Is it time for a tequila, rosé or chip intervention?

Clearly not my stash, no Summer Water or Miraval, also enjoy the cans (portion control)!

On Sunday nights, I remind our Foodstalking clients they signed up for the week ahead. If you have no idea what I’m referring to, Foodstalking is our e-nutrition program. For a week, we send a tip to participants in the morning and they send a complete food log to us at night. It’s a great way to tighten things up with added accountability. Typically, clients say “yup” or “got it” when I send the reminder. Last night it was, “I really need this” or “I’m looking forward to structure” across the board.

Whether your “thing” is chips or dessert or wine or portions, summer eating is tricky. Summer can be more social and there are many seasonal temptations. Here are a few tips if you’re looking to tighten things (or yourself) up:

 Pop a probiotic: sugar, carbs and wine wreak havoc on your intestinal flora. Why does that matter? Well that flora is sort of like a control tower for your body. One of the things it controls is cravings. 

I like this one.

Build momentum on Monday. If summer weekends are indulgent, make Monday matter. Skip booze and carbs to start the week.

Sprinkle cinnamon. Sugar cravings are caused, in part, by yeasts in your body (candida) that feed on sugar.  When no sugar is present they signal brain for more. Cinnamon wipes away these evil yeasts. Cinnamon also keeps you fuller longer. Put 1/4 to 1/2  teaspoon cinnamon in your morning coffee or smoothie.  This is the best type of cinnamon.

Lavish fats- as you’re working on decreasing carbs, sugar or wine consciously increase good fats in your diet. Coconut oil (despite recent brouhaha), avocado, chia seeds, olive oil and walnuts are some Foodtrainers’ favorites.

Give fruit a friend- summer fruits are tricky too. I’m pro fruit but, for now, try not to eat fruit on its own. Fruit and nuts, fruit and cheese, fruit as part of breakfast fine (once a day).

I know summer is about kicking back and relaxing and that’s all good. I just want you to feel your best and be without rose’ regrets come September. Fair?

Tell me how your summer eating has been, what’s your biggest challenge? Any questions or topics you’d like me to cover?

Drink your way to success?

Yesterday, a link to this story was sent my way.  The premise of the article is that in order for women to succeed in business they need to drink up. The piece was sent my way with the commentary “so sad that women feel they need to do this.” It is. It’s not as sad as people sleeping their way to the top but I’ve written before about bossy bosses. And so whether it’s “pizza for the team”, a golf outing (maybe drinks trump this option) or whisky this frat-style hazing is alive and “unwell” in corporate America. 

I first heard about this mandatory serious drinking from a client based in Asia. When I’d ask how many drinks we could plan on when she was out for work she’d say “a lot”.  When I’d clarify, “so four, five?” “She’d say “much more.” In many situations it’s not just that you must participate but that you have to participate with gusto. As the article said, “a couple Chardonnays over a three hour period isn’t going to cut it” or so it seems. I don't know what's worse the expectation that you have to overindulge or employees taking apparent pride in their ability to do so.

Peer pressure aside, I find it interesting that what you choose to drink makes a statement. “Drink things typically associated with having a penis. Goodbye Skinny Girl margarita, hello Don Julio.  As long as we’re being crass, I am a fan of these so-called “penis” drinks. I love a scotch or mezcal on the rocks but it does elicit comments. As long as we’re being crass, since when does having a vagina obligate you to order a Cosmo? If you've read LBT you know that these "dude drinks" are the way to go, of course I suggest one a night. It's a good thing I own my own business.

Maybe I’m biased but I don’t think you need to down a pizza, a dozen shots or sink a hole in 1 in order to succeed. But you may need to take a piece of pizza, order a stiff drink and go to the golf outing. I’m all for doing the best job you can but that has its limits.

What do you think of the expectation that you have to go “shot for shot” in order to succeed? Have you felt pressured, as an adult, to eat or drink something at work or socially? How do you handle it?

Did you hear the news about tequila and weight loss?

It wasn’t long ago that Well and Good posted about an ice cream cleanse. I tweeted saying something like “the margarita cleanse can’t be far behind”.  Little did I know that days later, a study would surface out with some intriguing news about a tequila ingredient. “Tequila plant is possible sweetener for diabetics helps reduceblood sugar and weight”. Psychic food tendencies aside, this was fun news. Before we go further, I will confess my bias. I like tequila. I like a tequila shot, I like mixing tequila with green juice and sea buckthorn and please, who doesn’t like a margarita? It’s like the Ellen DeGeneres of drinks, everyone likes them.

When I read that this study was conducted on mice I chuckled at the thought of drunken rodents being weighed and tested (PETA I’m joking). However, I learned that the mice were not given tequila but one of the ingredients in tequila called agavins (different from agave nectar). Mice consuming these agavins ate less, dropped weight and had lower blood glucose levels compared to other sweeteners. It also turns out that these agavins are prebiotics meaning they are good for our GI health.

If you’re starting to get excited (I sure was), hang on. When explaining the findings, the researcher specifically said that the agavins are converted to ethanol during fermentation ergo they’re not present in tequila. Even if it turns out agavins have the same beneficial effects on humans, we will not ingest them via our tequila intake. Shoot.

While this feels like a bad almost-April Fools joke some tequila facts.

• Skip the gold- one of the reason many have had bad experiences is that gold tequila is made using caramel coloring (or that in college you had 20 shots) pick silver or blanco and ask what they’re using when you order. Quality is important even with booze.
• And tequila expires (or deteriorates) once you open a bottle you have one to two months to finish it. I’m thinking there’s some ancient tequila lurking in may of your homes. Please do not finish the bottle of tequila just because I told you this.
• I don’t want to leave you totally sad to start the week. While I detest the word “moderate” when it comes to drinking that’s about 4 drinks a week. And it seems that amount has some beneficial effects on insulin sensitivity (alcohol lowers your blood sugar).

As for the agavins, they're another “sweet” option we can follow up on once they hit the shelves which I’m guessing will happen by tomorrow based on this research.
Do you like tequila? Did you hear about this study? What was your reaction? 

I'm A Camper and a Biker

"A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving"

-Lao Tzu (should've listened to the quote on the Amika travel blow dryer box)

I promise not to turn this into a travel blog but I thought I’d at least let you know how I fared in the wilderness. So many of you were so supportive with my lame and inflated fears. Well, maybe they were just misdirected. What I’ve learned about fear is that Murphy’s Law is inaccurate. It’s not necessarily that what you fear will happen will but that what will happen may be way worse than what you feared. Let me explain.

I have never, despite a close call at Eagle airport in Colorado, missed a flight. Just to be safe, we arrived two hours early for our flight to Chicago where we intended to connect to Jackson Hole. After an ambiguous gate change, when we were about to board the flight at the new gate we were told, “this is another Chicago flight, your flight left.” To make a long story short, we spent the night in Denver (actually Aurora, creepy), flew to Jackson Hole in the morning where our bags spent the night and took a taxi up to Yellowstone (3 hours) to meet our trip.

Wait, it gets worse. Remember my over preparation? Somewhere between Jackson Hole and Yellowstone, Marc checked our bags. He had packed an extra bag but never informed me so when I counted our bags, I assumed we had everything. All our supplies? They were in a suitcase that never left NY. I am sure our taxi driver will be talking about a crazy lady from NYC for many years to come. We sorted out to have bag FedExed to our campsite. Remind me to “like” FedEx on Facebook or send a thank you note.

My “reward” for all of this rushing and arranging was that we met our group in time for lunch in Yellowstone just as everyone was getting fitted with their bikes. Yellowstone doesn’t have a bike path per se so we were instructed to stay all the way to the side and watch out for RVs and bison. As the late family, there was no way I could completely express my biking fears though I did hop in the van and start the ride after the “biggest hill of the week.” Did I mention we were at 10,000 feet elevation?

When you’re tense or worried, you zero in on what can go wrong. As we started to bike, I realized why we were there and I almost crashed my bike taking in the view. Yellowstone, aside from wildlife, is best distinguished for its thermal features (can you name the 4 types of thermal features?). We rode past hot springs and geysers and finished at Old Faithful.

Do we really need to see this?

According to this photo it's not that special, in person it is. 

After waiting and waiting for Old Faithful to do its thing, we were shuttled to our campground. Many of you wished me wine while camping. Along with our tent assignments, there was hors d’oeurvres and wine greeting us. Cheers. 

I will not lie, the first night in the tent, without our pillows, in the missing bag, I was awake listening to the noise from other campsites and convinced myself I was not cut out for camping but that quickly changed. 

Day 2 was a hiking day around “Grand Canyon” of Yellowstone. It was breathtaking.

 After lunch, the kids were swiped up for their own activity and the adults hiked on. 

We were rewarded with showers at our second campsite, clean showers no less. It’s amazing what can turn into a treat when you’re stripped of luxuries.

camping legs, I'll save the chipped tooth story for another day

 Our bag arrived and surprisingly the only thing I had missed was our inflatable pillows (sweatshirts don’t cut it) and toothbrushes. I slept like a baby.

We kayaked on the third day and enjoyed a delicious Mexican dinner at night. For many of the days, we packed our lunches from a spread the camp crew presented us. They were great about gluten (three of the women were gluten free) but without bread my lunch was often some tuna or turkey with avocado or a slice of cheese and some veggies. This would seem small-ish at home but we were eating regularly and it was really satisfying. The only food "tools" I ended up using were my probiotics and some mornings cocochia,also contains probtioics, over fruit (stay tuned for a future post on probitoics and weight). Though some complained, I lost a couple while away.

The next day was “OYO” or our on your own time. We bid farewell to Yellowstone and arranged fishing on Jackson Lake in the Tetons or “the ladies of the lake” as our fisherman guide Phil called them. With the wildfires in Idaho the view was hazy and the fishing had been affected (the fire kills the bugs and the fish eat them).

Nonetheless, our boys pulled in enough lake trout for all of our new friends at the campsite to taste.

After an hour of nothing and many great stories from our captain Phil...lake trout

For a trip full of “highlights” stopping our bike ride in the Tetons for a herd of bison may have topped the list. We had to stay back and wait as 1000 bison crossed the road (hopefully not to get to “lunch” on the other side).

bison jam

After lunch we finished the 25-mile route in Jackson Hole. We somehow ended up at the Cowboy Bar where our time was limited. I had never suggested a tequila shot as a post-exercise beverage and I don’t think I will start to any time soon.

We were all sad for the week to end. Andrea, in a blog comment before I departed, articulated things so well "I like the contrast camping provides to my "normal life." I like appreciating all the little conveniences again and also realizing that I don't need certain things." We were outside all day, every day. We were with families from all over the country with 13 combined children who never complained. There’s nothing like ending the day around a campfire although I have enjoyed crawling into my bed. In a nerdy way I feel sort of proud of myself. Mission enjoyed.

I know many of you mentioned you’re not the tenting type, would you ever try it? Your kids would love…Have you been to any of the National Parks? Do you have any sports-related fears biking or skiing etc. you want to face?

Oh and the 4 types of thermal features are geysers, hot springs, mudpots and fumaroles (if you’re on Jeopardy you’ll thank me).