Airport Mishap, Larabars, and Giveaway Winners!

Firstly, I have missed the blog world! My brief 2 1/2 days in Chicago were jam-packed with family, friends, and food. I look forward to catching up my blog-rollers today at some point!

Mom and I did manage to squeeze in a step class yesterday morning. It was supposed to be step + strength, but she decided to kick our butts with an hour of step. It annoyed me to great lengths that the instructor of the class did her helicopters going the opposite way I've learned...so I had trouble keeping up with those because my body knew what it wanted to do already!

And then my luck continued at O'Hare Security...

Background story: In April (I think it was April) heading back to Tulsa from my Bachelorette Party, I forgot about a can of hairspray in my carry-on. My bag got searched and my poor, over-loaded packing skills allowed for "Tickle His Pickle," lingerie, personal lubricants, and all other sex-related personal items given to me by friends, to spew from my suitcase as the older gentleman searched the bag and stander-byes pointed, snickered, and laughed. I tried explaining that it was my Bachelorette Party this weekend and I was heading for home, but I just received an annoyed "whatever, nympho" stink eye. A-w-k-w-a-r-d.

Fast-forward to yesterday when my handbag didn't make it through the scanner. A gentlemen asked me to step to the side, and asked if there was anything in my bag he needed to know about, as he searched my bag. Told me not to touch anything. He pulled out books, iPod, magazines, wallet, sunglasses, gum...the usual. He ran the bag again and again it looked suspicious. In the VERY VERY bottom of my bag was a paring knife I had brought to work to cut up an apple WEEKS ago. So the security guy 1) thought I was lying because I didn't tell him it was in there when he asked (didn't know!!!!), 2) it was shoved to the bottom, and 3) it was wrapped in a paper towel and Ziplock. Thank goodness I don't look like a crazy person? Scarily, that same knife was in my bag coming from Tulsa to Chicago. Hmmm. Anyways, husband was pretty embarrassed.

Thankfully we're driving up for Christmas? :)

While in Chicago, I was able to visit my personal paradise: TRADER JOE'S!!! I don't know what was more exciting, the wine sample guy being from south Tulsa and nearly demanding we try every wine he had, or that I finally found these LARABARS everyone's been raving about! Trader Joe's was a much-needed fix in this RD's heart. Oh, and Chianti...had to get SEVERAL bottles of the various Chianti's TJ's carries...Mmm!

Ends up, these LARABARS are worth the chatter. I tried the "Cherry Pie" bar this morning and it was delicious! These bars are 190-210 calories and loaded with MUFA's and PUFA's...mostly MUFA's! They're like a protein bar in consistency, but the protein content is low-to-moderate -- the bars are high in fat and carbohydrates. The "Cherry Pie" LARABAR contained NO sodium, 350 mg potassium, 4 grams of fiber, and 5 grams of MUFA's. The ingredients? Get ready.....dates, almonds, unsweetened cherries. The bars are gluten, dairy, and soy free and also contain 2 grams of omega-6's. Wish it was omega-3's but nonetheless, thumbs up, LARABAR!!

Lots to try!

Complaint: Size. I wanted more!!

And, of course...Newman's Own Organics GIVEAWAY WINNERS!!!

Allison and Andrea!!

Giveaway 1: The Cookie Monster

Newman's Own Organics Champion Chip Cookies (Chocolate)

Newman's Own Organics Ginger Hermits

Newman's Own Organics 54% cocoa Dark Chocolate Bar

Winner of Giveaway #1: Allison!!!!

(THANK YOU for the pumpkin pancake recipe -- making them tonight!!)

Giveaway 2: The Smorgasborg

 Newman's Own Organics White Cheddar Soy Crisps

Newman's Own Organics California Prunes

Newman's Own Organics 54% cocoa Espresso Dark Chocolate Bar

Winner of Giveaway #2: Andrea of Andrea's Wellness Notes 

Send me your addresses, ladies and I'll hopefully get those out to you tomorrow!

Mrs.RD44@gmail.com

Thank you to all for participating!!

Off to pick-up our pup who's been at over-night camp for 3 days now...can't wait to see baby girl! Have a wonderful Sunday, bloggies!

Seriously? …Seriously? (and pssst...a Giveaway!)

“What we're really talking about is a wonderful day set aside on the fourth Thursday of November when no one diets.  I mean, why else would they call it Thanksgiving?” -Erma Bombeck

I’m talking to my mom on my way to work this morning, requesting my favorite coffee creamer while she was grocery shopping. Mom just happens to mention, “Well, the store was out of pecan pies, so I got pecan pie cups. Good portion control, right?” Where do I begin with the wrongness of this all.

1. Pecan pie should be homemade.
2. Pecan pie cups? Give me a break. No pumpkin PIE is the equivalent of Christmas without a Christmas tree littering gifts beneath it.

I feel so shafted already. Pecan pie is a once-a-year-can’t-live-without-it STAPLE. 
Holds. Me. Together. All. Year. Treat.

As un-healthy as that little tantrum is, I could’ve verbally berated husband last night after he decided he NEEDED (yes, NEEDED) Buffalo Wild Wings. Let’s not be confused here, I love anything involving wing sauce -- it’s a guilty pleasure. Just look to the right there and you can see that SEVERAL of my “must-try” recipes contain wing sauce. However, BW3’s is 30 minutes away from home and I had a headache and a wonderful, healthy pad Thai dinner planned. But no, husband NEEDED wings. So, off we go at 8:30pm (had to wait til the game was on!), only to arrive and find that both the restaurant and inhaler-requiring bar were filled to capacity and there was a 40-minute wait. On a Tuesday. One would think they were GIVING AWAY $0.40 wings, my goodness! After flashing him a stink face and a blatant, annoyed eye roll, we left BW3’s for a silent 30-minute commute back home.

I am a man. I do NOT want to watch games (football, basketball, or otherwise) that I care about in a bar watching a TV without volume and obnoxious patrons taking away from my viewing experience. Which leads me to the acceptance of a sad truth: I am old. On a Tuesday evening after an 11-hour work day, I want to be a homebody. I want to be in my warm house, in my cuddly clothes, enjoying healthy, homemade food, watching and listening to my sporting pleasure! Last night being Fighting Illini men’s basketball.

Is anyone else a huge homebody, especially once the fall and winter seasons encroach?

My crankiness subsided this morning when I opened my office door to a package from Newman's Owns Organics (not to be confused with Newman's Own). I've heard a lot about Newman's Owns Organics (NOO's) and I was interested in sampling some of their products. Well, let's just say I received an early Christmas gift this year! Check out the loot...

Thank you, Newman's Own Organics!! <3

Food models, mess, lunch (upper right), Zevia (upper left)...and the loot, scattered! My office is atrocious!

 An array of cookies...chocolate, Arrowroot, and chocolate chip!

 Choooooooocolate! Need I say more? Note: that dark chocolate bar

on the left is opened...I wonder who did that!!

 

 Fat-free AND low-fat Fig Newmans...love the play on words : )

 

 Dried fruit...prunes, apricots, apples, and berry blend. The apples are delicious! They are completely all-natural in taste, not all pumped up with sugar!!

 

For my afternoon snack, I had 2 original Hermits. Um, DELICIOUS! They are so moist and rich in flavor...love them!! Favorite taste from Newman's Own Organics thus far!!

 

Mint rolls -- Peppermint, Wintergreen, Ginger, and Hot (not pictured, oops!)

 Newman's O's -- Chocolate and Mint!!

 

 There was a 3rd bag, but one of my patient's ate them. Thumbs up! Especially excited about the protein pretzels!

 

 Soy crisps! Can't wait to try!

 

 Hot, Wintergreen, Ginger (yum!), and peppermint mints. The ginger ones are delicious!!!

 

And Newman's Own Organics even sent something for the puppy -- dog treats! Lily gives the salmon and sweet potato treats a high-five (and my dog gives high-5's, no joke!)

And since 'tis the season to be giving...a GIVEAWAY for you all! And because that box weighs about 25 pounds!!! THANK YOU, NEWMAN'S OWN ORGANICS!!!

NEWMAN'S OWNS ORGANICS GIVEAWAY!!!!!!!

There will be 2 winners as there's plenty of goodies to go around...

Giveaway 1: The Cookie Monster

Newman's Own Organics Champion Chip Cookies (Chocolate)

Newman's Own Organics Ginger Hermits

Newman's Own Organics 54% cocoa Dark Chocolate Bar

Giveaway 2: The Smorgasbord

 Newman's Own Organics White Cheddar Soy Crisps

Newman's Own Organics California Prunes

Newman's Own Organics 54% cocoa Espresso Dark Chocolate Bar

How to enter? Lots of ways! 

Enter up to 4 times by doing one, two, three...or all of the following:

1. Post a comment with your giveaway selection preference below (1 or 2, see above)

2. Tweet about this giveaway and leave a comment with a link back to your tweet, 
or follow me @PreventionRD

3. If you're a blogger, post about this Newman's Own Organics Giveaway with a link back to this post on your blog. Leave a comment below containing your blog/post link!

4. Email me a favorite, healthy recipe at Mrs.RD44@gmail.com

Entries will be taken through Sunday, November 29th at 12pm (Central Time) and the winners will be announced on my Sunday blog post!


Sampled thus far: 70% cocoa organic chocolate bar (super yum!) and organic dried apples. Mmm!


A patient this morning had to fast for a late lab appointment and by the time he made it over to my office for his nutrition appointment, he was so hungry he had a headache. I handed my country bumpkin of a patient Newman's Own Organics salted pretzels, and that country bumpkin chowed down. And believe you me, I'd have heard about it if he didn't love'em! Thumbs up, Newman's Own Organics!!

Looking forward to Pad Thai tonight and an early departure to Chicago tomorrow morning! If our flight is delayed, we’ll be missing Thanksgiving dinner. Wish us luck, O’Hare doesn’t have the best of records when it comes to flight delays.

Have a wonderful, safe, healthful, and relaxing Thanksgiving!

Just another day in paradise...

I had an insanely productive morning this morning. In addition to the usual morning routine (dog duty, cappuccino-making, getting ready for work, and lunch-making), I also managed to unload the dishwasher, clean the kitchen, and get dinner in the crock pot. In the midst of my cleaning frenzy, I found husband's wedding band. He was already at work. Sans his wedding band, obviously. This happens ALL the time.

See photo below. THIS is what I put on a scrap piece of paper on my way out the door: directions for him to start the crock pot at noon...and to put on his #$*& wedding band. Mennnn....

...at least he was wearing it when I got home from work today? :-/

Last night we had a favorite "convenience" dinner. I'm not really into convenience foods, but I must say...Zatarains does Jambabaya right. The calories are low (130!)...but the sodium is a bit high (540 mg)...could be worse. There's only 1 gram of fat per serving, which is also great. I just wish it came in a whole grain, low-sodium version...then, it'd be perfect!

Anyways, I add to the mix a whole chopped onion, minced garlic, 1 can of low-sodium diced tomatoes, Tabasco sauce, and either shrimp, chicken, or turkey sausage. Last night, we opted for turkey sausage.

Boot camp tonight went...well. I will DEFINITELY be sore tomorrow.

Tonight we focused on triceps with lunges and squats thrown in there. Cardio, too...running, stairs, etc. I'm really enjoying it, though...and I love that the routine is different every night!

Yesterday, my teams won both our games (THAT'S rare - woot!)...AND I scored a goal! That's probably even MORE rare ; )

A HUGE THANKS to Kay's Naturals who sent me a wonderful array of products to sample and review today. Kay's Naturals carries gluten-free cereals, crackers, chips, and snack foods. Kay's products cater to the gluten-sensitive population, as well as diabetes and bariatric patients.

 

Today I tried the Lemon Herb Protein Chips and they were DELICIOUS! I ate them on my way home from work, before boot camp. There is an abundance of flavor and crunch, I highly recommend them, especially if you enjoy a lemony taste...mmmm!

Gluten allergies are becoming more and more common it seems. Similarly, the number of gluten-free products on the market is continually growing -- some being MUCH better than others. Most larger retailers offer gluten-free cereals, crackers, breakfast bars, pastas, and chips. Thank you, Kay's Naturals for supplying such wonderful tasting, gluten-free products! I look forward to sampling and reviewing more varieties!

Question 1: Do you know anyone personally with Celiac's disease or a gluten sensitivity?

Question 2: Going back to my husband-who-forgets-his-wedding-band-all-the-time rant...what does YOUR significant other do that drives you absolutely insane?

Question 3: I'm traveling next week and looking for book suggestions...have you read any page-turners lately? Do share!

Oktoberfest 2009

While my husband has had the pleasure and honor of attending THE Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany...the Tulsa Oktoberfest was no disappointment. Laden with all traditional food, beverage, music, and dance! While I thoroughly enjoy both food and beverage, the highlight was surely the traditional music and dance. I don't believe I can count on my 20 digits alone how many times we did the Chicken Dance. While it was a forbidden "DON'T PLAY" for our wedding DJ, I sure had fun doing it last night with friends and thousands of Tulsans.

Here are some low-quality pictures. Apologies, my camera battery died, so I had to take them with my phone.

 

 Pitchers in the air!

 

Awesome German Band playing traditional German music

Sadly, however, husband informed us that at THE Oktoberfest music is not typically played. Whereas Tulsa's Oktoberfest had lots of tents, of varying sizes, playing a variety of music. Our tent we believed to be the largest and held SEVERAL thousand dancing fools by the time we left.

The food and drink were wonderful as well, but my dietitian tummy was upset after consuming so much FAT last night. I tried the funnel cake and brat with kraut. While it was delicious, it did not agree with me!!

Between the 5 of us we were able to try several traditional beers, too. On tap they had Spaten Oktoberfest, Samuel Adams Oktoberfest (probably not so traditional), Franziskaner, Spaten Pils, Spaten Premium, Spaten Optimator, and Oktoberfest Lager. Mmmm!

Hockey game tonight - excited!

Yesterday ended up like this...

Breakfast:

1 cup oatmeal, prepared (2 carbs)

1 cup skim milk (1 carb)

2 Tbsp pumpkin butter (1 carb)

1/2 ounce pecans (0 carbs)

     Total: 4 carbs

Lunch:

1 1/2 cups chili (1 carb)

6 wheat crackers (1 carb)

8 ounces V9 Fushion Light (1 carb)

     Total: 3 carbs

Snack:

2% cheese stick (0 carbs)

Dinner:

1/3 small funnel cake (2 carbs)

1/2 bratwurst with saurkraut (1 carb)

3 German beers (2 carbs)

     Total: 5 carbs - over!

Snack:

1/2 cup shredded wheat (1 carb)

1/2 cup skim milk (1/2 carb)

     Total: 1 1/2 carbs

Go Greek!

Oompa!

Surprisingly, I'm not talking about gyros or saganaki, but rather, a study on the Mediterranean diet performed by the Medical School at the University of Athens, Greece. We've all likely heard of the Mediterranean Diet, but let's refresh. Key components of the Mediterranean Diet include:

- plentiful exercise and meal times shared with family and friends
- consuming many fruits and vegetables daily
- including healthy oils in the diet such as olive and canola oils
- eating nuts (in small portions)
- the option of moderate red wine consumption
- marginal red meat consumption
- the incorporation of seafood and fish into the diet, at least twice weekly
- low dairy consumption

The Mediterranean "diet" is a lifestyle for Europeans residing in Greece, Italy, and Spain most respectively. It is true that these countries consume an abundance of fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, seafood, fish, oils, and in moderation, wine and alcohol. The positive health benefits of this Mediterranean diet were discovered over 30 years ago and have been a topic of much interest ever since.

During mine and my husband's stint in Italy, we quickly learned that meal time was a sacred family time. The focus was not simply eating, but cooking, relaxation, and socialization. Wine was commonly consumed, even in places of business! At Mark's work, there was a bar in the lobby serving alcoholic beverages, as well as cafes, espressos, and cappuccinos. Wine was served at restaurants for prices totaling less than water by volume at times. The abundance, selection, and freshness of produce found at stands street-side, as well as in the "lunga's" (grocery store) far exceeded that found in America. And while fast food restaurants are not omit from European cities, they are not found on every street corner, but are spotted in places of heavy tourist traffic. But, of course.

Greece we found to be very similar. In Athens, moderate alcohol consumption and fruits and vegetables were staple items in most meals, along with lots of seafood and olive oil. Delicious!

Pictured on the left, fresh catch of the day coming in to the port of Poros. On the right, I give a BIG 2 thumbs up to fresh octopus! Yumm!

You can't forget the pistachios in Greece -- the best!

Greeks also have excellent taste in canines. We had to stop and say hi to the fellow bully and bully owner. : )

Mark and I in Athens at the Acropolis and the island of Poros

So what is it, specifically, in this Mediterranean diet that produces the proven health benefits? Is it the exercise? The healthy oils? The omega-3's found in fish? Athens found out.

Published just last week in the British Medical Journal were the results of a large-scale study aimed at revealing the relative importance of each component of the Mediterranean Diet. There were 23,349 Greek study participants ranging in age between 20 and 86. Their diet was recorded over an average span of 8.5 years. Both demographics and anthropometrics of the study participants were accounted for. Results showed that overall, those who consumed a Mediterranean diet were healthier as their mortality rate was decreased. A positive (although not statistically significantly) correlation was found between healthfulness and high fruit and vegetable consumption as well as high nut, legume, and oil consumption. An inverse relationship between healthfulness and meat consumption was found (though not statistically significant, either).

However..........there was a statistically significant positive health correlation seen with moderate ethanol consumption. Alcohol alone accounted for 24% of the overall health benefits seen with the Mediterranean diet. Alcohol consumption was most frequently noted to be wine consumed during meal times.

Moral of the study: wine does the body good!

Tomorrow, we'll look into what it is about wine that provides all those health benefits...

Precious Z's

According to my recent poll, sixty-six percent of you reading my blog (and responding to the poll...) wanted to lose between 15 and 30 pounds. Well, listen up!

I returned from my honeymoon last night. Husband and I spent 7 days in beautiful Puerto Vallarta at the Dreams all-inclusive resort and spa. Red flag: all-inclusive. Or, as I consider it: (nearly) guaranteed diet failure.

The mini bar...stocked with juice, beer, and sodas. Included. The restaurants on the resort...ohhh the restaurants. Five in total serving from 8 am to 11 pm. Included. Before or after that...you, my friend, were ordering room service. At any hour of the day you can order room service (full menu). Included. If this wasn't enough, the "preferred club" tower of rooms offered varying arrays of food and beverages throughout the day...in case picking up the phone and/or walking to a restaurant was a bit too much to bear. Included. Did I mention the beach and pool service? Forgive me. Included. There was that, too. About every 15 minutes, like clockwork, a resort staff member would approach you offering you a beverage of your choice: pina coladas, mojitos, daquiris, beer, dirty monkey, soda...you get the point. The calories flowed without cessation 24/7.

While I dug deep for dietitian self-control, I often found it difficult myself (especailly since we all know that when in Mexico, don't drink the water*!). When we arrived back home, I somewhat feared stepping on the scale. Though I didn't look or feel any bigger, I imagined that a diet so far fetched from my norm had to have caught up with me. To my pleasant surprise, the scale barely budged!

I got to thinking how this could be. While I wasn't inhaling the buffets or drinking the bar dry, I thought a few fellers would've surely stuck around to torture me. It wasn't until we picked up our new puppy that I thought maybe there was something in Puerto Vallarta working in my favor to ward off vacation weight......sleep!

While I embrace meeting the recommended 8-9 hours of sleep each night, husband and I surely exceeded this each night while on our honeymoon. Our room was just ten stories above the "adult only" pool on the resort, which was constantly occupied by a myriad of crunked adults. I actually heard one couple (from Canada, if that matters) state their disappointment in the swim-up bar not being in the adult-only pool. Let's just say I can count my lucky stars that it was not, as I'm sure our twelve-hour sack sessions (give or take) would've been interrupted with even more drunken debauhery.

Similarly, Lily, our bulldog, sleeps constantly. And when you're sleeping, typically you aren't eating. When she's not sleeping, however, she has the appetite of a cow in green pastures and can consume an obscene amount of food for such a lil peanut. If she weren't a bulldog, I'd think something was truly wrong with her. I swear, she defies puppyhood in my book. We got on our webcam tonight to show Mark's parents their new grandchild, and she wouldn't even open her eyes. She was curled up in her princess bed sighing at the disturbance. We're such a bother, didn't you know?

Lesson learned: sleeping does the diet good. And surely the same goes for the ill-mannered bulldogs out there.

* Take my advice (along with the millions of other unlucky and/or wise guys) and don't drink the water in Mexico. Swine may not hold a candle to what Mark and I experienced one evening while honeymooning.

Holy pizza!

Mark LOVES pizza. Quite possibly more than Lily, and certainly more than me. ;) I can be cooking up a meal of fresh chicken fajitas with homemade pico de gallo and guacamole...and he'll be wanting Papa Johns. I've learned to not take it all too personally.

I, on the other hand, am very indifferent towards pizza (I'm the anti-Chi towner...I know, I know). That is unless, of course, it's Italian pizza. Most everyone reading my blog knows that I spent many a week-long trips in Italy (as well as a summer...not to rub it in or anything...) with Mark while he was working in Varese for 2 years. And one of the many valuable life lessons learned while in Italy: what REAL pizza looks like, tastes like, consists of, etc.

The Italians know their pizza better than they know Gucci, perhaps. Your pizza will arrive with a diameter easily spanning 20+ inches and be made with the freshest of ingredients including tomatoes, arugula and bresaola* (my personal favorite toppings), speck, prosciutto, olives, artichoke hearts, and so on and so forth. These pizza crusts are paper-thin and are loaded with the non-dairy toppings making them much more healthy ...and balanced in many cases. I had acquired a serious respect for the Italian pizza, until Mark discovered THIS:

Could he LOOK any happier? The above is my husband with a pizza topped with pepperoni ("salami piccante") and FRENCH FRIES. Oh, and also some mystery white sauce. WHAT a tragedy! Blasphemy on this pizza!

...of all the 2,394,802,324,921 photos we took all over Europe in those years...THIS picture had more comments on Facebook than any of the others. And we WONDER why we're obese (or if you're bitter like me, wonder why HE'S not at least a little chubby...yet).

Side note: Mark went on to eat many pizzas in Italy topped with pepperoni and french fries. He's my hopeless pizza fiend.

* Bresaola is a cured meat that is virtually fat-free - 23 calories and 5 grams of protein per ounce. It is heavy preserved in natural seawater and is consumed as a luncheon meat, pizza topping, primi piatti meat served with melon, etc. It is fantastic!