Got Sugar?
Comprehensive Lifestyle Guide
For All of Life’s Delicious Journeys
Book 1:
Philosophy of a Sweet Tooth
Book 2:
Recipe Companion
Everything You Need to Satisfy a
Healthy Sweet Tooth
Book 3:
Workout Companion
The Sweet Guide to Fitness and Well-Being
By
Debbie Markham
SMASHWORDS EDITION
PUBLISHED BY
Debbie Markham on Smashwords
Note:
The information in this book is believed to be accurate and true at the time of printing. The author can not accept any legal responsibility of liability for any errors or omissions that may be made nor for any inaccuracies nor for any harm or injury that comes about from following ideas in this book.
© 2010 Debbie Markham. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any way or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the author.
Comments welcomed:
To Nate and Zoe who inspire me everyday.
And to everyone who has positively influenced me in my constant quest to turn obstacles into enriching experiences, thank you.
Embarking on this journey of life is way more fun sharing ideas, facing challenges and brainstorming amusing solutions with all of you!
~
Book 1:
Philosophy of a Sweet Tooth
Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE: CULTIVATE A HEALTHY MIND
CHAPTER TWO: LIFESTYLE TIPS AND TRICKS
CHAPTER THREE: DIET TIPS AND TRICKS
CHAPTER FOUR: THOUGHTS ON EXERCISE
~
Book 2:
Recipe Companion
Everything You Need to Satisfy a
Healthy Sweet Tooth
Refrigerator and Freezer Items
Shelved Goods
Sweet Staples
Recipe Tips
Chapter One: Breakfast Makeovers
Breakfast Cookies
Chocolate Monster Protein Pancakes
Coffee & Cream French Toast
Chocolate Chip Oatmeal
Deb’s Banana-Apple Bread
Vegan Banana Bread
Lox Scramble
Chapter Two: Room Saving Meals
Mom's Sweet Chili
Mom's Meatloaf
Tuna or Chicken Casserole
Beef Stroganoff
Thai Pork with Veggies
Meat & Veggie Pasta
Mac-n-Cheese
Scallops or Chicken with White Beans & Bacon
Tortilla Soup
Enchiladas
Mexican Lasagna
T.A.C.O. Salad
Baked Ziti with Spinach & Tomatoes
Bean & Cheese Potato
Twice-baked Potato
B.B.T. Slaw
The B.O.M.B. Pasta
Chicken, Rice & Veggie Casserole
Teriyaki Chicken, Zucchini and Peas
A.B.C. Shrimp Spaghetini
Chapter Three: Simple Meaty Meals
Pan Seared Fish
Easy Microwave Chicken
Easy Bake Chicken 1
Easy Bake Chicken 2
Shredded Pork
Salmon Bake
A Love Note to Desserts
Chapter Four:Super-Quick Daily Desserts
Oven S'mores
Cinnamon Ice Cream
Dump Cobbler
Chocolate-dipped Goodies
Chapter Five: Easy Cereal Treats
Deb’s Benchmark Recipe for Cereal Treats
Family Favorite Cereal Treats
Special Cocoa Krispies Cereal Treats
Cereal Mud Patties
Chocolate Peanut Butter Haystacks
Cereal Chow
Chapter Six: Desserts Worth Working For
Papa’s Chocolate Bread Pudding
Whipped Cream
Maple Pumpkin Cheesecake
Mom’s Turtle Cake
Great Chocolate Chip Cookies
Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Sugar Cookies
Moist Double Chocolate-Vanilla Cake
Vanilla Sugar Glaze
Beach Crumble
Jell-O Cake
Strawberry Cheesecake Jell-O Cake
Cream Cheese Frosting
Caramel Corn
Chapter Seven: Desserts with a Dash of Healthy
No-fat Chocolate Cake
Coconut Macaroons
Doctored-up Brownies
Soda-baked Apples
Grilled Dirty Bananas
Easy Hot-Chocolate Soufflé
Grilled Chocolate Sandwich
Banana’s Foster
Lemony Bars
Nutella & Banana Crepe
~
Book 3:
Workout Companion
The Sweet Guide to Fitness and Well-Being
Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE: FOUNDATIONS OF A GREAT WORKOUT
CHAPTER TWO: BREAKING DOWN THE BASICS
CHAPTER THREE: STRENGTH TRAINING GROUPS
CHAPTER FOUR: STRENGTH TRAINING GUIDE
CREATE STRENGTH TRAINING SESSIONS
SAMPLE STRENGTH TRAINING SESSION
CHAPTER FIVE: SEASONAL WORKOUT PLANS
~
Book 1:
Philosophy of a Sweet Tooth
Comprehensive Lifestyle Guide
For All of Life's Delicious Journeys
Many who have eaten my brownies, cereal treats, and other sweet delights have gone on to lead normal lives, enjoyably!
All joking aside, this book is not intended as medical advice. I'm neither a doctor nor a dietitian. For 25 years I've been soaking up health and fitness information like a sponge cake! There is so much written on diet, health, and exercise, and let me tell you, I've read it all.
It all began with a few file folders: one for recipes, another for diet and health, and the last for fitness and exercise plans. Before I knew it, I had accumulated a lot of sweet material. Through all this I learned that it is possible to maintain a healthy, strong physique while enjoying sweets daily! So, here, I want to share my lifestyle tips on doing it all, enjoying it all, having my cake, and eating it too.
The following is a collection of the best ideas from those file folders sprinkled with my own sweet philosophy on exercise, diet, stress, fun and life.
Bon Appetit!
“Sugar is the sun's energy stored in a tasty package.”
My active lifestyle requires knowledge of what’s best for my body. That said, I really enjoy life more with sugar. So I’ve decided to ride the line between healthy and unhealthy. Allowing myself to eat sugary things reminds me of my youth, which makes me happy. I like to add elements of health to the desserts and baked goods I create; this way I still feel like a kid and can feel somewhat responsible too. For you, I want to be the voice of sugar-reason.
Many days I eat on the run—an apple fritter for breakfast, a granola bar for lunch, some pizza and beer for dinner. But that same week I'll do a 180—a fried mix of one egg and three egg whites breakfast, a salad for lunch, a dish of grilled fish and veggies for dinner. Embracing my busy life, and accepting that I'll eat less nutritiously at times, knowing I'll flip back to my healthy ways, has made me mentally comfortable. In the back of my mind I’m always carving out time to be in the kitchen mixing, loving, and sharing delicious recipes.
Most diets fail because they neglect to address healthy ways of consuming sugar. I’m all about a lifestyle that supports balance. But remember, balance is a journey.
So there you have it, it’s not an option for me to give up sugar. It’s a matter of increasing components of health and exercise to balance out sugar consumption. It’s about relaxing a bit, enjoying a perfect cake for all the individual components that are needed to create it. Thinking like this reminds me of all the sweet, rich, healthy, salty, dry, solid members of my family, and how each one, although unique, is needed to create our beautiful family tree.
I started compiling all this information in a book for myself once three messy file folders reached maximum capacity. Referencing them each week had become a nuisance rather than something I looked forward to when searching for ideas. Because it was rewarding to work towards accomplishing this task, completing this book, I dove in and never looked back.
As I told friends, they too were excited to see what I did to stay strong. It’s hard to say if those closest to me were supporting me out of obligation or true interest, but either way, I thought, I’m going to write this for all the sweet tooths out there who are tired of reading the perfectly balanced daily menus that lack sugar!
As scared as I was to present my ideas, my genuine interest to just write what I know guided me. Over the years I’ve made lots of small, fun changes in my personal lifestyle. And I continue to look for silly ways to make me smile throughout my chore-filled, responsibility-packed days. Over time, I honed in on what things were doable on a regular basis, things that motivated me daily and helped me truly enjoy waking up each morning!
This book shares my habits (both healthy and indulgent), my mentality, and my observations which have really helped me squeeze all that great nectar out of life. I’m just an average girl who loves to eat good-tasting food as well as feel strong and healthy.
I encompass a love of all sports. I'm a curious reader of health and fitness trends. I frequent group exercise classes like yoga, Pilates, and pump it. I also practice solo-training (including training for triathlons and running races) and have qualified for the Boston Marathon. With insight from doctors and chiropractors, as well as physical and family therapists, I've gathered some great tips on keeping active and healthy. I’m also competitive—to the point where I find that making a game out of every workout, chore, or meal makes it more interesting! The underlying intent of my lifestyle is to have fun. And I do it while staying healthy and strong, and indulging my sweet tooth's desires.
While many nutritionists and trainers agree with various aspects of my healthy and sugar-filled lifestyle, some may not subscribe entirely to my interpretation of living the sweet life. Experience it for yourself—see if you too squeeze all the sweetness of life, in every way possible!
Chapter One: Cultivate a Healthy Mind
It’s a challenge maintaining our desired weight in a world of increasingly delicious food and desserts. Knowledge fuels confidence, so we can investigate vitamins, ingredients, calories and nutritional content of foods and watch what we eat. We can talk to people who know more than we do and read anything (articles, brochures and books) relating to a lifestyle of health, strength, organization, and happiness.
There are many components to knowledge: knowing oneself, knowing actual information, and also knowing how and when to use the information to inspire positive changes! We all know what’s healthiest to eat and we know exercise benefits us, so why is so hard to do both regularly? Maybe because a beautifully crafted Tiramisu is so hard to resist! Maybe because our babies kept us up all night!!! So, how can you be motivated to balance? That’s what this book is about. I like the visual of throwing lots of “cooked noodles” at a wall and seeing what sticks! I will provide the wet noodles: some unusual ways to be thoughtful about food consumption, new ideas to incorporate moving and shaking throughout your chores, job and life chaos, and finally sample workout plans to fit in regular exercise. You will see which things “stick” for you - there’s something in here for everyone!
We all monitor our money daily, and we constantly think of how we're going to spend it. We also plan how and when to save it, how to use it and where to donate it. It's the same with staying fit. Keeping track of what we eat is our physical fitness bank account. Of course you can see this as a chore or an annoyance, or you can see it as using your brains to enjoy indulgences without stress or guilt. Played that way, this is a game that can work for you.
When on a weeks vacation, say you allocate $300 cash for souvenirs. If on day one you decide to purchase a beautiful $290 jacket, you will deplete your bank account but you’ll have enjoyed spending it. The experience of the store ambiance, the delightful sales clerk, the city you’re visiting are all wrapped up in that purchase with a pretty bow of a memory. Loving your choice is worth blowing your wad on it. It’s the same basic principle for choosing what to eat. The first thing to think about when indulging in a sweet treat is your “body’s bank.” Knowing how many calories your body uses in a day with and without exercise, and keeping a mental note gives you the power. You can make educated choices. You should feel pride in yourself for putting yourself first, not guilt. If you feel guilty for doing anything, gain some knowledge about what guilt stems from and work towards dissecting and stomping out the emotion when it’s not applicable to your positive lifestyle (more ideas about combating unwanted feelings in Trigger Notes section.)
To figure out approximately how many calories your body needs, take your ideal weight and multiply it by 11 (for women, 12 for men.) This is an easy way to gauge the calories your body needs to maintain that weight without exercise.
If you weigh 135, then 135 x 11 = about 1500 calories needed per day for your body to maintain this weight. If you exercise for 30 minutes, of course you can eat more. (I talk about how to assess the calories that various exercises use in a little bit.)
$$$ Handy Tip $$$ For a more thorough calculation of your caloric needs, you can gain more knowledge by reading online. A handy web site is http://nutrition.about.com/od/changeyourdiet/a/calguide.htm. Type in height, weight, age and it shows your caloric needs. Another great way to learn is by using iPhone Apps. Calorie Counter and Diet Tracker by MyFitnessPal can help you stay aware of calories.
Start accumulating knowledge. Start shopping for food and desserts in a new light, and read the labels. When it comes time to decide if you want to order cheesecake or just go for the sorbet, you’ll know how much your “body bank” has left to allocate towards dessert. It’s fun and often surprising to discover calorie content of foods. The mind stays active and you can make a game out of grocery shopping or waiting in line.
For example, by reading Starbucks Nutrition by the Plate pamphlet as you wait in line, you’ll know how to balance out your choices for the rest of the day. You’ll also learn how to order in the future when in a hurry. You might be surprised to learn an apple fritter doughnut is similar in calories and fat to a zucchini muffin! This knowledge could allow you to enjoy eating apple fritters, and help you plan to eat veggies and protein for dinner!
Another example is realizing that one cup of Raisin Bran has approximately the same amount of calories and sugar as a Pop Tart or Take 5 candy bar. Cereal and Pop Tarts are fortified with vitamins, all three have the same protein and the cereal has the most fiber. But if you’ve eaten some whole grain bread and veggies for fiber, and taken a vitamin, maybe you’ll feel okay eating a Take 5 Bar or Pop Tart for dessert.
A problem clearly stated is a problem half solved ~ fortune cookie
If you eat 3500 more calories than what your body needs, you’ll gain one pound. For example, if you’ve figured your caloric requirement is 1600 per day, and you eat 2100 calories (500 more calories than your need) on 7 different days, without balancing out days with fewer calories, you will gain one pound.
Research shows that people overestimate how many calories they burn during exercise. I found some charts online stating the calories burned per exercise and duration.
$$$ Handy Tip $$$ To find calorie-burning charts, type in 'exercise calorie calculator' into your favorite search engine. These charts are great because they take into consideration your weight. When I plugged in 200 lbs for 30 minutes of jogging, the internet chart said I burned 300 calories. When I input 130 lbs for 30 minutes of jogging, it said 200 calories were burned. Since treadmills don’t consider weight, the calories they suggest being burned don’t seem accurate.
Healthy eating habits are an accomplishment. Why not indulge in a treat because you’ve earned it? Why not be motivated to workout 30 more minutes for a dessert reward? It’s like saving up—similar to not buying coffee for every weekday morning and getting a great new book each week instead. By working off those calories, you’re able to consume more calories in the delicious food or desserts that you love so much.
Developing a fun-spirited tenacity to maintain balance so you can savor good food, is what this book is about. Everyone can learn, through discipline and a child-like mindset, to succeed at balancing all of life’s delicious offerings with delight. Whether it’s food, opportunities or time alone, every instance can be cherished and I will show you how!
Skilled bakers, professional chefs, and chocolatiers are constantly creating irresistible pastries, hand-crafted truffles and delicious desserts! I’m motivated to exercise because I love discovering new foods, especially sweet ones. You too can revel in new foods if you’re ready to fit in a workout or trim another meal somewhere else. If you aren’t motivated to workout, then drinking water to hold you over or dealing with a little hunger pain (since desserts may not have adequate protein to keep you full) is worth the taste and memory of your indulgence!
If you’re like me, and you have a propensity to go for everything delicious, you can try to fit all your daily nutrients and vitamins in the smallest amount of healthy food. You can aim to consume everything good that your body and mind need to get going, and still save room for the sweets you love! For more information on my savvy tips for integrating five food groups into meals and desserts, check out the recipes in the next book Got Sugar? Recipe Companion.
"I get by with a little help
from my friends" ~John Lennon
Also, if you’re like me (going back to knowing yourself) you’re probably more accountable when you’ve involved someone else in your lifestyle. When I’m trying to eat well, I tell a few friends and enlist the help of others to keep me on track. Many times they jump on board and we work together to track our healthy eating and exercise so we can enjoy baking together later for a joint family dinner. Email a friend to set up a summer race as a destination weekend. Having something to train for will help you set personal goals to work towards so you’re more excited to include exercise in your lifestyle.
On the flip side, there’s just so much to know! And health and fitness advice seems to change almost with every new generation of scientists. Scientists have their own set of behaviors and beliefs which color their research and results. So, in effect, the advice we cull is often subjective—you can't say that one piece of advice is the ultimate fact or the ultimate truth.
Take for instance the time when butter was considered unhealthy and margarine was recommended. Or when “beef is bad” was the message... Now we know those are not truths, and that it’s okay to savor melted butter on your lobster if you’ve had a salad with kidney beans, peppers, carrots and seeds or nuts for lunch. It’s okay to enjoy burgers especially from grass fed cows. What you enjoy eating is okay to eat, just balance it, monitor it, but love it. Indulge through balance.
So, as contrary as this may sound to the importance of acquiring knowledge, it's just as important to give up knowledge. Be ready to reassess your thinking, your thoughts, the facts you thought you knew. As with everything in life, there's always room for insight.
By enjoying constant learning and editing that knowledge base, you'll be able to take pleasure in maintaining your fitness, health, and positive attitude. It’s all part of the process. The more attention you give to monitoring and balancing your choices, the greater reward or more benefit you’ll feel because of your effort (as with anything in life, the harder you work the greater joy you’ll feel in your effort.) So get excited to think, learn, apply, let go and take action all at different times as the various pieces of your puzzle. Enjoy trying to figure out aspects of your life like you enjoy the challenge of working a puzzle to fit the pieces into one beautiful scene. You are the beautiful scene!
To make a mental note of the healthy things you should be integrating into your diet, an updated, more accurate set of food pyramid guidelines begins on the next page. You are only human. You can do your best to meet your body’s healthy needs, but some days you may feel the need to carry over your food choices to balance out other days later in the week!
• 1 fat: This is a tough one. To keep it all balanced despite my sweets-intake, I keep active!
• 6-8 oz carbs: Sugary, bready, starchy, grainy things all fall under this category. For a benchmark amount, know that one slice of bread equals one ounce.
• 3 cups vegetables: So easy to integrate as a snack or into your meals.
• 2 cups fruits: Besides a great snack item, use them in breakfast recipes and desserts.
• 3 cups dairy: This usually equates to two glasses of non fat milk, one portion of yogurt or one portion of cheese.
• 5 oz protein: Focus on getting it through eggs, nuts and meat which are complete proteins. If you’re vegan, eating nuts and whole grains, quinoa, sprouted seeds and soy food are also complete proteins. Think: one egg equals one ounce, two tablespoons of peanut butter equals one ounce, and a fist-sized portion of meat equals three ounces.
To my knowledge, it’s best to eat a bit of protein with your carbs to minimize hormonal imbalance. To do this, try milk with cookies or eggs with toast, or simply exercise regularly. Blood sugar is in control when the two hormones (insulin and glucagon) in your blood are in balance. In response to eating carbohydrates, our pancreas produces insulin, the hormone responsible for storing fat or generating energy. On the other hand, both protein consumption and exercise produces glucagon, the hormone that promotes the activation and utilization of fat for energy. Check out glucagon on Britannica: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/235785/glucagon, or other sources if interested in more scientific explanation.