Well Happy Monday everyone! Monday feels maybe slightly better because I had a long weekend. Of course it still went quickly, but let's just say I wouldn't complain if every weekend was a long weekend, would you?
Of course Monday itself has felt ridiculously long and is not over yet. I am going out to dinner in a little while to celebrate one of my friend's birthdays. It's a good thing I love her because it's a bit too late for a Monday for this old woman.
Anyway, did you think I forgot about my Violet Love headband giveaway? Haha, sorry about the delay, but the winner IS...
Winner is #37- Stephany!
Steph- please e-mail me your address so I can send you your headbands!
So anyway, this weekend I was reading Fitness Magazine while I was on the elliptical machine and they had an interesting article called Pantry Raid: 11 Healthy Food Swaps. I love articles like this because most of the swaps are SO easy to make, and yet help you to become so much healthier. For example, they recommended swapping high sodium broth for low sodium chicken or vegetable broth. That is something where you'll barely notice a difference and yet, some of those broths can have serious amounts of sodium in them!
Other interesting swaps include:
-Try panko bread crumbs instead of regular bread crumbs. They absorb less oil and fat, as well as staying crisper after cooking. They ALSO have 1/10 the sodium of most regular bread crumbs. Whoa.
-Cocoa powder for chocolate chips. I've been doing this in my chocolate overnight oats and it definitely helps to satisfy that chocolate craving with a lot less calories and fat :)
Interestingly enough, this article recommends chunk light tuna packets over canned albacore tuna because it has less mercury. However, Gina just did a post recently where she recommended albacore because it provides more omega 3s, and still has less mercury than other types of tuna. I think the key here is your priority as far as nutrients are concerned. I get a lot of omega-3s elsewhere, so I usually go for the lowest mercury content in my tuna (chunk light) BUT if you are looking for more omega 3s, you should probably go the albacore direction and just limited the amount of tuna you have a bit more.
What is a SWAP (kindergarten vocabulary word last week, by the way) you have made in your quest to eat healthier? Is there anything you have started to eat that you ended up liking better than what you ate first?
It's no secret that Monday is my least favorite day of the week, so I decided on Mondays I am going to try to post fun events happening in Boston to get me and my local readers a bit more excited about the week ahead. If you aren't from Boston you can skip this part (you have my permission) though I may sometime feature something fun happening in your city just to change it up :)
This Week in Boston:
North End Restaurant Week- Week 2
Yoga Pop Up- Saturday April 10th 10am-6pm
Hourly yoga classes from Boston's best, lots of yoga clothes for sale, raw-vegan smoothies, etc
Wine Beginnings- April 9th 7:00-8:30pm at Gordon's Fine Wine and Culinary Center
SpringFest Boston Charity Fair- April 10th
*proceeds benefit relief efforts in Haiti
D2E Boston Green Living Festival- April 9th-April 11th
If you know any other cool events happening in and around Boston this weekend, please let me know :)
Also, you probably know...Red Sox Season has started with a bang...WHOA HOO!
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My favorite healthy swap is adding berries to plain yogurt instead of buying flavored yogurt.
ReplyDeleteI like your idea of posting fun things going on this week. Very cool!
ReplyDeleteI swapped Yoplait Thick Yogurt for Chobani Greek Yogurt! Whoop whoop!
ReplyDeletePs. Yoga thing sounds cool!
Today was dollar scoops at J.P. licks! But I missed it :-(
ReplyDeleteNothing says Boston like beating the Yankees on Opening Day!!! Whoot! When I was getting ready for my wedding I switched to everything brown...basically called it my racists diet....nothing white. I've never gone back! It was an adjustment with bread, rice, and all else brown but it doesn't even phase me now.
ReplyDeleteI won! I won! I won! I'm so excited! Sending you an email right away!
ReplyDeleteI agree with the weekend FLYING! Sometimes, I almost feel like "long weekends" fly by even faster--b/c they're usually the weekend I look forward to, and plan more on than the average weekend.
ReplyDeleteI read that "Fitness" article too, and found it interesting. One of the things we've done -- and I've even hooked my husband with (Which is huuuge, b/c he's a big meat-lover) - is swapping ground turkey for ground beef.
I also use plain greek yogurt in substitions for baking/dips/etc whenever possible! Then it adds a little extra protein for an added bonus.
One fish that Obs instantly tell pregnant women not to eat is tuna. No matter what you think about it, it contains alot of mercury, a known neurotoxin. Not to be the fish police, just providing info. Feel free to disregard me as a crazy nut. haha! I've been called worse! ha!
ReplyDeleteOh and just looked at your choc oats link..nice! I do mine with vegan chocolate protein powder and get a similar result, i call it overnight brownie protein oats. It def helps with the choco sweet tooth :)
xoxo
Soooo, I definitely read that article title as "panty raid" before I got it...
ReplyDeleteGreat swaps!! Did you know I have never tried panko crumbs?? Everyone always talks about them, but I'm left out of the loop. I must try them! I agree that cocoa powder is a great substitute for chocolate chips. I love to add it to my Greek yogurt, with some PB. Yum. As for the tuna, you explained it well. I agree with you too, I get my omega 3 from supplements and salmon, and I tend to buy the chunk tuna light. I will buy albacore every once in a while for a nice change.
ReplyDeleteHappy Tuesday!
This might be a little different, but I swapped out my fake butter and sugar for the real deal. I figure having a little bit of something real is better than a lot of something fake and processed. I think Michael Pollan got to my head :)
ReplyDeleteReally? I find Monday is worse after a long weekend. :p
ReplyDeleteFood swaps.... a long time ago I swapped white breads/pastas for whole wheat and now I can;t imagine going back. I find it's a much more enjoyable taste and texture.
Natural PB is something I WANT to love, but I just don't. I try and try and try but I just love the regular Kraft stuff, full of sugar and oil. :/
I getting to this late....I hope your Tuesday went by much faster. Fun things happening in Boston this week :)
ReplyDeleteI like swapping ground turkey for ground beef like my sister said...
ReplyDeleteI believe our first game in the new Twins stadium is against the Red Sox!!
Interesting swaps! I use nonfat yogurt pretty much anywhere a recipe asks for sour cream or even cream... I haven't had any problems so far! :)
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