What is your family do for fun on Halloween in Utah?

Are you going to have a Zumba party? Do you have good Halloween music for the festivities? What are you going to wear?

Some of the things I’ve heard are a big gathering at a parking lot – a “Trunk or Treat”.

There’s the common “door to door” approach, which many Utah people are great at due to their 18 month or 2 year “door to door” training .

What do you do?

What’s your favorite Halloween Costume?

Do you think any of these costumes below would be Utah County “worthy”?

Would any of these costumes qualify as “Aerobic Apparel“?

The Redneck Halloween!

Make sure to check out the “Cancer Can Be Scary for Kids“ charity album.

A portion of proceeds from the Halloween Album are going to The Children’s Hospital.

Yes, it’s another book review!  I guess you could say I’m on a roll, although this one hardly counts as heavy reading.

Eat This Not That! 2010: The No-Diet Weight Loss Solution by David Zinczenko is more accurately described as a well-illustrated reference guide to making healthy food choices, particularly when eating out.
So, is this one worth adding to your home library?  I would say….NO…sorry, David.  While I found this book interesting, to me it was nothing more than a glorified and well-publicized calorie counter.  Here’s the breakdown of what I loved and what I didn’t:

Why I loved that this book:

• Had great pictures of all that food
• Compiled nutritional info from many of the popular restaurants that you probably frequent
• Compared apples to apples…or burgers to burgers, rather.  It was most helpful in this arena–when you feel like a greasy burger, now you know that a Big Mac will save you 200 calories over a Whopper.  Who knew?
• Gave some good nutritional reminders.  It was good to refresh myself on all the tricks to keeping eating out from being a health hazard:  omit the mayo, no cheese please, veggies on the side, watch what kind of bread you ask for, and for goodness sake, consider fries only on those special occasions when you can afford a huge empty calorie splurge.
• Took into account total nutrient density rather than simple caloric intake.  Zinczenko acknowledges the benefits of avocados and alike despite their high calorie counts.

Why I was ultimately disappointed:

• The fact that I felt this book did not live up to its hype.  For a clueless American eater, perhaps this was breakthrough content.  But if you have basic knowledge about nutrition, this book seems rather, well…obvious.  Choosing grilled fish with a side of veggies will save you calories over chicken smothered in cheese and sauce with tortilla strips on the side.  No, really?
• I didn’t feel he always had fair comparisons.  He would recommend one sandwich with a side salad over another sandwich with a side of fries.  Of course the salad combo gets much better numbers, but how much of it was the salad and how much was the sandwich?

What I took from this book:  I have always been one who feels a bit of anxiety about eating out.  All those…CALORIES!  Well, reading this book and seeing all those numbers in front of me actually reiterated that eating out does not have to sabotage your waistline, if you do it in moderation.  But I really think that your life will be much simpler and you will be slimmer if you just live by this one Aerobicmom cardinal rule: TAKE HOME HALF.

There you go!  Now just print those three word out onto a piece of paper, tuck it into your wallet and you’re good to go.  I don’t even care if you get the smothered burrito.  Just TAKE HOME HALF.  It’s a lot easier than carrying Eat This-Not That around with you on your lunch break.

My favorite tidbits from this book:

• Chic-Fil-A is your best bet for fast food (even above Subway)–not a single sandwich breaks the 500-calorie barrier.  Wow!
• A single Cinnabon cinnamon roll clocks in at 813 calories.  Split this occasional indulgence with a pal or bypass it altogether!
• The worst food in America…Outback’s Aussie Cheese Fries…a gooey 2,900 calorie mess.  When you consider the deep-fried starchy potatoes, gooey cheese and fatty bacon, can you really say you are surprised?
• One of the best quick breakfasts around is the old standard Egg McMuffin, with around 300 calories and a good balance of protein, fats, and carbs to keep you fueled.
• I was introduced to the In’N'Out Secret Lexicon:  I’ve only tried this very trendy burger joint once and left wondering what all the fuss was about.  I guess I’ll give it one more go and try my burger Animal & Protein Style.  I’m new at this…is that legal?

Click Here to Buy on Amazon

Hello Aerobicmom Readers!

Today I have a Book Review for you:  In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, by Michael Pollan.

Click Here to Buy on Amazon

I devoured this book, subtitled “An Eater’s Manifesto,” the week that the Health Care Bill passed.  As the politics of Health Care Reform swirled around in my mind, this book made me accutely aware of the politics of our diet, how food is marketed to us, and how big money misleads us even down to the crackers we purchase.  This book was thought-provoking, paradigm-breaking, uncomfortable and exasperating, and, in the end, left me more committed to being an informed consumer and a moderate and healthy eater.

The first line of this book sums up the point of all 201 pages:  Eat food.  Not too much.  Mostly plants.

But don’t be fooled.  It isn’t nearly that simple, and it takes all 201 pages to really understand what this simple statement means.

This book is broken up into 3 parts:

Part one, “The Age of Nutritionism”

Pollan reviews the history of “Nutritionism,” which, as Pollan explains, is the cultural phenomenon of seeing food as a sum of its parts (its nutritional content) rather than food as a whole.  Pollan particularly points out the politics behind the way the science of nutritionism took over a more traditional way of eating, where cultural norms (ie MOM), decided what, when, and how much we should eat.

Part two, “The Western Diet and the Diseases of Civilization”

highlights the various health ramifications the entire world has seen as more and more developing countries have adopted the Western Diet.  It also delineates what exactly it is about the Western Diet that is so harmful.

Part Three, Getting Over Nutritionism

Offers some fairly simple and liveable rules to help guide all of us eaters to what we actually should be eating, and how to be healthy in a world so entrenched in the tenets of Nutritionism that we don’t even know how to discuss food and diet without falling into its jargon.

What I liked:

• I felt much more informed after reading this book.  It is amazing how misleading advertising can be.  I have always read nutrition labels carefully, but I will recommit to this practice after reading this book, particularly reading the list of ingredients, and I’ll be a little more skeptical of noisy health claims on boxes and labels.
• Seeing the historical background that took us from traditional ethnic diets to a more processed Western diet.  It’s interesting to see how and why we got where we are now.
• The suggestions Pollen gives in Part 3 to eat healthfully.  Particularly helpful were his suggestions to plant a garden, to eat meals (and avoid snacking) & eat sitting down, and to not eat anything that your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.

What I did not like:

• In a sense, this book left me far more confused about how to eat healthfully than I was before I read it.  On one hand Pollen bashes nutritionism, (seeing food too strictly in terms of its nutritional content), while on the other he bashes the Western diet with its highly processed, refined “food products.”  Not even organic produce escapes his criticism for the long distances it travels to get from California’s organic farms.  The book leaves you feeling like you just can’t win.
• The fact that Pollen contradicts himself repeatedly, first criticizing nutritionism, then using nutrition science to support his own claims of what is optimally healthy.  Although Pollen himself acknowledges this inconsistency, it adds to the overall feeling of the book that the only way to be truly healthy is to go back to the hunter & gatherer lifestyle of our ancestors.  Not. Gonna. Happen.

What I took from this book:

• Recommit to eating & serving my family 5 servings of fruits and vegetables daily.
• Recommit to making whole wheat bread from scratch at home.
• Commit to cutting down on “food products” that replace fat (an essential nutrient) with chemicals, texturizers and gums.  *This is a tough one for me!
• Continue in a moderate approach to healthy eating, using wisdom and moderation to eat what makes me and my family feel good and strong, realizing that there are as many fanatical opinions about what makes the optimal diet as there are nutrition scientists.

If you’re interested in reading this book for yourself, we’d love to hear a review from you on AerobicMom.com!

Buy the book at Amazon: In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto

So Christmas Gift ideas: Post #3.  This one will be a shocker.

My suggestion?  Chocolate.  Yes, that’s right.  Chocolate.

Yes, this is a health and wellness blog.  Yes I am recommending you buy a box of chocolates as a guaranteed winning gift idea this Christmas.

No, I am not a hypocrite.

The health benefits of chocolate, particularly dark chocolate, are well documented.

About. com explains:

Chocolate is made from plants, which means it contains many of the health benefits of dark vegetables. These benefits are from flavonoids, which act as antioxidants. Dark chocolate contains a large number of antioxidants (nearly 8 times the number found in strawberries). Flavonoids also help relax blood pressure through the production of nitric oxide, and balance certain hormones in the body.

Heart Health Benefits of Dark Chocolate:

Dark chocolate is good for your heart. A small bar of it everyday can help keep your heart and cardiovascular system running well. Two heart health benefits of dark chocolate are:

• Lower Blood Pressure: Studies have shown that consuming a small bar of dark chocolate everyday can reduce blood pressure in individuals with high blood pressure.
• Lower Cholesterol: Dark chocolate has also been shown to reduce LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol) by up to 10 percent.

Other Benefits of Dark Chocolate:

Chocolate also holds benefits apart from protecting your heart:

• it tastes good
• it stimulates endorphin production, which gives a feeling of pleasure
• it contains serotonin, which acts as an anti-depressant
• it contains theobromine, caffeine and other substances which are stimulants

The calories in one chocolate treat will vary depending on which brand and which variety you choose.  But, though life is like a box of chocolates, you should know what you’re going to get calorie-wise if you’re going to incorporate this little number into your diet (An average of 100 calories per chocolate).  Certainly, if you can exercise self-control, this is a serving size that you can live with.  But you definitely need to exercise self-control!

Personally, I try to keep a box of hand-selected gourmet chocolates hidden in an undisclosed location of my home at all times.  (I can’t say where because my husband might read this post).  On particularly stressful days, I will sneak up to this spot, shut the door, select the chocolate that looks best, sit on the floor, and indulge my sweet tooth.  I savor every second of this experience, and for that moment, the sound of screaming children melts away and I am lost in the endorphin oblivion of my chocolate habit.  It takes me on average about 4 months to get through one box of chocolates, so you can see that I am not talking about a binge by any means.  And a small indulgence now and then builds a healthy mindset that helps stave off those unfortunate episodes where you find you’ve eaten a carton of ice cream at one sitting.

Buy a box of stress-relief for your loved one right here!   They’ll be grateful the chocolate is there when they need it!

Leonidas Belgian Chocolates: Signature Dark Chocolates Assortment

We’re on Christmas Gift ideas: Post #2, and this one is for the book-lovers on your list (there’s always at least one).

Here’s my list of books to read in 2010–one for every month: and they’d make great stocking stuffers for yourself (come on, we all do it) or any other health-conscious mom or otherwise on your shopping list!  Some are about weight-loss, some are about motherhood, some are about marriage, and some are just about you.  Keep checking the blog in 2010 for these upcoming book reviews!

1.  Believe It, Be It: How Being the Biggest Loser Won Me Back My Life

2. Eat This Not That! 2010: The No-Diet Weight Loss Solution

3.  Hungry Girl: 200 Under 200: 200 Recipes Under 200 Calories

4. The Five Love Languages of Children

5. Master Your Metabolism: The 3 Diet Secrets to Naturally Balancing Your Hormones for a Hot and Healthy Body!

6. Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul: How to Create a New You

7. The Biggest Loser Simple Swaps: 100 Easy Changes to Start Living a Healthier Lifestyle

8.  Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child

9.  Younger Next Year for Women: Live Strong, Fit, and Sexy – Until You’re 80 and Beyond

10.  YOU: Having a Baby: The Owner’s Manual to a Happy and Healthy Pregnancy

11.  Golden Anniversaries: The Seven Secrets of Successful Marriage (Mom’s Choice Awards Winner 2009)

12. The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-term Health

What books do you plan to read in 2010?

So you are smack dab in the middle of the holiday rush, and you’ve still got so many loose odds and ends on your gift list that you are sure you are going to forget someone.  How to get it all done?

Well, if you’re like me, dragging 3 kids under the age of 5 around the mall is NOT my idea of a good time.  And who wants to pay a babysitter just so you can go out and spend more money?  That’s where online shopping has saved me.  I have purchased at least half of my Christmas from online retailers for the past 2 years.  This time of year, there is often free shipping offers, which means I get a great deal without paying extra for shipping, and I can do it all from the comfort of my own home while my kids run rampant around me.  Much better than running rampant around hundreds of stressed and irritable fellow shoppers.  Merry Christmas.

So this week I will be posting some great ideas for your Christmas list that you can purchase at great prices right from the comfort of your own home.  I’ll do the research, you click the button.  You’re welcome.

Today’s great gift idea is:

Omron HJ-112 Digital Pocket Pedometer

Product Features:

I recently read The Fat-Free Truth: Real Answers to the FItness and Weight-Loss Questions You Wonder About Most, by Liz Neporent and Suzanne Schlosberg.  If you are looking for a reference resource that reads like a magazine column, this is it.  And it makes sense:  Suzanne has written Shape’s “Weight-Loss Q&A” for over 10 years, and Liz is the “Fit by Friday” columnist for iVillage.  These two health and wellness gurus tackle topics from plastic surgery to slow-twitch muscle fibers.

The things I liked best about this book were:

• All of their responses are based on actually scientific studies.  There is so much hype out there in the diet and fitness industry.  These women give you the bottom line and cite the research that backs it up.
• The book is organized in a Question/Answer format so you can quickly browse or locate the topics that are of interest to you.  If you could care less about low-carb diets, just skip those questions, and find the answers to what interests you.
• These women give you the straight forward answer about typically hyped-up topics, such as “Which cardio machine burns the most calories?,”  “Is there any dietary supplement that can safely help me lose weight for good?,” and “Is it true that interval training can help boost your calorie burn?”.  We see plenty of wild claims in the media that is supposedly backed by “a study,” but it’s nice to get a straight answer from a trusted source without a hidden agenda.
• Even though the book may be considered part of the reference genre, their conversational tone keeps you interested and engaged.  Even though they cite the research, you don’t get lost in scientific jargon.

This book is a perfect addition to your home library and one you will refer back to often.  It’s also the perfect gift for that health nut on your Christmas list!  Check out The Fat-Free Truth: Real Answers to the FItness and Weight-Loss Questions You Wonder About Most!

BUY HERE!

After a 2 week trial run, these are my new favorite shoes: the ASICS – Gel-FX 2.

What I LOVE:

• My last pair of workout shoes were also Asics Gels and I’ve been extremely happy with them as well.  It’s always nice to find a reliable brand that you can trust!
• I love how this shoe looks similar to the trendy Nike Shox with a fraction of the price tag and better reviews (check them out at Zappos).
• This is an extremely comfortable shoe.  I walked away from my first class in these feeling light as air: no breaking in, no discomfort in the bridge of my foot, it was like I wasn’t even wearing shoes.
• I must confess, I have nothing negative to say about this shoe!  It will be tough to try another brand of shoe after this–I love ASICS Gel FX 2, and I love that I can get them for a great price, free shipping, and within 2 days of purchase at Zappos.com!

Check these shoes out at Zappos!

ASICS – Gel-FX 2

When I started teaching Zumba recently, I realized a needed a shoe that was especially suited to dancing. Yes, I still needed support, but I also needed mobility–you have to be able to slide, turn, and shake it! After reading reviews and suggestions from other instructors I settled on these Ryka – Studio D crosstrainers.   Here’s my review:

What I LOVED:

• The look of these shoes–they are very cute–lots of compliments!
• The smooth bottoms make these shoes perfect for Zumba turns, slides, and shakes
• On Zappos.com, you can find a variety of colors and styles, and have your purchase within 2 days of your purchase, with free shipping, of course!

What to be aware of:

• The first few classes have left my feet a little numb.  If you’ve got wide feet, like I do, you may find these shoes a bit tight along the bridge of your foot.  If you’ve got narrow feet, I don’t think you’ll have a problem here at all!
• The only other problem I’ve got with these shoes is that the laces are a bit short and tend to come undone in the middle of my class.  Still working on a way to fix this one!

Well, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:  Zappos is one of my favorite online shopping destinations.  They are amazing!  I have recently ordered 3 items from this website:  the Cosabella – Bella Body Contour , Ryka – Studio D crosstrainers, and  ASICS – Gel-FX 2.  Look for upcoming product reviews once I put these products to the test.  But for now, here are my 5 favorite things about Zappos.com:

1.  FAST Shipping:  I received my Bella Body Contour the day after I ordered it online.  The day after!  It’s amazing!  My shoes arrived on my doorstep only 2 days after I purchased them online.  I don’t know how they do it, but Zappos somehow gets you the goods in good time.

2.  FREE Shipping:  With 3 kids ages 4 & under, shopping is no longer a recreational activity.  In fact, it is a necessary evil.  Due to this fact, I have become a frequent online shopper.  My only beef with this virtual shopping experience:  paying more to ship the same stuff that I could walk in and buy at a retail store.  At Zappos, this is a non-issue.  They have FREE SHIPPING on all domestic purchases.

3.  FREE Returns: The other big issue with shopping online is the return process:  most websites require you to pay for return shipping and have a complicated process to follow.  Not at Zappos.  They accept returns for a full year after your purchase and provide a prepaid shipping label that you can easily download from their website.  No worries.

4.  REVIEWS: Especially on shoes, I LOVE reading the product reviews before I buy.  Zappos does a great job of getting their clientele to leave valuable feedback on the products they offer.  I have browsed through hundreds of shoes and feel like I can make a much more educated purchase by reading the reviews on Zappos than I could at most retail shoe stores with sales clerks who generally know very little about the intricacies crosstrainer shoes.

5.  So many CHOICES: Zappos also offers a huge selection when compared to what most retail stores can offer.  Many shoe stores carry only 1 or 2 crosstrainer shoes in their entire inventory, and running shoes do not provide the appropriate support for most aerobic group exercise classes.  On Zappos, you can choose the best fit as well as the style that suits you.

As you can see, I am a huge Zappos fan.  If you haven’t tried this online store, you should.  I promise, you won’t be disappointed–and you may never set foot in a shoe store again!