Introducing 3 New Weekly Series on 735 Days!

You Will Never Believe It...

I would consider myself fairly knowledgeable when it comes to health and nutrition.  While I never actually took a nutrition class in school, I took a million other science classes like cellular biology, genetics, systems neuroscience, molecular biology, microbiology, and really many more -ologies.  The suffix -ology means 'the study of' and what I was studying was the body and how the body works and interacts with your environment.  I received my degree in Neuroscience, which you probably think, yeah...the brain and how the brain works..but you would be wrong! 

For my degree we not only studied the brain and how the brain functions, but how the brain controls EVERY function in your body, from how you move your big toe to how you know your bladder is full to the process of digesting food and absorbing nutrients.  So I felt I was sitting pretty when it came to understanding food and how food affected our bodies, and what foods are the best foods for our bodies.  In addition, I was a vegetarian for a period of my life, which you can read more about why I chose to do this here, which I felt made me a thousand times more conscious and aware of what I was eating and how much protein and fiber it had, how much iron, how much calcium, etc.

Source: Deliciously Organic-Creamed Kale and Eggs

But dear lovely readers if you are out there, I WAS WRONG!  I am completely obsessed with Pinterest, I have said it before and I will probably say it again.  While looking for kale recipes on pinterest (because I am trying to incorporate kale into my diet) I came across the Creamed Kale and Eggs recipe from Deliciously Organic and the portion of the the recipe's post that discussed fat blew my mind! Seriously, I am pretty sure my mouth was open by the end of the post!

Source: blog.foodnetwork.com

 It's All About the Butter Baby???

Carrie Vitt from Deliciously Organic is all about eating wholesome foods, which include healthy saturated fats like those from...butter.  Butter? What a minute!!! Now, when I think of butter I think of unhealthy animal fat...that tastes oh so good..but is definitely not good for you.  I normally try to use oils from plants, like extra virgin olive oil etc. which makes sense to me on the general level that usually foods from plant sources are healthier for you than foods from animal sources.  In addition, everyone is familiar with the whole movement away from butter as they believed the cholesterol in animal fats contributed to heart disease.

I never looked into butter, the cons or the pros, because it just made sense to me to stay away from it.  Carrie points out, and provides additional resources to review here, that fats from different sources are complied of different kinds and combinations of fatty-acid chains and that the saturated fats found in butter are made up of short fatty-acid chains which the body normally uses readily for energy and rarely stores as fat.  Where the fat from processed plant sources such as vegetable oil, soybean oil, and margarine are comprised of long chain fatty-acids which are not readily used by the body, but are usually stored in the body as fat.  

And now..

And now I realize that maybe I did not have a firm grasp on food and nutrition...actually, I am pretty sure that I did not.  After reading this post by Carrie, I read some of her other posts and checked out her resources, which led me to other sites with additional information and also suggested books to read.  

In light of all of the information I have learned and am learning I decided to add a few weekly series to this blog, as this blog is about my life and the changes I am making in my life, these changes definitely fit the bill and maybe it will be new information for you as well!

I'll be starting this week (Nov 12-Nov 18) so keep your eye out for:

-New Food Tuesdays where I will introduce a food or product that I have just recently learned of or am trying to incorporate into my diet or life

-What I Learned Wednesdays where I will post about all of the amazing things I am learning about health and nutrition

-Healthier Sweet Treats Thursdays where I will share recipes for healthier sweet treats, trying to cut out the refined sugars that are found in most desserts

XOXO, Arie

My Adventures in Cooking...

Chili Cheese Dog Casserole

Picture via Taste of Home

Do any of you have a little brother? Well, I do and he likes to point out that I owe him millions of dollars and twelve meals.  This stems from me asking him to do things for me when we were younger, like my chores, getting me something to drink, etc. to which I always said, "I'll give you a million dollars if...." and the one meal a month for a year, I don't remember how that came about.

Well he is so busy at work that he often ends up skipping his lunch break and doesn't eat anything at all, in addition to that he was under the weather for a few weeks and now looks as skinny as a flag pole.  The kid can drop weight like nobody's business(jealous.) So I thought I'd start pumping out those meals for him.  I have been pinning recipes for him on one of my boards on Pinterest anyways so I have a lot to choose from.

For the first recipe I chose a Chili Cheese Dog Casserole.  Sounded good to me! I found the recipe at Taste of Home.  I substituted/left out a couple ingredients because I just whipped the casserole up with things we already had in the house-to me a hallmark of a good casserole is that you should be able to use or substitute items you just happen to have on hand.  Below is the ingredient list from Taste of Home:

Ingredients

• 1 package (8-1/2 ounces) corn bread/muffin mix
• 1 cup chopped green pepper
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 package (1 pound) hot dogs, halved lengthwise and cut into bite-size pieces
• 1 can (15 ounces) chili with beans
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese, divided

Per the Taste of Home directions I prepared the corn bread batter to package directions, so you'll need 1/3 c milk and an egg.  I intended to pour half the mixture into my 8 in square baking dish that I had previously greased, but I think in actuality had used about 3/4 of the mixture.  

I didn't have a green pepper so I substituted a yellow pepper and I had to omit the celery as we were out.  I cut up the onion and yellow pepper and decided to add some pickled jalapeno peppers as well.  I don't know if I am the only person that is puzzled by jalapeno peppers, but sometimes they are so hot and other times they taste so bland....  Either way, I tossed them in a pan that I had sprayed with pam and sauteed the mixture for a few minutes.  I realized the onions cooked so much faster than the peppers and shrunk down a bit, next time I would chop the peppers a bit smaller so they cooked more evenly(yeah, that is how little cooking experience I have, just wait, there is more...)

I then cut the hot dogs into bite-size pieces and threw them in with the peppers and onions.  Things were starting to smell so good! When the hot dogs browned, I added the seasonings-chili and garlic powder and brown sugar, and let the flavors meld before finally adding the can of chili with meat and 3/4 c shredded cheddar cheese.

Once the mixture was heated through I spooned it on top of the cornbread mixture already in the baking dish, poured the remaining cornbread mixture on top of the chili mixture and sprinkled on the leftover cheese in addition to a few jalapeno pepper pieces.  

I then baked the dish at 350 degrees for 28 minutes.  And voila! I only put the extra jalapenos on a portion.

So...things I learned.  I checked on the dish in the oven about twenty minutes into cooking it and the corn bread on top was definitely done cooking and the cheese was starting to burn so I covered everything with aluminum foil and popped it back in the oven.  I realized later that I had left the oven on "preheat" instead of bake and this may have been the problem.  I realized this once I realized I totally forgotten to turn the oven off.  Terrible! Hello Arie, meet an oven.....

That being said I would definitely make some changes to this recipe.  I had read the reviews and there were many people who thought they would use more than one box of corn bread and some who liked adding corn.  I thought the dish was crazy sweet! So sweet that it was hard to get the "chili cheese dog" taste at all.  The corn bread is really sweet on its own, so I honestly would nix adding the brown sugar or perhaps if you are used to the sweetness of cornbread, maybe try adding 1Tb of brown sugar.  I think adding corn to the recipe would only increase to the sweet flavor.

I also thought the corn bread sucked up a lot of the liquid from the chili mixture.  I definitely would not add additional cornbread.  I would add an entire additional can of chili, it was like the chili got lost in the mixture and my family loves beans.  Now, my Mother and myself can only handle mild salsa, but my Dad and brother like spiciness to the extreme.  All of this being said, below is my ingredient list for my version of this recipe:

Chili Cheese Dog Casserole (less sweet)

Ingredients

• 1 package (8-1/2 ounces) corn bread/muffin mix
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 1 cup chopped green pepper
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 2 chopped fresh jalapeno peppers (save small amount to sprinkle on top of casserole)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 package (1 pound) hot dogs, halved lengthwise and cut into bite-size pieces
• 2 cans (15 ounces) chili with beans
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 3 teaspoons chili powder
• 1/2 cup sharp cheddar cheese (save small amount to sprinkle on top of casserole)
• 1/2 cup pepper jack cheese (save small amount to sprinkle on top of casserole)

6 Servings Prep: 20 minutes Bake: 30 minutes

Directions

• Prepare corn bread batter according to package directions. Spread approximately 1/4 to 1/2 of the batter into a greased 8 in. square baking dish; set aside.
• In a large skillet, saute the green peppers, jalapeno peppers(make sure to save a portion of the chopped jalapeno peppers to sprinkle into the corn bread batter that is added to the top of the casserole,) onion and celery in oil until crisp-tender. 
• Stir in hot dogs; saute 3-4 minutes longer or until lightly browned. Stir in the chili, garlic powder and chili powder; heat through. Stir in most of the sharp cheddar and pepper jack cheeses, making sure to leave a little to sprinkle on top of the casserole.
• Spoon chili mixture over corn bread batter in the baking dish; top with remaining corn bread batter. Sprinkle remaining cheese and jalapeno peppers over the top.
• Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 28-32 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving. 

This recipe is very calorie dense.  One serving of Taste of Home's original recipe has 615 calories and 37 grams of fat.  Perfect for my brother, but not for me, and probably not for many of you.  There are many ways you can modify this recipe to make it more figure-friendly.  Here are a few substitution options:

-fat-free meatless chili

-lean ground turkey instead of hot dogs

-reduced-fat cheese

-use less corn bread

-up the veg content

Let me know what you think! And...er...don't forget to turn off the oven.

xoxo Arie

Travel

I truly believe in this phrase: "Eat well and travel often." Sometimes it is great to forget about your phone and all of your bills and just get away for some R & R.  How do you plan your trips?                                                                                 

Image via Pinterest via http://notesondesign.tumblr.com

I haven't actually been on a trip since 2007.  I always intend to make something happen, but man, life can be expensive, right?  Moving back in with my parents, yes at the age of 28 (my older brother and his wife think I am crazy), has given me a little bit of flexibility moneywise and I think I am finally going to be able to make a trip happen in 2013.

In the past I have traveled with friends, I've traveled with my younger brother with a tour group, and I have traveled by myself.  Geez, it sounds like I have traveled a lot, but I really haven't. Each way to travel works and has it's pros and it's cons.  Honestly, I prefer traveling with a friend/family member and a tour group.  Let me tell you why:

A different tour group at Abu Simbel, Egypt via http://www.thegobus.com/Egypt-Tours/Pyramids-and-Beaches 

My brother and I went on a 14-day tour of Egypt with about 8 other people.  It was a trip of a lifetime honestly. Not only are you and your friend/family member having a fabulous vacation, you are automatically with a group of like-minded people of similar ages (from all over the world) and it is just a blast.  In addition, all you have to do is get up and walk out the front door of your hotel in the morning and everything is taken care of.  You have a tour guide that tells you all of the information you need/want to know about each site you visit (who wants to research everything so you know what the heck you are looking at?) and the guide can also fill you in on the local culture, which to me is just as important as the sites.  All of the hotels and food and transportation are lined up for you.  Tours relieve a lot of the pressures of trip planning and you don't have to iron out any of the hiccups that might pop up during the trip. 

Photo via http://www.thegobus.com/Egypt-Tours/Pyramids-and-Beaches 

We went on this tour in 2007, which by the way, back then the tour was only $500/person (Pyramids and Beaches Tour through Go Bus), and we are still friends with the people we met on the tour to this day.  Some of the perks of meeting these people were that we learned more about other countries and....now had people to go visit in these other countries!  

A couple years later, my brother got a work visa for New Zealand.  When he first moved there he lived with one of the couples we met on the trip....apparently the guy is a famous singer/song writer in NZ, on billboards and the like (Nathan King.)  He is the biggest sweetheart and such a good and fun person, I completely adore him.  Check him out if you're into pop rock music.  After that he flew to Australia and was able to visit every major coastal city since he knew someone that lived in each city.  Nice to have the hook-up, huh? Well, they all showed him a good time and he came back with some hilarious stories! 

Touring Egypt, seeing all of the amazing landmarks, sailing up the Nile in a sailboat for three days, scuba-diving in the Red Sea in Dahab, just wouldn't have been the same without all of the amazing people we met, not to mention our phenomenal tour guide.  My brother and I have decided that India is our next destination and now I just have to figure out if we are going to do the trip solo, which my brother would prefer as he thinks we can plan a trip that would be much cheaper than what a tour would charge, but I'm not sure if I want to iron all of the plans out and it might be more fun touring as a group...stay tuned.... 

XO Arie

Happy

The 2011 Documentary that explores human happiness through interviews with people from all walks of life in 14 different countries, weaving in the newest findings of Positive Psychology

Have any of you seen this documentary? I just happened to notice it was newly added to Netflix and gave it a shot. I was a science major in school, Neuroscience actually, and despite all of the many available elective Neuroscience courses I was able to choose from, there wasn't a single course that taught about human happiness. The science of Happiness seems to be a newer science that is becoming more and more the rage these days, which makes sense, as it seems a lot of people are struggling with happiness.

Priorities

In our society there is a lot of push, push, push to make more money, be more successful, drive better cars, be more thin, etc. and I think that keeps us from enjoying the things that we have accomplished and instead, leads us to feel the pressure and stress to keep pushing to the next level or the next goal. That is not happiness.

I am not saying I am not guilty of this, because trust me I am. I did get my degree in Neuroscience and after school I got my first job, which paid about the same as I would have been making had I not gone to school, had I not put four years of work into getting a degree, but in this instance I now had to kick a lot of the money that I was making back to the Government to pay off a small fraction of my student loan debt. This was in no way sufficient.

After three years, I switched to my second job and fortunately with that switch came a bump in my salary...honestly at a time where I really needed it. And now I feel I make a pretty fair salary, fair would be a bit more, but I REALLY just want more. I am not comfortable and I want to feel comfortable for the point I am at in life, and by comfortable I mean that I can pay all of my bills and still have some money to put into savings and hell, enough to go on a vacation. 

Photo via Google images

Next stop is going back to school, getting my first job in my "career" which would come with a pay bump, but also higher student loan payments, likely a house, maybe kids? I do have a goal of what my definition of being "financially comfortable" is and it is probably lower than you would think but even then, will I still want more or will I stop to smell the proverbial roses?

Hedonic Treadmill Theory

According to this theory, as a person makes more money, expectations and desires rise in tandem, which results in no permanent gain in happiness. So once you make more money, you adapt to that level of lifestyle and then once again, want more money. Can you see this happening in yourself? Affecting your relationships or can you see money and the stress of making more money affecting relationships around you? I bet you can. I can.

Photo via Google images

This documentary counters that other things actually affect your level of happiness:
1. Personal Growth

2. Relationships

3. Giving back

This makes total sense to me.  I used to work as a Nursing Assistant at a Nursing Home and it is the most fulfilling job I have ever had.  Why? People always said things like, "Disgusting, I could never do that," but despite the cons, which I never really thought of or noticed, because they never really bothered me, what I was doing was making a difference.  I was helping people who sometimes were all alone in the world, who had dementia and truly could not take care of themselves, or people who were going through the process of dying and the stages that go along with accepting that they were going to dye.  Now, these people maybe didn't always notice or appreciate me, in fact a lot of the residents hated the staff quite a bit, and there was no other recognition really for caring for these people or for going the extra mile, but it really felt so amazing to me.

Photo via Google images

And of course, personal growth and relationships, those are easy to see how they could so strongly affect your happiness.  I think this documentary is missing another huge factor that affects happiness, or maybe this is part of personal growth, but gratitude. Gratitude reminds you of all of the positive things in your life and can help you change your whole mindset and can turn the things you think are bad parts of your life into good parts of your life. Hate your job? Be grateful that you have a job, some people don't.  Feeling positive about having a job is a heck of a lot better than carrying around the anger of hating your job, right?

Now, I can't say that this information is new to me, because it's not.  Even though there weren't any Neuro courses that involved happiness and the pursuit of happiness available to me in school, there were some excellent Psychology courses that did.  Despite knowing this information, I haven't really applied any of it to my life, even now when my goal this year was to work on my happiness.  So I am grateful that I happened to be pursuing the newly added section on Netflix today and came across Happy.  Check it out and let me know what you think, or let me know what affects your happiness.

XO Arie

My Battle with Weight

For me the decade of my twenties have been a time of repeated weight gain and weight loss.  The first time I gained weight was in college, the good old "freshman fifteen." I technically gained the weight my sophomore year and it was ten pounds rather than fifteen, but you get the point.  I am 5' 7" and started college at what I call/called my "normal weight" of 135.

For a long time I had wanted to cut meat out of my diet.  When I was younger I accidentally caught these HORRIBLE!!! videos portraying the atrocities that were the lives of factory farming animals, both of their day-to-day lives and their slaughter.  I had just been flipping through tv channels and caught the videos on a random cable-access channel and they honestly scarred me for life!  I feel like most of the general public have NO CLUE what happens to these animals, I didn't.

I had tried to become vegetarian a couple times from age 11 to 18, but eating just the green bean and salad portion of the meal my parents made didn't cut it and it never stuck.  My sophomore year was the first time I was solely in control of my meals and I easily transitioned to a vegetarian diet.  When I say "vegetarian diet" I mean that I didn't eat any meat or poultry or anything with beef or chicken broth, but I did continue to eat seafood, eggs, milk, and cheese.

 A lot of people don't think that qualifies as "vegetarian" but they can kiss my ass.  I'd like to see them eat the way I was eating, it was a sacrifice but it was worth it and it was the best I could do. I'm not really into seafood, but it gave me a little wiggle room when eating out and I am so in love with dairy, that I don't think I could ever cut that out of my diet.  Yes, I was still eating by-products and yes, I kept all of my heels that were made from leather.  Though this lifestyle change really made no change what-so-ever to factory farm animals or the way that they are treated, it felt right to me.

At this same time, my college roommates and I got a new roommate, a girl named Erin.  Now, Erin is awesome in many ways, but that is another story for another time, but Erin loved aerobics classes. Between being a bit more conscious of what I was eating (trust me, I still DOWNED my own ice cream pints on the regular) and tagging along with Erin to a few workout classes here and there, that first ten pounds melted away in no time.    

The next time I gained weight was in 2007 and this time it wasn't a measly ten pounds, but 36 pounds! It was right after I graduated from college and I got a work visa for the UK and moved to London.  During a half a year period I went from my 135 pounds to 171 pounds!!!  This period of my life was truly one of the most fun, but I felt quite stressed.  I was trying to juggle many things including doing some extensive traveling on a pretty tight budget and I don't know, I just started eating chocolate instead of food and the pounds piled on.  I mean, I was taking down A LOT of chocolate.  I am a serious emotional eater.

I lost five pounds of this weight gain the first month I moved back to the US by exercising with my brother at a near-by Snap Fitness a couple times a week.  But after a month, my brother decided he was too lazy to exercise (I'm not criticizing him, this is actually what he said) and I really only liking working out with a partner.  The rest of the weight melted off very slowly, just by eating well.  After about a year I was back at my 135 pound weight again.

And the final weight gain thus far, I was dating and living with this guy for a few years and the relationship was HORRIBLE (not a love story.)  I also started eating the way he ate and here I am now weighing 166 pounds.  Not only am I overweight, but I am also in a terrible "funk" stemming from this relationship.  I kicked him out of the apartment we shared and moved back in with my parents after the apartment lease was up.  That was exactly six months ago today and I thought things would be so different, but I can't get out of this dysfunctional funk.  I feel like I have the energy or motivation to do things with friends, to clean my room, even to shower.

This year was supposed to be the year of ME! I wanted to heal and get back to where I started, heck I wanted to be at a better place than the place I started but that hasn't happened.  So here I am now, ready to take itsy bitsy baby steps back to health.  Have any of you had experiences like this? Any words of advice?

Didn't want to get out of bed today....

Had a rough day today.  On both Saturday and Sunday nights I slept crazy poorly, like four hours a night each night.  By the time I got home from work on Monday night I was at that exhausted point where I was kind of shaky and couldn't even follow the blog post I was trying to read.  Thus, I decided just to go to bed.  But...I was drowsing and in and out of sleep so I decided to take sleep aids around 8:30. That did the trick and I was out and I needed the sleep!

I then woke up around three-ish and decided to take more sleep aids in order to go back to sleep again since I didn't have to wake up until 6:45. Well...I did get up with my alarm, but fell back asleep. My mom checked in on me to make sure I was awake around 7:45-when I should be leaving (yes, I am now 28 and I just said my mom checked on me.) So I needed to head out the door, but I also needed to shower, and we had a work event in the evening so I had to look nice and dress appropriately.  Even taking a shower seemed like too much and I decided I didn't want to get out of bed and would go into work late.

I watched a show on Netflix and tried to chill and then I fell asleep.  I woke up around 2:30 and at that point decided that I wasn't going to go into work at all as I did not want to get out of bed at all still....

I had called into work and also call the manager on her cell and told her I would be late as my car was acting up and I was having my dad fix it, but that I would be in soon.  I sent my manager a text around 3:30, letting her know my dad couldn't fix my car and that I couldn't make it in today.  Even if she called me back and told me I would be fired if I didn't get my butt into work and I still would not have gotten out of bed.

So my work attendance has been an issue.  I have missed a lot of days.  I was out of town for work last week and got back into town on Tuesday.  Then I called in sick on both Wednesday and Thursday, even though I was not "sick" and only worked in the office on Friday.  I am also really behind in my work..... Work does know that I am having some depression issues.  Even if I do get fired, I couldn't really beat myself up about it because I am honestly doing the best I can right now; though I really do not want to get fired.

 I did see my PA-Physician Assistant about my issues and she put me on Wellbutrin and zoloft.  I think the Wellbutrin helps a bit with getting me going, helping me function a bit better during the day, not sure about how the zoloft is affecting me.  I told her about how poor my sleep has been and how much that affects me, but she said as a PA it would be inappropriate for her to prescribe me any sort of sleep aid...um okay I'll just continue to take six sleep aids a night, wake up earlier than I need to, then fall asleep right before I have to wake up, and then sleep through my alarm, get up and run out of the house looking like crap and showing up late to work.

At our follow up appointment she asked how things were going and I told her that I had called in sick the previous Friday and proceeded to stay in bed from Thursday night through Sunday night.  She said that that behavior was not normal.  Um really?  As I can barely function, I know that things with me are not "normal" right now.  She then tells me that she can't help me, that she thinks I have "manic" depression and referred me to a psychiatrist.

I would have gone to a psychiatrist in the first place, but I had to go on an independent insurance plan for my new job and I was having trouble getting accepted, due to my pre-existing condition of "depression."  It was easier to get in to see a PA without insurance and it was a cheaper appointment.  Now I am on insurance, that being said, appointments and medications associated with my mental health appointments are "not covered" for twelve months. Thus I am paying for insurance every month and it does not cover the only medical condition I need to be cared for and I will have to pay for everything out of pocket.  I love our health care system....

Today I finally called the doctor my PA referred me to.  Luckily the wait isn't bad.  The earliest available is on July 9th.  Apparently this doctor may put me on a "mood stabilizer" for my "manic depression." This is confusing to me because, google manic depression and bipolar disorder pops up, and people, there are no "manic" or "up" phases going on here.  Regardless, I look forward to the appointment because I need help.  I will also be working on things myself when I can.  Try to change my behaviors and thoughts.

If you read this whole post you are my hero! Keep following, today was a bad day, but they aren't all this bad.  There are okay days too.  And I would appreciate the support. I am a really fun and happy girl stuck in a broken body right now, that's how it feels at least.  I look forward to the return of "myself" and so look forward to being able to function.  Its eleven now and I am off to bed. Wish me luck for tomorrow, hopefully it will be a better day...

Happy Memorial Day!!! This is officially one of my most favorite things in the ENTIRE WORLD, hope it makes you smile!