The FAT Game

FAT! 

It's a popular word in our society with many different definitions and the ability to be used as an adjective, verb or a noun.

Over the last several decades, fat has become a word of fear. The fear of eating fat, the fear of becoming fat, the fear as a nation of becoming fatter. We have learned to avoid fat in all the adjective, verb and noun forms. In the past 20 years obesity rates have double. Not by accident this coincides with the American "low-fat" revolution. People have come to fear fat! Ironically, the average American in the 1960's consumed 45% of their calories from fat - and only 13% were considered obese. Today we consume much less fat with only 33% of our calories from fat, but the obesity has increased to 34%!

Fats are essential to the body functioning properly. The body uses fat within the brain, cells, lungs, nerves, eyes and even in the immune system. Fats are essential during digestion to slow down the process and allow more nutrients to be absorbed. In fact, certain fat-soluble vitamins such as A, D, E and K can only be absorb when fat is present. Healthy fats are also crucial to the function of the heart as 60% of its energy comes from burning fats.

I'm bringing FAT back!


I'm sure that's what Justin Timberlake really meant by "sexy". Over the past couple decades we have become "low-fat" obsessed. We have removed the fat from products and replaced them with simple carbohydrates and sugars. It's important that we bring fat back, but healthy fats! So what are healthy fats?

Fats are broken down into 4 main categories. Monounsaturated, Polyunsaturated, Saturated, and Trans Fats. The types of fats you want to load up on are the Mono and Poly - the ones that are unsaturated. These are what you will often hear people refer to as "good or healthy" fats. They are often not listed on labels, so when you are reading labels, what you want to look out for are saturated and trans fats. Both saturated and trans fats are high in low-density lipoprotein (LDL), often refered to as "bad" cholesterol, which can increase your risk of heart disease.
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Good news is there are lots of fats that are healthy for the heart and taste delicious too! The great thing about fats are because they take longer to digest and allowing for more nutrients to be absorbed and keep you satisfied longer! That's right friends, a full fat yogurt will keep you fuller than a nonfat yogurt. Now I'm not suggesting you go out and buy the full fat version of all your favorite food, even "good" fats need to be eaten with moderation. I'm just suggesting you stop fearing fat! Fat will not make you fat unless you over eat, which applies to all types of food!

Don't think I'm going to leave you hanging without a list of good fats!

• Oils - Many oils such as olive, canola, peanut, safflower, sunflower and soybean are healthy for the heart. Use these when you're cooking instead of butter or margrine.
• Avocado - You know this is one of my favorite healthy fats! Avocados are loaded with vitamins and minerals and contain more potassium than a banana! Try using avocados on sandwiches instead of mayo. You'll still get that creamy feeling but in a healthy fat kind of way. 
• Nuts - Nuts get a bad rap in the food world because they are high calorie. Well, they are high calorie because they packed with healthy fats! Add a handful (1/4 cup) of nuts or some nut butter to your cereal or a snack and you will find the high fat contents in nuts will keep you satisfied longer! I love Trader Joe's Just a Handful packets for getting the right portion.
• Fish - Particularly fish from cold waters, such as salmon, contain large amounts of Omega-3 fatty acids. Adding Omega-3 fats to your diet are essential because these are fats your body can not make on it's own. Plus, fish is a great source of protein and typical much lower in fat and LDL ("bad" cholesterol) than red meats!

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And without further ado... yesterdays meals!

Lunch yesterday was from the freezer. I ran home on my lunch break and had these last few bites of cottage cheese topped with cumin.

I brought this trader Joe's Chicken Tikka Masala from the freezer (surprise, surprise) back to the office since I don't own a microwave. I had some frozen spinach and some pita bread on the side.

 

 Looked like this after it was nuked...

 

Making my frozen meal look glamorous...

I ended up just eating 1/4 of the pita. It was freezer burnt. :-( But the rest of my meal was great! Had some afternoon decaf tea...

Came home and did a 4 mile run. I have to admit I'm pretty disappointed in my running at this point. Switching to my new shoes has slowed my pace considerably. I have never been a "fast" runner, but a month ago I was running 11 minute miles. Since switching over to my new shoes, I can actually see the change in my times over the past month. Looking at Nike+ my times have increased nearly a minute per mile over my previously running times. I'm not sure if I need to switch shoes again or what, but it's definitely frustrating. Not to mention my newest friend called Thumb-sized Blisters that have shown up on the inside of my heels. I covered my collapsed blisters that I thought had gone with mole skin last night, but the one I had on my left foot decided to come back with a vengeance and is even larger this time! Now I don't even know if I'll be able to get any more runs in before the half marathon now. I'm still feeling pretty positive for the half and know I have the endurance to finish, it just may not be my best race ever. 

After run dinner was tofu stirfry over quinoa.

I cooked the tofu seperately hoping it would get crispy, but this brand stayed pretty mushy. Maybe it was my marinade. I let is soak in soy sauce, honey, a litte rice vinegar and little oil. All finished my meal looked like this. 

Very tasty! This was a bag of Trader Joe's Asian Vegetable with Beijing sauce. I added half bag more of green beans and a can of bamboo shoots.

Yummy tofu, veggies and quinoa! I love quinoa because it cooks so quickly, plus it's packed with protein! As an after dinner snack I decided to try Oh She Glows Banana Soft Serve. 

WOW!!!! AMAZING!!!! This is like a yummy banana split of melted ice cream and chocolate syrup, except healthy! I'm drooling a little thinking about it. For this I used 1 frozen banana, a couple tablespoons almond milk, and big spoonful of Sugar Free Quik. The recipe called for real cocoa but I didn't have any. :-) This was just so good I had to go back for seconds!! After all, I had run 4 miles, I was allowed to have 2 bananas, right???

As if it were possible, the second batch turned out even better!! I used less milk this time and it was much thicker. Yum yum yum yum yum! I can't say enough how much I love this vegan dessert! My belly was aching a little after the second one, but, wow, amazing! I have no other words!