Tag Archives: baked goods

How to Eat on the Run

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We all know what it’s like to eat on the run.  It’s a horrible situation to be in, especially if you’re trying to eat healthy.  Let’s face it: most places to get food on the road are concentrating on convenience, not health.

The best thing you can do is take time out of your day to cook yourself a meal and eat right. There are a few things you can do to keep your diet under control while you’re running about though.

Be Prepared

Keeping easy, healthy foods in your car and at your home is the single best thing you can do. It’s cheaper than eating out or getting gas station food as well. There are some great foods like granola bars and bags of sunflower seeds that don’t spoil very easily. You can also keep fresh fruit and vegetables where you can access them quickly and easily.

The idea is to keep foods that transport easily and/or can be stored for a long period of time handy for when you don’t have time to eat a real meal.  Of course, don’t store fruit in your car on hot days or for long periods of time. The biggest benefit is that you have 100% control over what you eat. You’re not at the whim of the menu.

Healthy Dining

If you’re on the road and don’t have any of your own food with you, but do have time to order something and wait for it to be prepared, you can dine out. This isn’t nearly as good as being prepared, because you may not have control over where you can eat or what’s on their menu.

Start by trying to find the healthiest restaurant you can find.  It helps if you’ve been to them before.  I prefer bakeries that also server sandwiches. As a general rule, the more local a restaurant they healthier their selection will be.  That’s doesn’t mean that the chicken wings at Bob’s Fried Delights are good for you. Use some common sense. Even if you’re only given of McDonald’s, you have the option of a fruit salad or a grilled chicken salad.

Gas Station Food

This is probably the single worst thing you can do for food. There are almost no good meat or protein sources except local, preservative beef jerky, maybe. Some gas stations might have fresh fruit, but in my experience, that’s a rarity. Usually, you can find sunflower seeds or peanuts, which are good sources of protein and carbs. They’ll definitely fill you up and give you energy. You can also usually find organic or healthy granola bars. Don’t reach for that pizza or hot dog. Pay attention to the nutrition facts to make your decision.

Watch out for foods that seem healthy but really aren’t.  Most carb based foods and chips are horrible for you.  Always look at the nutrition facts for the food that you buy. Pay attention to the serving size and servings per container when you’re reading them. ‘Healthy’ advertising can be quite deceptive.

For drinks, stay away from sodas and other manufactured drinks when selecting a drink. Usually water, coffee, and tea are fine for you. If you get coffee or tea, use skim milk and attempt to hold the sugar – or at least minimize it.

Be Smart

Overall, you need to be intelligent about your eating decisions. Make your own portable food whenever possible.  Eat at healthy restaurants, and if you absolutely have to eat food from a gas station, pay attention to the nutrition facts. Have any food-on-the-go advice. Hook it up in the comments.

Pros and Cons of Vegan, Vegetarian, and Omnivorous Diets

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The Vegan Diet

A vegan diet consists entirely of vegetables and grains.  Vegans do not consume animal products or animal byproducts.  This means the don’t consume foods like steak, eggs, or milk in any form.

Pros

Vegans tend to be much thinner, have lower blood pressure, lower amounts of body fat, and have lower cholesterol.  A byproduct of those benefits is that they tend to have a lower risk of heart or cardiovascular disease and diabetes.  This can all be explained by their diets being rich in fiber, magnesium, potassium, and  anti-oxidants.

Cons

A vegan diet makes it hard to consume calcium, vitamin D, and protein leading to other health issues, like weak bones and muscles.  Because they also don’t consume red meat, their bodies tend to be low in iron.  All of these vitamins can be obtained from plants, but require strict monitoring to prevent health issues.

The largest concern for vegans is a deficiency of vitamin B12, which can only be consumed via meat, eggs, milk, large quantities of rice or soy, and supplements.  Insufficient B12 can lead to a cacophony of health issues including: dementia, forgetfulness, and loss of balance.

In a predominantly omnivorous society, it can be very hard to make or find vegan meals, especially when dining out.  Baking is very hard as well when you consider that most recipes require eggs, yeast, or milk.

The Vegetarian Diet

A vegetarian diet consists of all foods included in the vegan diet, but also include animal byproducts, such as milk and eggs.  This also includes yogurts and cheeses.

Pros

Vegetarians have the convenience of being able to easily find and make meals.  Almost all restaurants have a vegetarian option, and making food at home can be much simpler.  It’s much easier to bake with milk and eggs too.

All of the added benefits of being vegan tend to be true for being vegetarian as well.  They tend to be thinner with less body fat, have lower cholesterol, and lower blood pressure – beit not as low as a vegan. The vitamin B12 issue is also not as much of a problem, since vegetarians can consume eggs and milk, great sources of the vitamin.

Cons

Vegetarians still must work for their iron, as milk and eggs contain very little of it.  They also tend to have larger amounts of fat on their bodies than vegans as a result of consuming high fat dairy products.

The Omnivorous Diet

This diet includes every food: meat, grain, eggs, milk, vegetables, fruit, and everything in between.  By definition omnivores can eat everything.  With great choice comes great responsibility.

Pros

Omnivores have the whole spectrum foods available to them, giving them more options.  This gives them access to all of the vitamins they need and allows them to target specific foods when they need are in need of specific vitamins.  Consuming meats gives them an added layer of variation to provide them with a full choice of nutrient sources ranging from fish for Omega 3 Fatty Acids to Beef products high in calcium and everything in between.

With great care, an omnivore can easily get every vitamin and mineral they need with relative ease.  If you’re short on iron for the day, just have some red meat.  It’s not hard or inconvenient to be able to eat just about anything, but eating right can be a challenge.

Cons

Omnivores tend to have diets extremely high in saturated fats, and as a general rule, the average person doesn’t do a very good job of regulating this diet.  Omnivores tend to be over weight, have high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.  This leads to diseases like heart disease and diabetes.

With such a wide variety of choices, people tend to eat fatty, greasy food like McDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken, which don’t really have any health benefits, but do contribute quite nicely to the spare tire around their waist.  These foods also have the added benefit of making people feel fat and lazy, preventing them from exercising.

Conclusion

In my opinion the best diets are vegetarian and omnivorous.  If you don’t feel like you can control yourself, use a crutch like being vegetarian.  If you think you can control your diet and be responsible, you should stay omnivorous.

You won’t find what’s right until you try each one, so experiment.  Try a month with one diet and then switch.  Use which ever one makes you feel the best and stick to it.  Track your results and know what you’re gaining.  For me, being vegan is way to inconvenient, and I feel I’m responsible enough to eat meat in moderation.  I do go on vegetarian kicks every once and a while.  For instance I might have a vegetarian week just to challenge myself.

What are you? Vegan? Vegetarian? Omnivorous?  Tell me in the comments.

Ups and Downs of Carbohydrates

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There are a lot of theories about how carbohydrates affect your fitness.  Basically they are complex sugars and usually occur in baked products, but also occur naturally in fruits and vegetables like potatoes and bananas.  This doesn’t mean you should shy away fruits and veggies, because there are different types of carbs.

There are simple carbs and complex carbs, and the complex ones are the ones you want to watch out for, because they’re converted to fat the easiest.  Fruit and vegetables tend to contain simple carbs, while baked goods like pizza and bread tend to be made of complex carbs.  Stepping back your complex carb intake can drastically affect the amount of hydrated fat on your body.

Cons

There are various diets out there, like the South Beach Diet, which prohibit the intake of carbs to lose weight.  The Atkins diet is another take on that same theory.  The basic idea is that if you don’t take in complex carbs they can’t be converted to body fat.  If your food can’t be converted to body fat, you won’t gain weight.  That’s not entirely true, but it kind of works.  I’m not saying it’s healthy though.

Alcohol is probably the most common carb out there and is the biggest culprit for gaining weight.  There is a reason they call it a “beer gut”.  As you drink beverages with higher and higher alcohol content the carb ratio goes down, but it never goes away.  Also remember the alcoholic drinks are very high in calories.  Some shots of liquor can have upwards of 150 calories!

Pros

Carbs and sugars also provide you directly with energy.  That’s why you see people who run marathons taking in a large amount of calories, most of which are carbs.  If your body is using the energy, they are the easiest form of food to convert.

When you’re going to the gym, if you eat a carb heavy diet about three hours before you go, you’ll feel more energized and probably perform better while you’re there.  It’s good to eat a larger amount of them in the morning and cut back on them at night.  This way you’ll have the energy for your day, but not convert them to fats while you’re sleeping.

The Take Away

Basically you need to remember that carbs aren’t as bad as some diets make them out to be, but they can be bad if you don’t moderate them.  Remember that they are in most foods and beverages – especially alcohol.  The easiest way to lose weight is to cut alcohol from your diet.  For some people it’s also the hardest thing to give up.

There really is a lot of science that goes into figuring out how many to eat and when you should eat them.  When you combine something complex like the science of consuming carbs with the science of drinking water or other consumption habits, it’s easy to get confused.  We’ll try to break down those barriers for you and make it simple.

Need more help figuring out all of this?  Just hit us up with your questions.