To Eat, or Not to Eat?

Happy Friday!!!  Is everyone ready for a long holiday weekend?!  I know I am!  But you know…along with a holiday weekend comes cookouts, drinking and not a whole lot of time for exercise unfortunately. We all just make a little time first thing in the morning to squeeze in a workout, and then we will be good to go!  You will have the rest of the day to do whatever else you may have planned.  Just another thought…instead of making that potato salad that you normally bring to the annual BBQ, why don’t you try making a healthier version or even step outside the box and make something completely different!  There are so many healthy, delicious side dish options out there to choose from!  I challenge you all to do this.  Find a healthy side dish recipe and try it out.  If any of you come across something that is absolutely delicious, please come back and share the recipe with me!  I’ll start!  I plan on making a quinoa salad with black beans and mango.  It sounds too good!  The recipe can be found at the bottom of the page.

Speaking of healthy food choices…that reminds me of a discussion I was having last night after Cardio Fusion class with my AWESOME instructor Melinda!  We were talking about things that we eat in our daily diets and such and came to the question, “what the hell are we supposed to be eating?”  I mean, I make pretty healthy choices from day to day, but what I consider “healthy” may not be considered healthy to someone else.  With all of the information and fad diets out there, how are we supposed to know what is good for us and what isn’t?

First there’s the food pyramid.  You know, that thing we all learned about in school?  The food pyramid is this great visual of what we need to eat on a day to day basis to stay healthy.  Seems like a simple concept right?  Eat these things = healthy you!  Not quite so simple though.  Take me for instance.  I, like so many others out there, have Celiac Disease, which means I cannot eat many of the options in the grains category.  Plus it’s telling me to eat 6-11 servings of the stuff per day!  That seems like a lot, especially if you’re listening to some experts out there who say too many carbs in our diet is bad and you have this pyramid telling us that grains should be the main food group in our diets?  I’m already confused!

The second tier is the fruit and veggie section of the food pyramid.  I personally believe that our diets should mainly consist of this food group.  But, then you come to the question organic or not organic?  The obvious choice is to go organic, right?  Easier said than done.  I, like so many others, do not have unlimited amounts of money to go spend at the grocery store.  And let’s face it, organic produce is quite a bit more expensive that non-organic.  Then people tell me, “oh, but the benefits of eating organic are so worth the price!”  Well sure they are!  But how well off are you if you can’t cook the food because your electric got shut off because you spent your whole paycheck at Whole Foods!?  (Sorry Whole Foods.  I do love you, but come on!  Let’s be real.)  So where does that leave me?  Munching on my pesticide ridden salad, that’s where!

Next you have the protein/dairy tier.  This one I find the most confusing of all!  I grew up drinking milk and eating lean meats like a lot of kids.  Now I’ve got people telling me I’m all wrong!  There are the vegetarian/vegan people who say no meat or no animal products period.  The no meat part is perfectly fine with me.  I’m not a huge fan of land animals, but I do like fish.  Then I’m told not to eat too much fish because of the high mercury levels in it.  So, I decide to get my protein from legumes (the bean family).  Not so fast!  The Paleo diet people (the ones who believe we should eat like cavemen) tell me legumes are bad for me.  So where am I supposed to get my protein from?  Eggs?  No, they are too high in cholesterol they tell me!  So just the eggs whites I guess?  No, animal products are bad for you, remember? UGH!  Dairy is not too hard of a category to give up.  I switched to almond milk (which I love!)  But how does one expect me to give up glorious cheese?  Not gonna happen!  So I guess this leaves me with a diet of cheese?  I don’t think so.

The top tier of the food pyramid is the fats, oils, and sweets (the garbage food category) that we really are not supposed to eat much of.  But let’s face it, we just go ahead and eat it anyway.

So, what does that leave us to eat?  Apparently nothing…we are all just going to starve because we are so confused. I think I even just confused myself even more while typing this up! Hahaha!  If anyone can clear up this mystery of what we should be eating, please let me know!  I would love to hear any feedback or ideas you may have!!

Have a great, safe and semi-healthy Memorial Day weekend everyone!!

XOXO

Halie

Quinoa, Black Bean and Mango Salad:

1 mango, peeled and diced small
1 red pepper, seeded and diced as small as you can get it
1 cup chopped scallions
1 cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons grapeseed oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups cooked quinoa, cooled
1 1/2 cups black beans, drained and rinsed (a 15-ounce can)

Combine the mango, red pepper, scallions, and cilantro in a mixing bowl. Add the red wine vinegar, grapeseed oil, and salt and stir to combine. Add the quinoa and stir until everything is well incorporated. Fold in the black beans.