Make Your Own Salad Dressing (So You Don’t Have to Throw Yourself Off a Bridge)

December 9th, 2012 | Posted by Alison Spath in Healthy Habits - (8 Comments)

I don’t think it will come as a surprise that I eat salad. A lot.

Like a lot, a lot.

So now picture me in the health food section of my local supermarket, skipping merrily (and cluelessly) through the store aisles, humming some crunchy-granola-new-agey-kumbaya song that my homeschooled kids taught me, sometimes buying the supposedly healthy salad dressings, sometimes buying canola oil to make my own salad dressing at home.

THEN picture me reading Deep Nutrition, getting a better understanding at how completely terrible vegetable oils are for us and thinking, phew! Good thing I don’t buy vegetable oil!  Read more...

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The Secret of Eating Salad Second

July 27th, 2012 | Posted by Alison Spath in Healthy Habits - (4 Comments)

Kaz will be one month old tomorrow, and so far I’ve lost 26 of the 35 pounds I gained during pregnancy.

That almost sounds impressive, but let’s not forget I brought nearly 9 of those 26 lbs home with me in an infant car seat. Good thing those pounds are super cute, they can stay.

I’m not going to let myself get all nutso obsessive about it, but getting back to my pre-pregnancy weight is definitely on my mind. For now my plan is sensible eating with sensible exercise. How sensible.  Read more...

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How to Stop a Cold in its Tracks

December 29th, 2011 | Posted by Alison Spath in Healthy Habits - (11 Comments)

I’ve got a cold.  Tis the season you know.

The thing is, I rarely get sick.  I’m not telling you this to be annoyingly braggy, but instead to introduce my tried and true tricks that work to avoid catching a cold when I feel one coming on.  Usually, anyway.

Of course this time when I decided to finally write about it, I actually got the cold I was trying to dodge.  Read more...

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Insomnia Cure

December 22nd, 2011 | Posted by Alison Spath in Healthy Habits - (4 Comments)

When I was pregnant with Maxine, I struggled with insomnia regularly.

I use to get up in the middle of the night and watch two or three episodes of CSI on DVD before schlepping myself back upstairs to dream about working in the crime lab with Gil Grissom. I’d also have that common pregnancy dream where you can see through your belly like a fish bowl. Except I’d be dusting the fish bowl for finger prints.  Read more...

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Lost: One Exercise Mojo

November 1st, 2011 | Posted by Alison Spath in Healthy Habits - (7 Comments)

Cobbs Hill Reservoir

Did you ever watch that HBO show Six Feet Under?

There’s this great quote in one episode that I think about from time to time.

We all go through fallow periods when we must let the soil rest to prepare for new growth.

Agriculturally speaking, when a field is left to go “fallow”, that means nothing is planted for a period of time in order to let the soil rest before it’s called upon to grow another crop.

I often think of that quote when it’s time to take a break from anything, whether you particularly want to or not.  Read more...

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One Mindless Trick to Eating Fewer Calories

October 12th, 2011 | Posted by Alison Spath in Healthy Habits - (6 Comments)

I can’t seem to eat salad without hummus these days.

Hummus on Salad

Normally I try to spare you the daily salad shenanigans unless it’s something new or remarkable – and at first glance this salad is neither new or remarkable.

But Wait!

Today’s Hummus on Salad story has a moral to it.

It starts with the sad fact that our car died last week.  We found out today that the cost of repairs are going to be more than we’d prefer to sink into this car, so we’re done with it. Eight years and 150,000 miles later, the Honda Civic is off to car heaven.  Read more...

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What Are You Really Hungry For?

October 1st, 2011 | Posted by Alison Spath in Healthy Habits - (2 Comments)

Lasting weight loss is serious business.

If and when you lose a significant amount of weight, (and even a small amount of weight can qualify as “significant”) it will likely be a big part of your personal evolution and the life long journey you’re on to understanding and truly knowing yourself.

It’s usually not until after you’ve lost the weight or have hit a plateau that you discover losing weight is only half the battle.  Keeping the weight off is the other half.  It can be really tough to work through personal baggage and heal old wounds that may have lead you to turn to food for comfort or entertainment in the past.  In some cases it will be even harder than counting calories or finding the motivation to exercise or get active.  Read more...

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Salad Habits

September 29th, 2011 | Posted by Alison Spath in Healthy Habits - (5 Comments)

There are plenty of good reasons to eat a salad – but I know that if I don’t make salad eating easy, it’s less likely to happen.

I went a stretch of days without eating a salad (gasp!) and it took me a second to realize it was because I’d fallen behind on food prep.

Salad Prep

I’m all caught up now though!  A bunch of greens have been torn up and washed and are ready to go – now I’ve got a couple days worth of leafy handfuls to throw into large bowls and then doll up for quick and healthy meals.  Read more...

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Welcome Back Flax

September 5th, 2011 | Posted by Alison Spath in Healthy Habits - (38 Comments)

Do you remember when flax seed was suddenly the new and hip seed to eat? Flax seems like old news to most of us now, and it’s a kitchen staple among many health conscious foodies.

But for me, this seed has been nothing but a giant pain in the flax.

It seems well known that it’s important to eat ground flax seed. Their little hulls are so hard, if you eat them whole they’ll pass right through your body undigested and you miss out on their rich supply of essential fatty acids, Omega-3 in particular.  Read more...

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Fat is Your Friend

September 1st, 2011 | Posted by Alison Spath in Healthy Habits - (4 Comments)

I just read a study published by the New England Journal of Medicine from June of this year concerning the changes in diet and lifestyle and long-term weight gain in women and men.

More than 120,000 healthy men and women were observed over the course of 20 years.  Their change in weight was evaluated at 4 year intervals.

The results of the study showed that within each 4-year period, study participants gained an average of just over 3 pounds.  (Ever notice how easily your weight can creep up over the years?)  With a 3 pounds gain being the average – a 4 lb weight loss at one end of the spectrum and 12 lb weight gain at the other end.  Read more...

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