Frankly it's not going so well. I did not exercise today and I did not eat exceptionally well. I'm going to give myself a certain amount of grace and say this is my off day which I think is importat to take an off day occasionally for morale. It is not reasonable to expect you will never again eat a few "treat" foods when you are choosing healthier lifestyle. You just need to make it an occasional treat rather than a regular treat. It's an important distinction.

They say that abs are made 70% in the kitchen and 30% in the gym and I have always been better at disciplining myself to work out than at eating well. What can I say? I love to eat! I love food and as proof of that today I made chocolate chip zucchini bread. True, zucchini bread is slightly better than donuts or other goodies but at the same time it's chocolate bread (cake). It's basically dessert, with a sneaky helping of vegetables included. We need to learn to tell the difference.

I had a great upbringing; my mom was great. She always served vegetables with dinner and she definitely made us eat them. But what she didn't tell us was that when you grow up you have to tell yourself to eat healthy, good things because there's isn't anybody making you stay at the table until you finish your broccoli or to make it in the first place. And this is the great dilemma. 

When people are trying to be more healthy they focus more on working out. They go to the gym 5 to 7 times a week and they try to make better choices with food, but they wonder why they aren't seeing the kind of result they want. The answer is two-fold, but we will talk about the other half in a latter post. Here's the big problem-they aren't making the big changes that they need to be making with their FOOD. Diet is more than twice as important as exercise!

So, lets talk about food practically. Go into Starbucks and simply observe what people are ordering for breakfast. It's usually something like a vanilla latte and a piece of banana bread. And that is their breakfast- milk, sugar, caffeine and basically a piece of dessert pastry for breakfast! This happens all the time and it is such a part of our culture; we don't even realize that is what we are doing. We are a generation of kids who want to have candy and pizza for breakfast. We either don't know how to make the hard choices or we won't be responsible adults willing to do the right but often hard things, at least with what we eat.
And although zucchini bread isn't the worst of offenders... Newsflash: just because it has vegetables in it, doesn't make it healthy. Sorry.

We need to start thinking about food differently. Don't just think of food as something yummy that makes your tummy or your heart happy, think of it as fuel. You are fueling your body when you eat. What you are eating should depend on when you are eating and what you are doing afterward. They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and here's why: 

Think of your metabolism as a campfire. When you go to bed at night you may have some residual fuel on the fire that will burn overnight and keep it from going out. But by morning all that is left are some small concentrated embers. You need to add fuel to restart the fire. You need to eat breakfast. Breakfast introduces new fuel that is going to help keep you going the rest of the day. Carbohydrates are the first energy source that your body will start to digest, and there are two different types of carbs (fast-burning and slow-burning), and there are two different qualities of carbs (natural, high-quality, and highly processed crap!). 

Highly proccessed or high sugar foods (carbs) burn up fast, which is why when you eat a Snickers bar or an energy drink, you will get a sugar high and  have lots of energy... and then crash. Highly processed foods/carbohydrates are just like throwing gasoline, paper or sawdust on a fire you'll have an explosive amount of energy and then the fire will go out quickly because there isn't much there to burn. It is vitally important to eat the right kind of carbohydrates.


Simple carbohydrates are easily digested and absorbed quickly into the bloodstream. These include (high-quality) fruits. Low qualilty simple carbs include not only sugar, candy and highly processed bread, pasta and pastries, but surprisingly and sweeter vegetables such as peas, corn and carrots fall into this category (because they have very little nutritional value and can be harder on some digestive systems*). Complex carbohydrates are digested more slowly, and take longer to absorb into the bloodstream. Legumes, starchy vegetables, whole-grain breads and cereals fall into this category. A good rule of thumb; the more natural, the better.

Think of simple carbohydrates as more highly combustable and complex carbohydrates as having a longer burning time. To get your fire going optimally you will want both simple and complex sources of fuel. If you put only simple carbohydrates on the fire it would catch on fire quickly, but then it would burn out quickly and you would need more fuel (be hungry). If you use only complex carbohydrates it would take a lot longer to get started. You need to fuel the fire with both, highly flammable fuel, and long burning fuel (simple and complex carbohydrates). 

At the beginning of the day, when you need more energy, eating both simple and complex carbohydrates is important to get your metabolism/fire going, and you will burn up that fuel throughout the day. Eating a few carbohydrates at lunch is okay (to keep the fire going strong). But just like you wouldn't add fuel to your campfire before going to bed for the night (because you don't need the fire to burn strongly like you do earlier in the day), eating carbohydrates for dinner time is unnecessary because you don't need your fire fueled the same because you won't burn that up when you are sleeping. Remember that eating high-energy food closer to the end of the day means that your body will store that energy as fat.

*** Tip for the Day***
When eating main meals 50% of your plate should be fruit or vegetables. I prefer to eat fruit before 2 o'clock and no fruit or carbohydrates after 5 o'clock. Again, remember, carbohydrates will be digested and converted into energy. What do you usually do after 5 o'clock at night? Do you go and run a marathon? Do you have an entire day of work ahead of you? No. Usually you come home, make dinner, do a few chores, spend time with your family, and wind down for the rest the evening but you are not exerting major amounts of energy for sustained, long periods of time. The reason why you don't eat carbs after 5 o'clock is because when your body turns that into energy into fuel, and then you don't use that fuel up, your body will store it as fat. And that is the last thing you want when you are trying to lose weight or maintain a healthy weight.

  


And so with that, I give you (to use wisely and at your discretion) the recipe for:

Chocolate chip zucchini bread
(remember, this is a dessert)

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup baking cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups of sugar
3 eggs
1 cup canola or grapeseed oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
2-3 packed cups grated zucchini (with the skin)
One cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven at 350°. Spray two 9 x 5" pans with nonstick spray

In a large bowl, stir together flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

In a medium bowl, beat the sugar and eggs until light and fluffy. Add the oil and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients along with the zucchini and chocolate chips. Stir until just combined, and divide between the loaf pans.

Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until the tops are cracked and springy to the touch. Makes two loaves.



ENJOY!! 
I know I did!



Remember: It's a special treat. A dessert, not a breakfast food, or dietary staple. 



Thanks for reading!