Let’s Talk About My Paper Because I Just Finished and I Swear it is Interesting

Date: March 20, 2013

Author: astottler

Like my title? Haha. But first let’s get down to business with some eats! Dinner last night was awesome! We had leftover rotisserie chicken, so I searched for a soup recipe that called for it, and boy did I pick a winner. Since I’m attempting the whole Whole30 thing, I wanted a recipe that was paleo, so I found one on Against All Grain. The recipe is for leftover roast chicken soup with roasted vegetables. My family and I could not get enough of it!

On the side was an artichoke and dipping sauce made from store bought garlic aioli and vinaigrette salad dressing.

And guess what I did this morning guys?!? SPIN CLASS! I was so pumped to be back in it, and even though it was a 6 am class, I was up before my alarm. It felt awesome. It wasn’t that difficult of a class (and I didn’t try to make it harder) so it was the perfect class to come back into. I listened to the radio in the car and realized that lots must have happened while I was sick because I didn’t recognize half of the songs!

After a good workout, I had a smoothie and some mashed potatoes.The smoothie is a few weeks old, and was the second half of a smoothie I had when I was sick. It is much better when my throat isn’t so swollen up! I’m not 100% sure what is in it, seeing as I didn’t make it myself, since I was incapable of leaving my bed, but I know it has 2 kinds of grapes, and strawberries. And is fancy because it was made from an actual recipe. My mom has been begging me to finish it all week because we got new glasses and she wanted to get rid of the old ones. Notice the new glasses?I also had half a banana with peanut butter. I am trying to have low quantities of nuts every day so that I don’t completely lose my tolerance. Sigh. The only thing better than an early morning workout? Going back to bed after an early morning workout. Yay spring break! Well kind of. I had to finish a paper today. Which is worth like half my grade. Let’s just say I spent a long time staring at a computer screen today. Actually, I’ve been on the computer way too much these past few days. Everything is starting to get blurry. When I was finishing up my research late tonight I had to blow up the words so I could read them. So sorry if I have a ton of typos in this!

I was hungry by 10:30, but at 11, I had to take a field trip to the grocery store to do research for my paper. I recorded the sugar content of tons of different foods, more on that later, as well as empty health claims. Yeahh I’m kind of angry about marketing right now! Anyways, staring at the worst junk food for about an hour while you are hungry turns out to not be the best idea. I ended up picking up some flavor blasted goldfish which just happened to open themselves in the car. Goodbyeee Whole30. Lunch was leftover soup and nachos (tortilla chips with melted cheddar cheese).Plus a probiotic chocolate bar. Gotta recover from all those antibiotics, right?? My mom picked up Poptarts at the grocery which were on my mind all afternoon, so yeahh that happened. HahWHOLE30hah. Dinner was Whole30 though, mostly because I planned it out ahead of time.Turkey burgers (Minus the bun), sweet potato “fries”, green beans, and tons of homemade ketchup of course! I made a delicious last minute decision to add garlic powder just as the burgers were finishing up in the oven. The sweet potato fries (which we made with yams) were delicious. We just cut up yams and roasted them in the oven. They weren’t exactly crispy, but I’m not a fan of crispy fries anyways!

Today was another reminder as to why I really need to do this Whole30 thing. I don’t think I will survive break (which is extra long, this week is technically finals week but I don’t have any) if I don’t have some sort of control! And I seriously do feel better when I stick to it! Plus, I’m going to go into the scary world of sugar in a bit! But first:My failed attempts to convince my sister that she really is missing out on cat time.

Ok, onto my paper! I just finished writing a 12 page research paper on the connection between sugar consumption and the obesity epidemic, as well as other health problems. So lucky you guys, you get to hear all about it!

So first let’s talk about why sugar causes people to gain weight. One of the biggest factors is that it doesn’t suppress ghrelin, the hunger hormone, to stop telling you that you are hungry. Additionally, it the fructose half of sugar does not trigger any insulin response, which therefore doesn’t trigger leptin, the hormone that tells you you are satiated. But it gets worse. Chronic sugar consumption can cause a condition called leptin resistance. Leptin is produced by fat cells. Back in the caveman days before we messed up our hormonal signaling, this would regulate body weight. If we were underweight, fats cells would not send leptin signals telling the brain to stop eating. Instead, the brain would be instructed to eat more and move less (to conserve energy). If we were overweight, the fat cells in our bodies would be full, and therefore signal the brain that we don’t need to eat as much. Here’s where leptin resistance comes in. It is believed that chronically high insulin levels somehow block the leptin signal. Anyway, what happens as a result is that if you are leptin resistant and overweight, your fat cells will send leptin signals to the brain, but the brain won’t be able to “see” these signals, so it will think you are starving, driving you to eat more and move less. If you are dealing with this hormonal jungle, how can you possibly lose weight? And did I mention scientists can induce leptin resistance in rats by feeding them sugar? Yeahh kind of scary.

I’ll briefly do through some other scary sugar related diseases. If you want a full explanation of the processes, feel free to email me! (astottler@gmail.com) Metabolic syndrome often comes with obesity, and is a whole set of diseases including Type 2 Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, fatty liver disease (yes, like the kind alcoholics get), and heart disease. Oh yeah, and there are links between sugar consumption and cancer. Pretty scary stuff! But of course this all only happens with EXCESS sugar consumption (which pretty much sums up MY day haha!).

So let’s talk about sugary foods for a minute. I won’t go into WHY sugar is in everything we eat (hint: low fat trend and High Fructose Corn Syrup), but let’s talk numbers. Let’s talk advertising. The maximum recommended daily consumption of added sugar is 20-24 grams. That’s not very much, considering the average American eats 88 grams. I could easily make a day of eating that gets the sugar count up to 88 grams. Here’s the example from my paper:

‘Many people may read about the dangers and sugar and think, “well, of course that isn’t talking about me. I don’t eat too much sugar.” However, it is amazing how fast the sugar adds up. The American Heart Association recommends Americans eat no more than 20 grams of added sugars a day (Main). But how much are we really eating? Adults eat about 88 grams of sugar a day (Krum). It is estimated that Americans consume nearly 500 calories of added sugar every day (Krum). Where is all this sugar coming from? A health conscious person may start the day with a bowl of Raisin Bran. That is 18 grams of sugar right there. For a snack to “satisfy hunger longer” as the box claims, this person might drink a delicious 18 grams of sugar in a Special K protein shake. For lunch? How about 6 ounces of low fat Tillamook vanilla yogurt? That is 34 grams of sugar, although it can be assumed that 10 grams of that is due to natural lactose sugars, leaving us with 24 grams of sugar. Our health conscious person might as well have an entire Hershey’s chocolate bar for 24 grams of sugar. The yogurt alone puts our healthy friend here over the maximum daily sugar recommendation. For dinner, he has a cup of Campbell’s tomato soup, for 14 grams of sugar, most of it in the form of High Fructose Corn Syrup. But the soup comes in a microwaveable container that serves two, so he finished it off for a total of 28 grams of sugar. A health conscious person can easily consume the average amount of sugar an American eats in a day, 88 grams, without eating a single dessert.’

Children eat on average 128 grams of sugar a day. That’s what, 6 times the recommended quantity? And I can certainly see how. I made up a meal with the sugar quantities I found at the grocery that a child could easily eat for lunch at school. Let’s say he starts with a 12 ounce Pepsi. 41 grams. 2 slices of whole wheat bread, 6 grams each. 1 tablespoon of grape jelly, 13 grams. Peanut butter? 4 grams. Then for dessert, some fat free (!) devil’s Food Cookies, 2 at 7 grams each. That is 84 grams of sugar in a single meal. A meal many children might take to school. So let’s say the student is a little healthier and takes apple juice instead of soda, as many kids do. that’s still 28 grams of sugar, that’s still 71 grams of sugar in a meal. That’s about the size of 4 ping pong balls. This is all so crazy! No wonder we have so many obesity problems! And how many people realize this? How many parents buy these foods trying to do something healthy for their children, not realizing these foods are laced with sugar? I started to get really annoyed at marketing as well. Fig Newtons. “100% Whole Grain.” Healthy, right? How about 12 grams of sugar a serving (not TERRIBLE), and full of High Fructose Corn Syrup AND trans fat? Who still puts trans fat in foods anymore?? And how about frozen yogurt. Ben and Jerry’s frozen yogurt has like 24 grams in a half cup serving. That’s not horrible, given there are probably 10 grams of lactose sugars, but it is misleading, because seriously, who eats half a cup? Or one of my favorites, the Heart Healthy stamp of approval. As we’ve seen, sugar isn’t particularly heart healthy. All foods need to be to get that stamp of approval is low fat, and the company must pay money. On the sugariest soup I found (14 grams for a cup) was the heart healthy stamp.

And cereal. Guess which cereal wins the prize for most sugar? Not Lucky Charms. Not Cocoa Puffs. Raisin Bran. The traditional “healthy” cereal has 18 grams of sugar for a cup! At softball tournaments, hotels we stayed t usually had raisin bran and fruit loops. This used to be the one time I would have fruit loops. Then, I became more health conscious and switched to Raisin Bran. Heck, I should have just gone with the Fruit Loops! they have less sugar! How crazy is that??

My other favorite: I was looking at Nesquick mix, and it had huge writing on one container that said “25% less sugar!” I examined the regular Nesquick, which was in a different container, and was utterly confused when I saw they had the same sugar content. Then I read the fine print. It was actually “25% Less Sugar Than Chocolate Syrup.” I saw this marketing trick on a couple of other things. The product seems like a healthier version of itself, but the fine print reveals it is just slightly healthier than some other brand or something.

Ok, rant over! I hope you guys learned something interesting! If you have any questions, feel free to contact me or comment below!

What marketing do you find misleading?

I don’t eat pork, but I just found out the chicken sausages my family buys are made with pork casings! SO MAD!

Regular Posting

Date: February 6, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Here I am, posting regularly again! Yay! My morning today began with half a piece of blueberry apple cinnamon bread, and some milk. I debated a lot with myself for when I should do my morning workout…I considered trying to make a spin class, which would require that I am done with my erg by 7. The problem with this is it means I am depending on the gym where I erg to be open early, like it was when I did this before (which was lucky!) because my ergs definitely take longer than an hour. In the end, I decided not to torture myself by getting up so early, and to just do the prescribed workout.

After my erg pieces, I got in a good 30 minute run. I explored a part of campus I didn’t even know existed, which is always fun! The only thing: I began my first erg piece at 6:45, and finished my run at 8:45, so I was hungry!

I’m trying to up my veggie intake, so I went to the dining hall that I know has spinach out at breakfast. Here, we have a piece of whole wheat toast, half with cream cheese, half with turkey, plus spinach, a slice of tomato, and scrambled egg whites. I was planning on just making this with hardboiled eggs, but the concept of peeling eggs seemed so…difficult. And there were the egg whites just asking to be taken. So it worked out. Plus melon. And half a blueberry muffin.

It was decent. My favorite muffins the dining hall has are the chocolate chunk and the orange cranberry. Way too dangerous. This muffin had me thinking about my absolute favorite way to eat blueberry muffins. So here it is: yes, made from a mix, with fresh blueberries, topped with course sugar, hot from the oven, and preferably in bread form (less bottom crust!). Are you drooling yet? I am. Now THAT my friends, is dangerous. Speaking of quickbreads, I am in serious need of some baking. I have all of 2.5 pieces of bread left in my freezer. I’ve been eating it more for snacks lately, and it kind of disappeared. The only problem is, it is impossible to make anything at school that I plan to freeze, unless I make a ton of it because everyone can smell it and wants some. Plus I don’t have a TON of ingredients…One thing that worked for me to make here is pumpkin bread, which makes 2 loaves, so I have a loaf to distract everyone while I run my loaf up to my room. I really want to make this, but I only have 1 can of pumpkin, and the recipe calls for a little bit more than that. Hmmm but I do have a couple of sweet potatoes…maybe that could work? In theory I have ingredients for banana bread, if I didn’t eat all my bananas so darn fast! I’ll have to grab a bunch if I plan to do that. I guess I could wake up early (hah, earlier) one day and bake before anyone is awake! Not sure if it is worth it though.

Back to my day. I enjoyed a fabulous and much needed 2 hour nap. And like clockwork, I woke up wanting food, so I ate a granola bar, and quickly made the executive decision to hold off on cutting back nuts until tomorrow. Why? I was planning on a granola bar for an afternoon snack as well, plus I needed to pack some food for after practice and before my midterm, and I could not think of a single nonperishable thing I could pack that did not involve nuts or nut butter. So starting tomorrow, life is going to get difficult.

So these granola bars? A delivery from my mom! I didn’t take any pictures before, so right as I started this post, I ran to snap a picture. These guys are frozen, I finished the ones I kept out.

If you are interested, here is a bad picture of the recipe.

I like that brown rice syrup is the main sweetener in these. I guess these could be a decent replacement for my quickbread as preworkout fuel, but I don’t like eating fat (nuts) before a morning workout.

Ok, on to lunch!

Sweet potato bisque, Greek salad, tofu, and fruit. I later got some salmon which I ate in place of the tofu, because the tofu wasn’t my favorite, and I didn’t see the salmon earlier! I also had a slice of cinnamon toast and a small piece of chocolate cake.

For snack before practice, I finished the last of my Sweet Potato bread.

Plus another granola bar and half a banana with peanut butter (left over from making my dinner). Yeahhh lots of nuts.

At practice today, I wasn’t in a boat and had to cross train on land, which today meant spinning. I really don’t mind this. I love Spin, and the water was pretty rough today anyway. I did a few ab exercises after spinning, and I was juuust a little bit sweaty….I think this is cool (ok and maybe gross), but check out my mat that I was lying down on the to abs:

I was wearing an old softball t-shirt with a number on the back, and it made a sweat pattern! Can you guess what number I was? Well, at least I thought it was awesome.

I ate a peanut butter and banana sandwich with celery on the drive back, but we ended up getting back pretty early today, so I stopped by my local dining hall really quickly because there was a Lunar New Year celebration with special food. Unfortunately, all of the really good and unique food had RIDICULOUS lines, and I was pretty short on time, so I just had some noodles and salad.

On the way out the lines were shorter so I grabbed a chicken bun. In the corner there is some green tea ice cream. It is kind of a big deal when the dining hall has real ice cream because no one here ever gets it. Except, one dining hall is required to always have 3 flavors of ice cream. It has something to do with a condition the donors put when they donated money for it. It’s sooo far away though, so I’ve only been to that dining hall like twice ever. I also had some small candies. Then it was off to my math final! I think it went pretty well. I’m really hoping to do well in this class because I took a similar class in high school. It was so cold biking back though! I don’t think I’ve ever biked that fast back before!

Ok, I am off to do work!

Do you guys have any suggestions for fun posts? Or requests? Let me know!

Weekend Eating

Date: January 20, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

I hope everyone is having a great weekend! I’m a little bit behind on posting. Friday night dinner was a repeat of the salad from lunch, plus some leftover brown rice. I also had some banana with cocoa powder and peanut butter, and a slice of cinnamon raisin toast. I went to the dining hall just to grab some bananas and decided I might as well at least eat something while I was there, so toast it was!

Here’s a terrible picture of one of my experiments. Banana, mashed with cocoa powder, then microwaved with egg and some oats. It was ok, but nothing to write home about. I had a really fun Friday night. I watched some friends perform in a poetry slam (never been to one before, but some of the poets gave me chills!), and then I spent the night with my friends.

Saturday, I was up bright and early, due to an inability to sleep in. I was really hoping I would be able to hold out until 10:30 when brunch opened, but I ended up eating something in my room around 8:30.

Sweet potato bread plus pistachios and frozen blueberries. This was the perfect fuel for a mini workout. Since we have some freedom this weekend, I decided to do some medium speed erg work. I was only on the erg for about 12 minutes, but I was really tired and sweaty afterwards! Impressive!

As I’ve said before, Saturday brunch is my favorite meal of the week. So even though it was only 11, and I had already eaten, I couldn’t pass up he opportunity. I was planning on just having a smoothie, but the avocado was calling.

I make my Mexican food into a salad! Greens, chicken, black beans, salsa, rice, and a TON of smashed avocado! Yum! Plus a little watermelon.

After my salad, I realized that today, for the first time, crepes were offered at brunch, so I had to try one.

The crepe was actually pretty small and thin, and not sweet at all (so it fits my challenge). And don’t worry, on top is just reheated frozen blueberries, a little butter, and some peanut butter on the side. This guy was ok, but it gave me an idea, so I fixed myself up half a waffle.

Topped with more blueberries and a side of peanut butter! Now this was good! I may have to do this again! Some days there are whole wheat waffles available as well, so maybe then!

I don’t know what it is about brunch that is so darn delicious. I always have to fill myself up, because there are so many options! More on weekend eating later in the post! After brunch, I packed up my things and headed home. Since I had just eaten a big meal, I wanted to digest before hitting the gym ( which, by the way, never happened…), so I watched my parents eat. I don’t know what it is about being home, but I have the urge to snack on everything in sight!

I don’t have too many pictures, but here are some highlights: cashews with 100% dark chocolate (no sugar)-this is one of my favorite things! Cheese and crackers. Mango (though sadly, the mango was mostly bad…)

Some of these guys (so addicting!)

I basically spent the day eating a lot of foods with no nutritional value. Do any of you guys have problems eating well on the weekends? I don’t know what it is, but I always eat badly/eat a lot on weekends. Any tips? My goal for tomorrow is to pack each meal with awesomely nutritious foods!

What else did I do today? I made Julie‘s Peanut Butter Granola .

I made a few small changes. I omitted the cinnamon, and used 1 tablespoon of brown rice syrup and 1 tablespoon of honey, instead of 2 tablespoons of honey. Not going to lie, a lot of this didn’t make it into the oven, and hardly any made it through the day! While this was good, I liked her Almond Butter Granola even better! The almond butter perfectly complemented the vanilla. Yum! When I made it before ( I didn’t make it today), I made the same 1/2 brown rice syrup substitution, added raisins, and slightly reduced the amount of oats so it would be gooier. SO good. I didn’t do a lot this afternoon but enjoy these guys.

I didn’t end up hitting the gym because I was full, and then time flew by, and I had plans with one of my friends from home tonight! Before I met up with her, we made breakfast for dinner!

A big ol’ egg scramble! In the mix was liquid egg whites, onions, tomatoes, spinach, cheddar, and chicken apple sausage.

My scramble, with bruschetta, plus a biscuit with Smart Balance and a blueberry mixture I whipped up. Ok, that’s an exaggeration. I heated up frozen blueberries on the stove.

Good enough for me! I don’t know what it is about biscuits that makes them so irresistible. I definitely went back for thirds! Warm, flakey, buttery. What could be better?

For dessert, I heated up half a frozen banana and mixed in cocoa powder, plus a little peanut butter and granola.

Who needs sweets? By the way, at home, we have dark chocolate cocoa powder, which is why this is so dark. I like it though, I don’t need to add as much. I need to get some for myself!

After dinner, my friend and I decided it was a crafting kind of night. She had browsed a ton of blogs with awesome ideas, and decided to make a headband. We made a quick run to the craft store for materials. I love all the bright fabrics, and of course the adorable ones with cats…yes, I definitely have a weakness….While there, I came across the knitting section. I have not knitted at all in years, and have a ton of unfinished projects, but I decided my sewing skills were lacking anyway, so I went for it! I figure, knitting is something I can do while I’m in the van on the way to practice. There are actually quite a few girls on my team who knit. Random, right?

I was a little worried about my knitting abilities after years, but it came back very naturally. Just like riding a bike! (Ok, that is such a lie! My first few weeks on a bike oriented campus after not having ridden in 10 years were…interesting. And painful.) Here’s what I picked out:

I’ve always liked mixing 2 different yarns at once! I think I may make this into a circle scarf my connecting the ends when I’m finished. Any thoughts? After some quality time with one of my best friends, I returned home and watched Caste and Friends with my parents and crazy cats.

Well, crazy or sleepy?

Have a great night! Here’s to a nutritious and healthy Sunday! Maybe I’ll make my favorite smoothie for breakfast and finally share it with you all! On tap for me tomorrow is Spin, plus my missed workout today!

My Secret Dream

Date: January 11, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Can you believe it is already Thursday? I don’t seem to have any concept of days this week, with my new schedule and everything. There are definitely some kinks to be worked out. In case you’re wondering how my little sugar experiment went, I slept really, really well last night, and felt much more alert and awake during the day. It’s funny what an effect a little sugar can have on your body, in ways you would never think of.

This morning, I survived my tough workout, stomach contents and all! It was tough but doable. The goal times my coach gave me really helped me pace myself, yet push myself at the same time. The workout was on the rowing machine, 250m, 2500m, 750m, and 5000m, all a basically max effort. I didn’t eat much beforehand, just a few bites of leftover banana oatmeal. This was about right given the workout. Afterwards, I was ready for a real meal! Some people don’t feel like eating after a hard workout, but I’m always driven toward food. Even if I don’t feel well, it is like my body knows that food will replenish me.

Here’s breakfast:

A peach-watermelon smoothie. Hey, I have to go with what is available to me, right? And it was good too! This year I learned that watermelon can make an awesome addition to a smoothie. Another smoothie I like that I haven’t made in a while is blackberry-watermelon. Yum! I added some peanut butter to top my smoothie as well. On the plate is a chocolate chip pancake, plus half a whole wheat english muffin with a bit of cream cheese and scrambled eggs with mozzarella and green onions. I also went back for another chocolate chip pancake because, well, I deserved it after that workout!

For lunch, I went to a sustainability event that had food. It was basically to raise awareness of the sustainability efforts that go into the dining here. There was even a bike powered blender!

Some type of turkey sandwich on ciabatta (I ate it open faced because it was too dry otherwise), a salad with apples and cranberries, and yogurt with granola and fruit. The yogurt was so good; it reminded me of frozen yogurt! I had to grab an actual serving of it.

What a beautiful parfait! I forgot how good pineapple is in yogurt!

After lunch, I headed to my Animal Behavior class (which I absolutely love), which is soooo far away. I also realized that wind really does play a big role when one is biking. I felt like I wasn’t moving at all as I rode into it!

After class, I snacked on frozen cherries and a protein bar from the other day. Frozen fruit is such a good snack, especially since I have a full freezer! I also had a handful of trail mix from the other day.

I got super bundled up for practice, as it was super cold out! I decided to make it my goal to not be cold during practice. I had 2 long sleeves plus 2 sweatshirts! Well, I wasn’t cold; practice was cancelled due to excessively windy conditions. This has never happened before. We have rowed in all kinds of weather, including rainstorms, so it must have been pretty crazy out for it to merit canceling practice. Instead, we had 75 minutes of cross training assigned. I convinced myself to do 20 minutes of it on the rowing machine, even though I had a tough workout this morning, just to break up the monotony. We aren’t allowed many options besides spinning, rowing, and running, and I have to run tomorrow anyway. One thing I miss with this new schedule is having freedom in my workouts. I miss lifting weights in the way I am used to doing it, and I miss circuit and ab workouts. The problem is, I don’t have the time or energy for them with everything else I have to do. But I do love rowing, so it’s a tradeoff. I was thinking about going to a spin class today, but I couldn’t get the timing to work out with the specifics of our assigned workout, so I decided to make a pumping spin class of my own. I love spin classes, and I have a secret dream of one day becoming a spin instructor. I have no idea how to do that though. Maybe something to look into this summer? Anyway, here’s a rough outline of the workout I made myself. The numbers indicate the number of songs for each section (make an awesome playlist like I did!):

2 warm up

3 hill

2 downhill

3 flat road

4 hill

1 downhill

2 flat road

1 cool down

It was a good workout, and pretty fun too. I was definitely working hard! After I finished my workout, I went to the dining hall for dinner.

Mixed greens with olives, corn, and a few pieces of zucchini, topped with champagne vinaigrette. I also had grilled chicken, brown rice, and some type of white beans. Plus ketchup on the side!

For dessert I had a bowl of cocoa puffs with peanut butter and chocolate milk. I just can’t lay off the chocolate peanut butter!

After dinner I went to a career fair where I sampled half of a chocolate chip cookie and half of an oatmeal raisin cookie. Fun fact: I don’t really like the chocolate chip cookies here. In fact, I am not a big fan of chocolate chip cookies unless they’re homemade (not that I don’t still eat them). I really like the oatmeal raisin cookies at the dining hall. They’re not as spiced, and are pretty vanilla-y. Yum! When I returned to my dorm, I could tell my sweet tooth was still running rampant. In an effort to limit the damage, I had my last Special K peanut butter chocolate granola bar from training camp, plus a piece of chocolate. I think that did the trick well enough.

I want to briefly touch on the nature of this blog. One thing I really want to maintain in this blog is positiveness. Many of the blogs I ready are super enthusiastic and positive, and I want to maintain that in this blog. Sure, life may not always be perfect, but a negative attitude doesn’t help anyone. It is really easy to type up a rant and post it, without thinking about the impact. I’m not saying I want to be dishonest with you guys, not at all. I’m saying I want to truly be positive. I am in general a very positive person, but everyone gets angry at themselves sometimes. I definitely don’t want this blog to be a place where all I do is complain, because let’s be honest, my life is pretty freaking great.

All that being said, I don’t feel like what I am eating fully fits into the definition of a healthy lifestyle. After all, I love nutrition, and I want to share that knowledge with you guys, but I also what that knowledge to be reflected in my meals. The best way to teach is through example, right? I am truly going to work hard to maintain my healthy ways, and improve in areas that need work. For example, I want to make a better effort to remember to take my vitamins. (Ok, maybe that’s not totally related but I needed to remind myself of that.)

Ok, now that all that seriousness is out of the way, guess what I saw tonight? A cat. I’ve seen this one a few times, but never so close to my dorm. I was walking back to my dorm when I heard meowing. Naturally, my ears perked up. This cat is such a sweetie. I felt so bad because it was FREEZING out. And I know I shouldn’t take it into my room because it probably has a home, and maybe that’s not something I should spring on my roommate, but I was definitely tempted.

This picture is from last time, when it was actually light out. Have I mentioned I love cats?

A girl on my team hates cats, which in her case I can actually understand. Apparently she had a pet mouse that she brought to school for show and tell, and there was a class cat there, and well, you can infer the rest…

Before I leave here today, I want to end with something super interesting I learned in animal behavior today. Apparently, it is impossible to teach an animal to do something 100% of the time, because the animals’ brains are essentially programmed to check if anything has changed. The only way to get an animal to display a certain behavior 100% of the time is if when training the animal, after the animal has learned that it will get a reward for the behavior, only give the animal a reward intermittently. For example, if training a dog to bring you the newspaper, at first you give the dog a treat every time it brings the newspaper until it has learned this behavior, and then only give the dog a treat some of the time when it brings the newspaper. Although the relation to health may not be immediately apparent, bear with me, I promise I’ll make sense. Animals are more likely to do a command if instead of getting a small reward every time, they get a huge reward occasionally. Now this may be a stretch, but I’m going to connect his to the studies that have shown that mice who are restricted from sugar for a period gorge on sugar when they are exposed to it again, as opposed to the mice who have constant access to sugar who don’t do this. So why am I bringing this up? It directly relates to addiction, or more relevant to health, food addiction. We really are not that different from animals, so we can connect these behaviors to ourselves. The very nature of these behaviors is the underlying cause (ok, this is definitely an exaggeration) of binge eating. A huge reward some of the time, and nothing the rest of the time? Does this sound anything like binge eating to you? It’s so interesting the way our brains work, and the effects they have on our behaviors. If that connection doesn’t make sense to you, I’m probably making a big stretch, but that seemed like an “aha” moment at the time for me.

Happy eating!