How many minutes a day should you exercise

I posted earlier about the changes that the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology and paticipACTION made earlier this week. Specifically I posted a link for a post on Weighty Matters.

The writer of the blog made a new post regarding his opinion.

"So my answer to the question of how many minutes a day should you exercise? As many minutes as you can enjoy, and every single one of them count."

Nutirtion Action Newsletter

My mom purchased me a subscription to this newsletter a couple years ago (and renewed it for me!).

I think most public libraries carry it. It's definitely worth a look.

A little frustration.

It's unfortunate that the rich seem to get rich and the poor seem to get poorer. I mean even in Canada it's hard for many people to access education. I have been lucky enough that my parents co-signed a loan for me so I could attend school. I worked through out university to try and keep my debt down, though 4 years later it is...huge. Even though I have completed my degree I still have a line of credit and OSAP to pay back. Unfortunately, because of this I will likely not complete a dietetic internship within the next few years (until I have paid of my debt and made enough money to support myself without income for a year...). So that sucks. By the point where I can afford to complete it I might need to take a refresher course too. I could go the route of completing a masters, because then I wouldn't have to start paying my debt back (cause I am in school). But I don't really want to, plus I'm not sure if my marks are good enough (I'd love to blame that on the fact that I worked through out school, but I know other people have too).

It sucks that to become a registered dietitian they make it so hard. I don't simply mean that people have to be smart, but you need to have access to money.

But I guess that's how it is for a lot of occupations, and I could be in a much harder position then I am right now. It still is discouraging though.

Maybe there is something hidden in the system that could help me out. Haven't found it yet, but I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Living with Size Zero

I Eat 33,000 Calories a day - Lisa Sellers

Food inc.

If you haven't seen these you should.

Food inc.

Fast Food Nation


Or read one of these:

Fast Food Nation

Chew on This

What does 100 calories look like?

I'm sure lots of people out there have seen stuff like this before. But I always thing it's pretty fun. So I'm going to do it for my own enjoyment.

100 calories OR less:

1 Medium apple (also oranges, bananas, pears...)




3 Cups of dry popped popcorn (You can always use spices!!)



1/2 Cup yogurt or cottage cheese (varies depending on fat content and brand)
TIP: try freezing your yogurt and eating it partially frozen with a spoon (you may need to defrost it) or putting a Popsicle stick in individual packages before freezing.
TIP: Add fruit to your cottage cheese or yogurt (if you buy plan yogurt you can use it for lots of other dishes)



1 Cup of cooked oatmeal (not prepackaged - cooked with water, if you don't want to increase calories add sweetener...)


8 Shrimp (yummmy...depends on size, dip them in low cal seafood sauce)



1 Cup of baby carrots + 2 tbsp of hummus (or 1/4 large pita and 2 tbsp hummus)





1/2 of a medium cantaloupe!!!




1 cup of strawberries and 3 tbsp yogurt (Dipping the strawberries in the yogurt makes it last a lot longer)




I think the above choices are better then this:



But I understand the concept, a little portion control never hurt anyone. Now it's just remembering to only eat 1 pack!

Here are a few more (there are unlimited choices really)

10 M+M peanut filled candies



1/6th of McDonald's large size fries (ouch, so a full one is 600 cals!)





And finally, my favorite. Mmmmm....

One hard boiled egg.

NOTE: Egg do not directly impact your cholesterol, so enjoy your eggs!

I love Oatcakes.

Ingredients: Oatmeal (76%), vegetable oils, wheat flour, sugar, sea salt, sodium bicarbonate



I don't know many people who buy Oat Cakes, but if you haven't had them before I'd give them a try. I've heard that a lot of grocery stores don't carry them so you might need to look around a bit.


Here's some nutrition info (from the brand above compared to Tim Horton's):




I actually am surprised the highland oat cakes don't have a higher fibre content, since it's basically just oatmeal. They may not be the healthiest snack in the world, but I think they're decent. They always make me feel pretty satisfied, definitely more satisfied then eating granola bars or stuff like that. They are really nice with cream cheese and jam, sorta like a lil'cheese cake.

I have never tried the Tim Horton's ones, but I thought it might be interesting for comparison.

Apparently you should be exercising less...

I read about this on another blog. Check out the original posting here:

Weighty Matters: Canadian health authorities recommend we exercise less

I think that it is pretty crazy they would change the recommendation. It isn't as if the original recommendation of 30 minutes of exercise a day for adults was out of control. I mean, it didn't have to be intense exercise right?...just walking for a half hour a day...

I think I agree with the idea of this blog - maybe they changed it so people would feel that they could actually reach their goal of following the guidelines.

Who knows.

Kelly Clarkson

I wanted to write another post about body image, and apparently my new found love for Kelly Clarkson will come to use.

I think most people know about BMI (the body mass index AKA Quetelet index), which was created in the 1800's by a guy named Adolphe Quetelet. Body mass index is the individual's body weight divided by the square of his or her height. The calculated number is then compared to a standardized values to predict if someone is underweight, normal, overweight or obese.

There are some pretty obvious problems with this method but I think the biggest is that it doesn't consider muscle mass.

There are other methods of determining true fat mass to muscle mass ratio. I'm not going to go into detail about them, but in on of my courses I had some methods completed on me. I am apparently overweight, both according to BMI and according to the actual fat mass recommendations.

Click here to calculate your BMI.

I always sort of new by these classification I would be considered overweight, but I guess I didn't want to accept it. There are a lot of people out there that say being overweight is always bad. But I disagree. I am healthy. I eat pretty well, I exercise pretty regularly (even if it's not always super intense) and I am happy with my body (though I know I could lose some weight and gain some muscle). So I wonder if the people that argue that you have to fit perfectly into the "healthy" range understand that health for some people isn't just about fitting into these standards.

I personally find that when I try to loss weight I become too obsessed with thinking about food and what I'll eat next. I really don't think the extra 10lbs or so that is putting me in the overweight section is worth me fighting my body and my hunger. I also don't think the extra 10 lbs I'm carrying around is going to dramatically change my health. I can still go outside and run for an hour if I want without panting, I can still do all the things I love to do. So why is there such a big stigma attached to carrying some extra weight around?

Kelly Clarkson's been getting some attention because of her weight gain over the last few years.

Before:


After:







I think it's sad that someone who is in the spotlight gets so much negative attention for something like this. She has obviously gained some weight, but I think that is something that typically happened when someone goes from being about 18 (when she got famous) to almost 30. Maybe people shouldn't gain weight as they get older, but I think they typically do. Why is the public so disgusted if it happens to someone who is famous when it so often happens to us "regular people"? I personally think she still looks great. I imagine at some point she will probably end up losing some of the weight too.

This is what she has to say about it:

“I work out when I want to work out; I don’t work out when I don’t want to work out. After a long day and I’m tired, yeah, a cookie helps. It makes me feel good. It’s soul food! There’s a reason why it’s called that. I drop, like, 15 pounds when I’m on tour.” (from Entertainment Weekly)

Just because I don't think being overweight is bad, doesn't mean I don't agree that if you are living an unhealthy lifestyle you shouldn't strive to change it. Just like I don't mean that being very obese should be acceptable, simply because there are many health condition associated with carrying excess weight. But I do think that it is important to feel our best and not to let societies standards, and even scientific standards decide what our best is for us.

Real Food for Real Kids

In my job search I came across this company which is hiring (I'm keeping my fingers crossed I hear from them!), and I thought I'd share it with...well myself...since I haven't posted the link anywhere for people to read this yet. Haha. But it's pretty awesome.

Real Food for Real Kids

Here's some of their basic info:

"At Real Food for Real Kids, we use whole, natural and organic ingredients to make food, fresh from scratch, every day. By catering to childcare centres, elementary schools, and camps, we help children and their families celebrate real food and instill lifelong healthy eating habits."

" Our mission is to...

Change the way children eat and understand food.

Provide children with delicious, healthy, all-natural meals and snacks.

Reconnect children and families to real food.

Inspire future generations to make healthier choices, every day.

Support local farmers and producers who are as committed to responsible and sustainable business practices as we are."

They have lots of recipes, resources, info about companies they support, products, education and other stuff on their website.

Even if I don't get the job, I still think it's great to see a company out there that wants to help instill healthy eating habits in children!!