Decode Your Food Cravings

Yum! That thick, buttery slice of Texas toast looks heavenly but you're body might actually be telling you it's craving... almonds? Check out this chart to decode your cravings and feed your body with what it really wants!

Yum! That slice of thick, Texas toast looks heavenly but your body may actually be craving... almonds? This chart helps decode your cravings and feed your body with what it really wants!

Thank you Freeform Fitness for this awesome and interesting chart!

Stevia: The Sweet Superman

When looking for something to spruce up my coffee or tea, I am a victim of no calorie sweeteners. It's a fact that sugar imitations like Sweet n' Low and Splenda aren't good for you, but it's so hard to avoid them when you want something sweet without all the calories. I love agave nectar on my oatmeal and greek yogurt, but a few squirts can add at least 80 calories (or more if you have a mouth full of sweet teeth like moi). Plus it's processed and high in fructose (70-80 %). If you don't want to give up agave, like me, look for products with 30-40% instead.

The Sugar Imitation Villains (yeah, we're on to you)

Ugh, I feel so stuck in my non-sugary sugar options. Can the health gods answer our prayers? Well, they may have. It's a bird! it's a plane! No, it's Stevia! Yay...finally a natural, zero calorie sweetener to save the day!

If you've seen the Truvia commercials with the cheesy jingle, that sweetener is only partly made of the Stevia plant. 

*FUN FACT ALERT* 

Coke and Pepsi just got the green light to use Truvia instead of Splenda (sucralose..bad!) to sweeten their diet drinks. Thumbs up for a slight step forward in making soda kinda-sorta healthier; I actually am really excited about this because I also am a huge victim of diet sodas. Sigh, no one's perfect.

The question on everyone's mind (or perhaps not) is: what exactly is a Stevia plant? Well, I Googled it and it's a plant from South America whose leaves are 30x sweeter than sugar; many companies are starting to use it because of this. It looks like any other plant you'd see outside, but hopefully it can be the sugar superman to beat all the imiattional villains.

Hm, now what to do with all those Sweet 'n Low packets? 

Here's an idea:

Have a Sweet Hump Day!

Caffine: The Post-Workout Pick-Me Up

Sweat cleanses from the inside. 

It comes from places a shower will never reach. 

-Dr. George Sheehan

I absolutely love that quote. One of my favorite feelings in the world is pushing myself to the point in a workout where, afterwards, I'm drenched in sweat. Gross, maybe, but it's an amazing feeling knowing that you reached that state solely on self-motivation. It's an reward within itself.

Well, my self-motivation has been a tad on the short side lately. Usually, I'm an eager beaver when if comes to working out, but the past week I've been forcing myself with small steps (Okay, just change into your gym clothes. Next, just ride to the gym. You're almost there...etc.)

I don't like being at the gym longer than I have to because I have the attention capacity of a small child. I like to get in, have a good workout, and get out. I like to do a few day of cardio with some lifting peppered in; just, ugh!, for some reason I dread the days I do cardio. I feel great afterwards; but, for some reason, the days I lift seem so much easier than the days I cardio-it-up. Ah, why is that?

Anywho...if my muscles are tired, it takes an extra motivational push to get through my workout. Which comes to my post-work out solution for soreness. Caffeine! A study found that caffeine can relieve post-work out pain better than a lot of protein shakes or popping ibuprofen. A study found "that caffeine blocks the activity of a chemical called adenosine, which is released into the body as part of the inflammatory response to injury (source)."

So, I've starting drinking coffee post workout vs sucking it down right before (plus, I don't have to stop working out to pee). Win/Win! 

Orange you glad you learned this fun fact?

So, drink Starbucks to feel like a million bucks after a work out! 

Or pick up a Dunkin' to dunk into another great work out tomorrow (eh, I tried)! 

Happy Hump Day!

  

Grounds for Grounds: Starbucks' Sustainability Initiative

While sipping on my sophisticated venti, italian roast, ice coffee with soy milk through a green straw, I was surprised at what I found at the Starbucks' entrance. At the base of the door was a tree accompanied with a basket of what looked like very large coffee bags. Initially I thought Starbucks was getting a tad carried away with its product line and loyal customers were slowly becoming borderline candidates for caffeine rehab. I was wrong, look how cool this is:

Here's a closer look:

:

My initial reactions were: (1) free, I love free!, (2) is it really free? Oh wait, it says "free", (3) I didn't know you could use coffee grounds as a fertilizer, (4) I'm definitely taking one, and (5) yay Starbucks!

This is such an innovative concept (and marketing campaign)! I love Starbucks in general, but was even more in love with this idea. Who would have put coffee grounds and gardens in the same category? Not moi, so I'm glad they did and I'm excited to try it out. Here's a blurb from the Starbucks Web site about its composting goals with Grounds for Your Garden:

"We introduced Grounds for Your Garden in 1995, which offers customers 
complimentary five-pound (2.27-kilogram) bags of used coffee grounds to enrich garden soil.  And where commercial composting is available, many stores are able to divert other food waste and  coffee grounds from the landfill as well."

I love the Go Green-ness of this idea! I reused my O'soy yogurt cup as the perfect fertilizer scooper. My garden now smells like a coffee bar and I feel more like a barista than a gardener; but what a great way to recycle and help the planet in perfect unison! Maybe if I'm lucky, the  Starbucks coffee grounds will help my produce grow venti-sized and make them as addictive as its' coffee!


*Update* Every since using the grounds, my plants have increased in size! I kid you not, I really think the coffee grounds gave my garden an espresso turbo boost! Go to Starbucks pronto and try it out! If you do, let me know about your experience :) Bravo Starbucks, bravo!