A Kick in the Mouth

Personally, I tend to associate corn with the sunnier, summer months of the year so perhaps it's due to the unseasonably warm winter we're experiencing up here in the City that I was inspired to try this super delicious- and equally easy to prepare- corn chowder. On those nights it does get a little chilly, this soup will warm you right up! Fair warning: It is on the spicy side!

                          Tangy Vegan Crockpot Corn Chowder

Gather your ingredients:

• 2 (12 ounce) cans whole kernel corn
• 3 cups vegetable broth
• 3 potatoes, diced (I used two sweet potatoes and one baking potato)
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 red chile peppers, minced (I accidentally put three in mine! Whew!)
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon parsley flakes
• black pepper to taste
• 1 3/4 cups soy milk
• 1/4 cup margarine (I added one tablespoon of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!)
• 1 lime, juiced

Chop your veggies and throw all ingredients (except the milk and butter) into your crockpot. Set it on "Low" for 7 hours. Carry on with your busy life in the meantime. ;)

After seven hours, transfer your soup into a blender and allow it to pulsate into creamy goodness. Return the soup to the crockpot and add the milk and butter. Stir and allow to continue heating for another hour.

Eat up! I put together a spinach salad w/ baby tomatoes, mozzarella cheese shavings, and apple slices to accompany this hearty soup.

The recipe I followed comes from the AllRecipe website. I followed it for the most part but I decided to use a little less butter in my own soup. No wonder my soup was so SPICY- I also added an extra red chili pepper by accident! Stick with one or two to be safe. Let me know what you think!

Also, here are a few fun facts about corn: 

- The high amount of fiber present in corn helps lower cholesterol levels and also reduces the risk of colon cancer. 

- Corn, if consumed in moderate quantities, has been seen to be beneficial for those suffering from diabetes. 

- Those suffering from anemia have shown positive effects after consuming corn. (This factoid is music to my borderline anemic ears!)

- Owing to the presence of thiamin, corn has been said to help in the metabolism of carbohydrates.

- Regular consumption of corn, in moderate quantities, has been associated with better cardiovascular health. 

6 Weeks of NO MEAT

Hey, all! Well, this post is prettttttttty straight-forward. Like the title up there says: I'm going straight vegetarian for the next six weeks. Well, the next five weeks and two days actually because I started this diet five days ago.

I've decided to do this for a few reasons but what really spawned the idea was watching a documentary called Vegucated. (Thank you, iTunes, for delivering on a less than exciting night in!)  For six weeks, Writer/Director/Editor and food activist Marisa M. Wolfson followed three NY-ers in an experiment in Veganism. She introduced them to the philosophy behind it, opened their eyes to the atrocities that happen in far too many animal plants around the country, and taught them about the exponential number of options they have in eating a non-carnivorous diet.

Now, I have seen plenty of documentaries that focus on the same topic, or one closely related to it. In fact, I will be reviewing a couple of them over the next six weeks right here! So often, I am turned off by the "holier- than- thou" tone of the creators. They sometimes act as if it isn't true that the taste of a perfectly fried slice of bacon in the morning is not delicious- PUH-LEASE. At that point, they lose all credibility with this girl.

In Vegucated, Marisa is much more open- minded to the idea that people probably won't want to give up all meat and animal products immediately. She "gets" that most of us grew up around kitchen tables where meat was the main course and that was that. Our food "choices" are really habits we've cultured since we were old enough to give up the bottle and for most of us- no matter how horrific the undercover footage of sadistic abuses against animals can be or how unhealthy we KNOW all of the greasy meat we consume is for us- are not going to give it up easily. Instead, all Marisa asks is that each of us learn the facts and make informed decisions about what we eat. Will we get it right all of the time? Probably not. Will we do better if we're willing to open up our minds and eat consciously? Most likely.

So, predictably, here I am feeling inspired and embarking on a vegetarian diet. I decided baby steps was the name of the game and not to try veganism just yet- Never say never, though! Over the next five weeks and two days, I'll share some of the vegetarian recipes I test, give a shout out to the NYC restaurants and cafes with great vegetarian selections, and share my general experience.... the "good", the "bad", and the "ugly", if you will. Maybe you'll be inspired to do this with me? Maybe you're a badass and can go full vegan (please share if you do!) and maybe you'll eat meat just one less time/week than you normally would. The goal here isn't to be competitive but simply to pay attention to your food choices and know what you're eating. After all, as my cousin so eloquently put it in her guest post a couple weeks ago, "one day my body will be a prison" and right now, I plan to treat it well and enjoy it to the utmost of my ability!
                                                                    Wish me luck!

                                             (Honestly, five days in, it has been 95% easy to stick to this new habit!)

Enough Is Enough!

Hello again! Now that we are officially halfway through the first month of the new year, I know some people might be fading a bit on those goals they set a mere 16 days ago. Hopefully that isn't you but we can allllll use a reminder to stay the course. My next guest blogger, B, is someone you've all "met"once before her. She and I participated in the BlogSwap of Summer 2011 and had a chance to trade blogs for a day. It was a lot of fun and I am so happy to have her back to remind us just why it's so important to stay true to our fitness ambitions!
*******************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Hi La Femme Fit-alle readers! First I want to say “Thank you!” to Miss L for inviting me over to guest post again. When she emailed me asking if I would guest post I was thrilled. 

Then I realized that as a recent couch potato, I’d have to think of something to write about on a health and fitness blog! Let me start out by saying that I was not always this way. I did several sports in high school, and in college I worked as a manager at a major retail chain which had me on my feet, running all over, 40+ hours a week. I think I stayed skinny in law school via a mix of all night dance-a-thons and stress.  It was not at all a healthy weight or method of weight loss, and doctors often told me that. It was also unintentional. When I would get stressed out, I would simply forget to do important tasks. One of those was eating. I graduated from law school in 2010 at about the same weight as I was in high school – 105. 

Fast-forward a year, and a 25^th (OK, and 26^th) birthday later, and I’m finally feeling the pain of that slower metabolism everyone is talking about.  Not only that, my desk job has rid my life of any and all unintentional exercise that might take place.  The furthest I have to walk in a day is from our office elevator to the Starbucks inside of our building. If something needs to be moved, carried or brought to me, I call a runner. If something needs my signature, my secretary brings it to me.

Law school graduation, apparently practicing for a life of laziness behind a desk.

I am sure you can imagine the end result of that. Weight gain. I am now up to 120 pounds and to say I am out of shape would be a serious understatement.

You may be wondering what finally got my attention. Was it my tighter pants? Was it the scale haunting me every time I walked into my bathroom? Was it a co-worker telling me it looked like I had a baby bump (true story)? No (although the last one did make me cry). 

It was Black Friday shopping. I spent the Thanksgiving holiday with my boyfriend’s family in Denver, CO.  His family has a tradition of Black Friday shopping on Thanksgiving night. I was completely unaware of this tradition and did not find out about it until the moment I saw they were hoarding newspapers and mapping out the shopping plan based on an array of advertisements. 

All I had packed in the way of shoes were a pair of Bearpaws and a pair of Report booties. Who needs arch support when all I do is sit on my butt??? Let me tell you, there was no sitting that night! We started at 7:30, and drove 45 minutes to an outlet mall that was already crawling with people. In fact, some stores that were scheduled to open at 9:00 p.m. just decided to open early because there were so many people crowded at their doors. 

Now, let me clarify here, readers. This girl can shop. I can spend money exponentially faster than I can make it. I can find treasure in a outlet mall like a pirate looking for gold.

But Black Friday? I wanted to throw in the towel. I wanted to SIT. I was constantly on the hunt for a chair or bench when no one was looking. But no one would let me throw in that towel and we shopped until TWO IN THE MORNING. I wanted to cry. I was out-shopped by my boyfriend’s parents, brother and his partner. Out-shopped by a group of MEN!

Because they all had an advantage. They all work out or stay active somehow.  Not me. At least, not then. It got my attention.

The Boyfriend is on a different intramural team all year long. This is him playing his third softball game of the week that he wouldn’t even miss when I came to visit one weekend.

It mostly got my attention because I woke up Friday morning sore from head to toe.  It was like my body wanted to make sure there was no chance that I would move on from that night of tired feet, pained legs and exhausted body and go on with my life like it never happened. My calves were sore for two days. I realized then that something was wrong. I could not keep doing what I was doing. Now that I’m 26, the weight really isn’t going to fall off like it did before. And the longer I remain stationary all day, the longer it will take to get my muscles toned and in shape again.
So I decided enough was enough. I am getting back on track. I am trying to be more aware of how active (or inactive) I am being. I have started taking the stairs and saying “no whip” on my Starbucks if I absolutely have to have one. I have started doing sit-ups on my living room floor while I watch TV.

I am also trying to be more aware of what, and how much I am eating. I used to only ever eat until I was full, and then move on. Working at a desk all day is somehow really conducive to eating, and eating and eating. I have started substituting ingredients in my food (adding veggies, or buying non-fat creamer for my coffee). I have also started asking myself “Are you bored, or are you hungry?” when I’m standing in front of my fridge or cupboard, bemoaning how there is nothing to eat. 

and stopping ridiculous habits like drinking all of the champagne I can get my hands on at friends’ weddings.

They are only baby steps, but I am hoping that they are the beginning to getting back to a healthy lifestyle. My next step is to make use of the fabulous gyms in my apartment complex, starting off with some of L’s tips in this blog. 

For those of you who, like me, have been couch potatoes for too long, I just wanted to tell you to not get discouraged! I am busy and I have a habit of wanting to do everything 110% - leading to burn out in about a week.  I am trying to do this healthy-thing right.  I don’t have a lot of tips or tricks on this journey yet. I have never run a marathon like several of my work-friends just did this month. But I care about my health. You can get into shape and stay healthy.  If Crossfit or marathon training or an hour on the elliptical sound like torture, then stop thinking about them! Instead, take it all one step at a time. Twenty minutes of exercise is better than zero. And, from what everyone says, we’ll both be craving a full workout before we know it! If you are a work-out nut like the lovely Miss L, keep up the good work! I am likely totally jealous. 

I hope you guys had a great holiday season, and were able to shop a lot longer than I did until you dropped! 

Special Delivery! Meal Planning Made Easy.

Hey Everyone! I'm switching it up a bit today and posting about food! Exactly two weeks into my Thailand trip, I have reached that point where you start craving a bunch of foods you can get anytime at home but are definitely not accessible here. Foods like.... a bagel with cream cheese and lox, Five Guys, and salt and vinegar chips.... Sigh. Despite the amazing Thai cuisine I've got here, my mind can't seem to forget my tried and true faves. 

If your mind tends to gravitate to these scrumptious yet not-so-nutritious meals on a regular basis, you might be interested in what my next guest blogger, Rachel, has to tell you about. A quick introduction: Rachel and I have been friends since middle school! Ahhhh, yes- We've endured countless (read: horrible) school lunches together, participated in (and by "participate" I mean tried to get out of) P.E. together, and even dormed together our first year of college (and we both managed to keep the Freshman 15 at bay, thank you very much!) 

She's a wonderful friend and I'm so happy to share her post with all of you. Enjoy. 

*********************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Hi La Femme FIT-alle Readers,


                                    Q: What do I have in common with Dan Merino and Janet Jackson? 

Hey, Danny!

A: Nutrisystem!

I’m sure you’re wondering, first, "Uh...isn't that from 1970???" and second, "What does a 26 year old female, who isn’t significantly overweight, doing using Nutrisystem?" Well truth be told, a family friend started selling the weight loss program and offered me and my boyfriend a Friends & Family deal on it. Now, while we aren’t OVER-weight, long days at our desk jobs have left us above our ideal weight, and not getting those precious nutrients we desperately need. So we thought Why not? 

i-Phones make life- and dieting- so much easier!

The Nutrisystem plan consists of 3 daily pre-packaged meals delivered to your door each month. The meals are meant to be supplemented with fruits, vegetables, and low fat dairy, as described in the helpful meal planner they send along with your delivery. There’s also a nifty app for it! 

Over the last month the convenience of pre-packaged, pre-planned meals has really appealed to me. Here’s an example of one of my days on Nutrisystem:

Breakfast:

1- Super delicious Nutrisystem banana nut muffin

1- Handful of blackberries

1- Cup of Coffee w/ FF Dairy Creamer

= Me out the door 10 minutes earlier!

Snack: 

1- Granny Smith Apple (love being told to eat more fruits!)

Lunch:

1- Nutrisystem Red Beans and Rice w/ Chicken Sausage (Add a little hot sauce and this is yummy!)

1- Green Giant Single Serve Frozen Veggies

**A moment about these little guys…if you don’t buy them YOU SHOULD! A super easy way to get veggies on the go and only 40 calories. Also, if you are a wannabe extreme couponer like me, you’ll see coupons for them pretty often.

1- Small salad w/ Low fat Dressing or just use Balsamic Vinegar

= Allowing me to stay chained to my desk while still getting some healthy food in my belly! 

Snack:
1- FF Greek yogurt

When deciding to undertake our trial of Nutrisystem, we opted for the “Dinners on Your Own” option. This makes the "sacrifice", so to speak, a lot more bearable. We both eat pretty healthy as it is, so I knew we wouldn’t blow our entire day come dinner time. 

Yay!

There is something about the Nutrisystem “plan” that really speaks to my OCD side, and then there’s also the ease factor. Nutrisystem is beyond convenient, and I love it for that reason alone! Also, the benefit of portion/calorie control makes the program super effective. I sadly confess that my lunch choices at work can sometimes be upward of *gasp* 600 calories! That’s almost half my daily recommendation! A Nutrisystem lunch will run you closer to 300 cal. That being said, 30 days of eating the Nutrisystem meal plan “most” days I can say that my boyfriend and I both noticed several positive changes! The 5 meals a day kept our energy levels high which led to more after work gym visits, and the extra nutrients found in Nutrisystem meals left us feeling all-around healthier.  AND (wait for it)…my waistline actually got smaller! Yay for fitting into skinny jeans! 

As with all things, Nutrisystem is not perfect.  Among the downsides is the cost. While you can order items a la carte, a full months’ worth will run you around $200/month. If you’re someone who budgets their grocery spending each month this will seem a lot more feasible, otherwise, coughing up $200 at the start of the month can be hard to swallow. The other con I was going to mention at the start of my blogging was the packaging and the thoughts that ran through my head that they hadn’t changed their stuff since the early 70s; however, to my surprise Nutrisystem has recently undergone some major rebranding and some meal makeovers including adding frozen food items, which makes the sight of Nutrisystem on my desk leaving me looking less like a dowdy secretary and more like the sassy, healthy, Executive Assistant that I am. 

So after my thorough review of the program, if your New Year’s resolution includes getting healthier and thinner order some Nutrisystem at 1-800-321-THIN. And if you’re looking for a super helpful service representative, ask for Sharon!

Happy, Healthy Eating in 2012!

~ Rachel