise?  Well, here I am saying it again.  I have no idea why adults think going out and trick or treating is fun for kids only.  There’s a lot of fun to be had in walking through the streets of your neighborhood looking around.  You get to see the kids in their costumes, the houses with their decorations, and maybe, just maybe, you get into the fun of it and dress up yourself.  In the meantime, the walking prevents you from sitting at home and munching on the candy dish.
2. Delay the candy shopping - Today is Halloween morning.  Do you have your candy ready?  If so, you’re too early.  Buy the candy on the way home from work, not before.  That way you’re not sitting at home for days with a dish full of candy whispering to you “comeon, just one little piece!”
3. Buy candy you don’t like - Got a favorite candy?  I do, it’s the Kit Kat bar.  Guess what, when I buy candy to give out, I don’t buy Kit Kat’s.  I’ll usually buy something like a Snickers bar or something with dark chocolate.  In short, I’ll buy something I don’t like so I’m not tempted to eat it.
4. Out of sight, out of mind - Why is that candy bowl in the middle of the living room where you walk by it every five minutes?  Put it away somewhere where you can’t see it and aren’t reminded of it.  It’s amazing how much random impulses to overeat go away when the food isn’t visible.
5. Relax and enjoy your candy - Did I just tell you to enjoy your candy?  Yes I did!  Remember, being healthy isn’t about being unhappy.  It’s not about depriving yourself of everything you enjoy.  It’s about using some common sense in your diet instead.  All those sodas you gave up, all those bad fast food lunches you no longer eat and all those walks you’ve been taking?  Well, now you get to enjoy some of the benefits.  So sit down, unwrap that candy bar and enjoy.  One little candy bar isn’t going to kill you, not even two little candy bars.  Just use your common sense and don’t over do it.

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I returned from my vacation last night, exhausted but completely satisfied.  It was the best vacation I’ve had in a long time and one of the most memorable.  One of the thoughts that occured to me was how different this vacation was health wise from previous things I had done.  I spent two days canoeing on the Current River in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri and another day exploring the city of Columbia Missouri with a friend who had lived there for most of his childhood.

We did have one pizza dinner, but for the most part, the trip was focused on fun and not on eating.  Our time on the river was spent admiring the wonderful scenery and the incredible beauty of the countryside.  We brought some simple provisions with us, no BBQ’s full of meat or coolers full of beer.  Just some bread, some cheese and a few apples.  It’s amazing how good a simple cheese sandwich and an apple taste like after three hours of paddling a canoe.

What The Heck Am I Talking About

The point I’m trying to make is that vacations do not have to be bad for you.   Too frequently I hear from readers who say something along the lines of “I just went away for a weekend with my wife/husband/family and I think I gained 10lbs!”  Why do this to yourself?  Yes, vacations should not be a time to worry about your calories, and yes you should have fun on your vacation.  However, why use the vacation as an excuse to binge?  Even better, why not pick a vacation that’s fun AND active?

Some Options

How about a nice bed and breakfast somewhere where you can eat a light meal and then go and walk in the woods?  It’s usually cheaper than a fancy hotel and much calmer.

How about a camping trip with some friends?  Again, you won’t spend much money and you’ll come home exhausted but in a good way.

How about a canoeing trip like the one I just took?  The grand total cost of the trip was $300 by the way.  That’s with paying for 5 days of parking in the short term parking lot at San Francisco Airport.

There are so many options out there that I’m amazed more people don’t take advantage of them.

Vacation Guilt 

At the same time, I still see people come back and feel guilty about the weight they gained on their vacations.  Is that what you want?  To come back home and feel guilty?  You should never look back at a vacation and feel guilty, vacations are a time to relax and have fun.  They’re supposed to be good memories, not guilt ridden ones.

Summary

Sorry, I think took off on a tangent there and strayed off point.  What I’m trying to say is that healthy vacations are a part of a healthy lifestyle.  Pick the right vacation options and don’t use your vacation as an excuse to binge.  You want to come back from a vacation feeling good and happy, not bloated and guilty.

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60 in 3 is going to be silent until Tuesday of next week since I’m going canoing in the midwest with a friend.  Will be back with new posts on Tuesday the 30th, unless I get attacked by a bear or something, in which case I won’t be back until at least the 31st. 

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Cranky Fitness has been a personal favorite of mine for a while, and not just because of the cupcake motif. It’s a fun blog that combines attitude with useful information. Crabby is full of facts and data but she’s also got a lot of opinions and she’s not afraid to express them. So I was really happy when she to let me interview her. I think I’m going to be doing a few more of these since I’m always interested in the opinions of my fellow bloggers.

• Question - What got you interested in health and getting healthy??
• The Crab’s Answer - Even as a teenager, I was probably more concerned about health than average. My father started having heart attacks by the time I started high school, so I was pretty aware that if you don’t take care of yourself, you can end up in big trouble.

• Question - When you first decided to get healthier, what were the first three or four things you did?
• The Crab’s Answer - Sorry, too long ago to remember! I do recall attempting to be a vegetarian for about two days, but my love of cheeseburgers pretty much squelched that self-improvement project. I was lucky in that I grew up in an active family where exercise was a given. And we had to eat our vegetables. But I definitely ate way too much junk food during my college years.

• Question - What were the most effective things you’ve done?
• The Crab’s Answer - Being consistent about exercise (including weight training as well as aerobics); writing every calorie down when I’ve needed to lose weight; cutting down on the crap in my diet and eating more healthy foods.

• Question - What were some mistakes you made along the way?
• The Crab’s Answer - I concentrated too much on my fat intake–I was one of those people who bought the idea that you could stay lean and healthy by watching every fat gram, without being careful about refined carbs. Now I eat a fair amount of healthy fat, and don’t treat refined flour, white rice, or potatoes (etc) as a staple.

• Question - Do you focus more on diet or on exercise? Or are both equally important to you?
• The Crab’s Answer - I probably focus equally on eating healthy and getting enough exercise. There are Evil Temptations in both areas–slacking off the exercise, or eating too many treats. It takes about equal mental energy to keep myself somewhat in line. By nature, I’m a Self-Indulgent Slacker.

• Question - What’s your favorite healthy snack?
• The Crab’s Answer - Hmm, depends how you define healthy. Dark chocolate covered almonds taste heavenly and have lots of nutrients, but they do have sugar too, so aren’t entirely healthy. Fruit, like grapes, I enjoy. (But not as much as chocolate!)

• Question - What’s your secret unhealthy craving and how do you deal with it?
• The Crab’s Answer - Well, my cupcake craving isn’t exactly secret (if you’ve seen my blog header). But an even more embarrassing indulgence is this: Safeway grocery store sells slices of the JUNKIEST chocolate and vanilla sheet cake ever. True foodies would find these repulsive, but I love them. The icing must be pure crisco and sugar–there’s nothing sophisticated about the taste. Sometimes I buy one of each (because you have to have both flavors), and slice off a thin slice of each kind and lay one on top of the other. The slices are humongous, so it means several days in a row of a sinful dessert. It’s only for Special Occasions. Or else it’s punishable by several extra long workouts to make up for it.

• Question - What’s your favorite method of exercise and why?
• The Crab’s Answer - I love to run to great music, but my knees are shot so I can’t do it often. Sometimes the elliptical is a blast; again, the right music is necessary. Hiking up a hill on a gorgeous hike is a favorite too. Unfortunately, race-walking I’m not all that fond of but it’s what I’m mostly doing right now. (And I’ve never much liked to swim). For non-aerobic exercise I love to just walk everywhere.

• Question - Do you exercise alone or with someone?
• The Crab’s Answer - Mostly alone, as befits a Crabby individual.

• Question - What are your fitness and health goals? What are you working towards?
• The Crab’s Answer - I’m mostly trying to maintain my weight, strength, and endurance as I navigate middle age. Every now and then I think I’m motivated enough to lose a few more pounds or get more intense about exercise, but it’s usually not long before I settle back into my regular routine. If I can just keep doing what I do now as I get older and crankier, I’ll be quite content.

You can read more about Crabby at Cranky Fitness.

If you want to read my previous Q&A session with Mark from Mark’s Daily Apple, take a look here.

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Lunch today was at Sue’s Mongolian BBQ (A buffet where they cook your food on the spot).  Here are a few things I noticed:

Eat slow - I’ve talked about this one before but today I really noticed it.  Usually, when I go to Sue’s, I eat with chopsticks.  Not being very good with them, I eat slowly and take small bites.  It takes me about ten minutes to finish a bowl of food and by then I’m full.  Today, I used a fork.  I ate fast and I was still starved five minutes after I started, which was about when I finished my first bowl.  So I ate another bowl.  Lesson learned, eat slow, take smaller bites and enjoy your food.

Veggies make great filler - Mongolian BBQ places work likes this: You pick up an empty bowl and then you fill it with all sorts of raw ingredients.  Hand it to the cook who prepares it on a large open grill and you’ve got food.  The person in line in front of me filled most of their bowl with meat.  I filled most of my bowl with veggies and a few noodles.  We both got the same sauces.  Our food tasted and same but his had at least three times as many calories as mine.  Which brings me to my next lesson learned.

Sauces and spices are key - the guy in front of me failed at realizing a basic truth of cooking.  It’s the spices and the sauce that give most dishes their flavor.  His food tasted just like mine but he had a lot more calories for the volume of food he ate.  Remember, eating veggies doesn’t have to mean eating bland tasteless food.  If you think about most spices and sauces you like, you’ll note that they come from, that’s right, vegetables!  So find a healthy food and season it to your liking.  (No, that doesn’t mean drowning it in ranch sauce!)

Water = Filling goodness -  My food came out a little (which actually means A LOT) spicy.  So I was drinking a lot of water.  That slowed me down even more plus it helped fill me up.  Water is great because it’s healthy and it has calorie free volume.  As such, it’s a must have part of every meal.

Post lunch walk is the best dessert - I usually take a walk after lunch.  Today I drove around running some errands.  Result?  I was sleepy and bloated.  My post lunch walk reenergizes me and helps me avoid the post lunch nap.  It doesn’t have to be a 1 hour workout session, it just needs to be a 15 to 20 minute walk.  And feeling too tired to take a walk is not an excuse, it’s the reason to get up off your ass and start walking.

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Today’s reader question comes to us from Minnesota.

I heard there are foods which count for negative calories. Things that actually work off calories if I eat them. The one I keep hearing about is celery. Is this true? Can I have a meal and then eat celery to work off the calories?

Well, yes and no.

What Are Negative Calories Foods?

These foods are ones where the calorie content is so low that our bodies actually spend more calories digesting the food than they get out of it. Our bodies actually have to spend energy digesting food. There is energy spent on digesting and even more energy used for moving the food around internally. All of this energy means calories spent. So if these calories spent are higher than the calories we get out of our food, the food adds up to negative net calories. Another example might be a cold drink with very few calories. The calories our bodies would spend to heat up the liquid as it enters our body might be more than the calories our digestion can extract from that liquid leading to a net calories loss.

The Mythical Celery

Celery is mentioned most often when we talk about negative calorie foods because it’s become an urban myth of sorts. There were even some fad diets based on negative energy foods that used celery as a prime ingredient. Yes, celery does cost more energy to digest than it provides. On average, a stalk of celery has 6 to 8 calories in it. Because it mainly fiber, our bodies use up slightly more than that to digest it. So on average, our bodies might lose 2 or 3 calories per stalk of celery that we eat. So yes, it is a negative calorie food, but before you rush out and begin your celery only diet, let’s think things through.

Simple Math

You’ll lose around 2 to 3 calories per stalk of celery. So let’s see, in order to lose the four hundred calories you just gained from that chocolate bar, you’re going to need to eat 200 stalks of celery. In order to work off the 1000 calories you just ate in that pizza, you’re going to need to eat 500 stalks of celery. Alternatively, you could work off about 100 calories with a 30 minute walk. Which one would you rather do, walk for 30 minutes or eat 50 stalks of celery? I prefer the walking.

Diet Staple

That said, low calorie but high fiber foods like celery should definitely be a part of your diet. They’re full of essential vitamins and minerals and they fill you up without a lot of calories. However, don’t assume that they’re some sort of magic bullet. Eating nothing but celery and cold water is NOT a healthy diet.

Summary

So yes, negative calorie foods do exist, but they’re not the magic bullet solution to weight loss. Eating healthy and getting some physical activity is the key to that.

Some more facts about celery, courtesy of Snopes.com

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When people think of fitness and health they think of people moving about, working out and getting stuff done.  They think of a life lived at a fast pace and with lots of energy.  While this may be partially true, there’s also a part to living healthy which consists of doing nothing at all.

Taking Breaks

It may seem counterintuitive, but taking an occasional break is a good thing.  I’m not talking about a break from your workout routine or a break from work, I’m talking about a break in which you do nothing at all.  Go outside, sit on a bench and do nothing.  Go indoors, sit on your couch and close your eyes for 15 minutes.  That’s the kind of break I’m talking about.

The Stress Factor

Most of us are in a constant state of stress.  We’re stressed about our jobs, our families, our relationships, our health and a host of other things.  This stress is bad for us.  It’s bad for our health because it throws off the chemical balance of our bodies.  Stress can cause our bodies to manufacture hormones that trigger binging.  It can also cause higher blood pressure and a variety of other health issues.  Stress is like a constant weight that we carry, never noticing how much it slows us down.  Once in a while, we just need to put that weight down and reflect on who we are and where we are.

Put The Weight Down

Go somewhere relatively peaceful.  This can be anywhere from your living room to a bench at a park to a conference room in your office.  Then just sit down, close your eyes and relax.  Stop thinking about what you’re trying to accomplish and just think about something that relaxes you.  Perhaps that’s a fond memory or maybe it’s an image of a place you’d like to visit.  Whatever it is, just clear your mind of everything else but that.  Don’t feel guilty about this little time off, you deserve it and even more important, you need it.  So just let go of the stress and calm down.

Benefits

I think you’ll find that you’re recharged and far more productive after these little breaks.  You’ll get more done, easily compensating for the 15 minutes you took off.  You’ll also feel better mentally and physically.  Stress is a horribly destructive force in our bodies because it forces our systems to function in a sort of overdrive.  That’s fine for short periods of time but not as a normal state.  Short breaks can calm our bodies down and let it get back to a normal existence.

Summary

So stop reading this blog already and go take a break.  60 in 3 will still be here when you come back. 

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