Tag holidays

Valentine’s Day: A Money-Maker

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valentines-day-TWOBITS

Valentine’s Day is one of the most retail-driven events in the United States, and for good reason. Savvy business owners have figured out how to capitalize on desperate men everywhere who want to please their women. The women, in turn, have been heavily influenced by clever advertising. Most women know about Jared (no, he isn’t the neighbor two doors down), and the Robbins Brothers have also exerted a powerful influence on the fantasies of ladies everywhere.

However, it seems like more and more couples have become aware of the fact that the big day of love is filled with hype and commercialism. After all, it’s supposed to be about the love, lust, or shared interest between two people, isn’t it? However, I still think a fella can’t go wrong with a beautiful bouquet of flowers (I know I love them!) for his lovely lady. If he wants to go the extra mile, he can get a nice trinket of jewelry (no, it doesn’t have to be diamonds), a stuffed teddy bear (if she’s into that kind of thing), or a sexy undergarment from Victoria’s Secret, but those are very predictable gifts on Valentine’s Day.

Then there are the chocolates and candy hearts. Heart-shaped boxes filled with chocolates have become increasingly more dreaded, since more ladies than ever are concerned about the sugar rush which comes from consuming them. Don’t be surprised if you buy a box of cheap chocolates and your woman refuses to eat them because they have high fructose corn syrup, artificial flavors or colors. Perhaps it’s time to get more creative and pick up a few gluten-free, vegan cupcakes?

A popular outing for couples is to go out to dinner, but restaurants have become far too opportunistic in recent years. Typical Prix Fixe menus for February 14th are so outrageously expensive that you almost have to take out a second mortgage just to afford the meal. I have gotten to the point that I have no desire to pay three times the amount of money I would usually pay for a meal at the same restaurant, simply because I was foolish enough to go there on Valentine’s Day. Besides, the restaurants are always packed, always noisy, and there’s a good chance that your table might be right next to the men’s restroom or in a drafty corner of the patio. Never mind that you made reservations three months ago and specified that you wanted a booth inside the restaurant.

What I enjoy the most, and am planning to do this year, is to cook a nice meal at home, open a good bottle (or two) of wine, and enjoy the comforts of home. That holds much more value for me than surrounding myself with red heart cutouts, chocolates I can’t eat, or spending a king’s ransom for a meal. I also don’t have to yell over the din of the other patrons blabbing.

A New Christmas

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christmas

I used to love Christmas, with all its twinkly lights, wonderful-smelling trees, and presents. However, once my mom’s health began declining (brought on by a brain aneurysm in 2004 which almost killed her), my attitude towards Christmas changed dramatically. Though her cognitive abilities are markedly improved now, she doesn’t care about her personal appearance, nor does she get excited about opening up gifts which I wrap carefully for her.

Another thing which happens every year, and has occurred for the past several years, is that people leave town, and I find myself alone on Christmas Day. I remember spending the Christmas of 2011 and 2012 moping about the fact that I was alone, but then in 2013, I sort of gave up and decided to use Christmas Day as more of a personal day, to catch up on projects and cleaning, or to spend part of the day with friends who might be in town during that time. This year, I will spend the early afternoon sitting in a movie theater by myself and watching “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”, and I think that is absolutely perfect.

Another Christmas tradition which I had abandoned in 2012 was getting a tree. From 1997 through 2010, I would get a 7-1/2 foot Noble Fir for the living room and decorate it along with the rest of the house. In 2011, I still bought a tree, but I put it in a different room because my cats were so rambunctious that I was concerned that they would destroy it. Then we moved in 2012, and I didn’t even make an effort to buy and decorate a tree. We had no tree in 2013 or 2014 either, and to make sure that I didn’t go hog-wild with other decorations, I got rid of a bunch of lights and other decorations at a garage sale I had earlier this year.

This year, I was completely torn. I put wreaths up on the front door and the back door, but didn’t put any lights up on our patio. Almost daily, I would toy with the idea of running to a tree lot and buying a tree. But here’s the thing: it’s not exactly fun to think about picking out a tree by yourself, loading it up onto the roof of your car, lugging it up a flight of stairs to your house, pulling out all the lights and other decorations from the garage, and decorating the entire damned thing yourself. The cat factor also really bothered me, because I didn’t exactly relish the thought of coming home to broken ornaments or chewed up light cords. I thought that if I could test the cats’ behavior with a smaller tree, that I might buy a tree, but that it wouldn’t happen until next year.

Then I found myself in a Rite Aid on December 20th, and saw a 4 foot artificial Noble Fir for sale for $10. That was my chance to finally get a tree. Ten bucks was cheap enough for me to take the plunge without feeling like I had made a huge commitment. I purchased the tree, and as soon as I got home, I decorated it. My cats looked at it with great curiosity, but they didn’t bat at the ornaments or chew at the tree (well, Shima chewed a bit on the tree, but I’m watching her!). I have enjoyed the tree so immensely that I have decided to get a 7-1/2 foot Noble Fir next year, and I will also put up the artificial 4 foot tree. I am even considering putting lights out on the patio next year.

In many respects, Christmas is just another day for me, but it doesn’t mean that I have to avoid enjoying the decorations which the holiday brings. My Christmas gift to myself is a nice little movie date which I am sure I will enjoy as well.

Merry Christmas everyone!

13 Rules For Eating Well While On The Road

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Please read my latest article for Oxygen Magazine online! Original post can be found at:

13 Rules For Eating Well While On The Road

staying-fit-on-the-go

Sticking to your diet and training schedule can be tough this time of the year. We share some tips for staying fit and eating well while on the road.

Dr. Stacey Naito | November 16, 2015

The holidays are here and for many of us that means traveling to see family and friends. It also means being tempted with less-than-healthy foods, and foraging for fitness resources like a gym to train in and places that carry clean food selections. All of these challenges can make it extremely difficult to adhere to a regular training schedule and healthy eating habits.

However, with a little determination, it is definitely possible to stay focused when you’re on the road. The guidelines listed here will give you a blueprint that you can use to manage and stay on track with your fitness goals.

On-The-Go Training

With a little creativity you can do your daily workouts while on the road. Here are some suggestions for making the most of what is available to you when you’re traveling.

1. Search for gyms in the area before you travel. Once you know your destination, you can do an online search of the area to find gyms and fitness centers. In some cases, hotels have very nice fitness centers, which are fully equipped with free weights and exercise machines.

2. Try hotel room workouts. It is always possible to create intense workouts in any location by performing body-weight exercises, exercises with resistance bandsand mat work. Resistance bands are lightweight and won’t take up much room in a suitcase.

3. Train outdoors. In most cases, you should be able to find a local park or school where you can perform body-weight exercises, plyometrics, calisthenics, stairclimbing or running. You can use park benches or ledges for your workouts as well. Get creative, and keep up the intensity to get your body moving and the blood pumping!

Fit Foods On-The-Go

Whether you’re a seasoned competitor who is accustomed to following a strict meal plan, someone who wants to adopt healthier eating habits, you may find it very difficult to pass up regular restaurant meals, fast foods and holiday treats when you’re on the road. The holidays can be especially brutal, since evil culinary temptations abound and threaten to sabotage any efforts at maintaining clean eating habits.

If you aren’t on prep, you can still indulge in small amounts of rich foods as long as your other foods are healthy and clean. This means that your abs don’t have to hibernate during the holidays. However, if you compete and are getting on stage soon, you can’t exactly throw caution to the wind and consume whatever you want. You will need to keep a tight reign on what you consume while traveling.

Here are some tips to keep you in line with clean eating while traveling.

1. Invest in a great food cooler bag. A food cooler bag will enable you to enjoy your trip without having to worry about what you will eat throughout the day.

2. Prep your meals in advance. That way you’ll have total control over ingredients, cooking method and portion sizes. Once you have prepared your food, store single-serving sizes in individual containers or bags, which are easy to pack. Freeze the food you will eat during your trip, and refrigerate the food you will eat on the day you travel to your destination.

3. Ask the hotel for a refrigerator in your room. In most cases, hotels can supply a refrigerator upon request.

4. Consider a meal prep service. Meal prep services can be a blessing because they take the hassle of having to prep food out of the equation, and they can deliver directly to your destination.

5. Pack emergency fit foods. Non-perishable foods like protein powder, protein bars and nuts can be easily packed into your luggage and will ensure that you have backup food.

6. Consider staying in a room with a kitchenette. You can visit a local market, purchase fresh food, and prepare it in your hotel room.

7. Consume a small amount of lean protein right before you have a carb cheat. This will slow down digestion so that the carbs aren’t stored as readily.

8. Drink at least eight ounces of water before you indulge in a decadent treat. This will help to fill you up so you consume less food afterward.

9. Eat smaller, more frequent meals. If you have a holiday feast to attend, make sure to eat every 2 1/2 to 3 hours beforehand to ensure that you won’t be ravenous come party time.

10. Don’t cave in to peer pressure. Sometimes family and friends can sabotage clean meal plans by convincing others to eat forbidden foods. If you find yourself in such a situation, you need to ask yourself if it is worth unraveling your healthy eating habits in order to appease a relative or buddy.

Staying Lean Through The Holidays – REPOST

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thanksgiving-turkey-dinner

Here is a repost of an article I wrote last November. It’s that time of the year again for holiday foods, so beware!

It seems that I will continue to uphold my yearly tradition of making my incredible (and incredibly UNclean) fudge for the holidays, as well as my signature turkey stuffing. Since the holidays come only once a year, it seems reasonable to indulge a bit, right? Well, if you’re a fitness fanatic and you have competitions coming up like several of my friends do, you can’t exactly throw caution to the wind and consume whatever you want. However, you CAN still indulge in small amounts of rich foods which are not considered clean as long as your other foods are healthy and clean. This means that your abs don’t have to hibernate during the holidays!

There are a few tricks to minimize the amount of bad foods which you may be tempted to devour.  You can consume a small amount of lean protein right before you have a carb cheat.  This will slow down digestion so that the carbs aren’t stored as readily.  Another trick is to drink at least eight ounces of water before you indulge in a decadent treat.  This will help to fill you up so you consume less food afterward.  When you are aware that you will be at a function in which tempting foods will be around, make sure your meals beforehand are kept clean and that you you eat every 2-1/2 to 3 hours to ensure that you won’t be ravenous come party time.

A newer tactic which can often work wonders for some people is to practice an intermittent fast the day before in which you consume a small number of calories, say 400-500, then go to town on turkey day, consuming your maintenance calories then. This seems to work better if you ramp up the week before with a series of intermittent fasts in which you consume your food (maintenance calories +10-20% on training days, then drop to -20% of maintenance on rest days) within a 4 to 8 hour window, then fasting the rest of the time. If you do this, crank up your protein intake so that it is at least 1 gram per pound of body weight. I personally love this diet approach and my body responds well to it, plus I can enjoy all the goodies on Thanksgiving without remorse.
turkey leg
There are food choices which are cleaner than others during the holidays. Though common holiday foods are rather calorie dense, here are a few food items which are lower in calories and fat:

  • Roast turkey breast
  • Green beans without butter
  • Mashed potatoes made with whipped butter and Greek yogurt instead of milk and regular butter
  • Pumpkin Pie

I know some of you are assuming that my cats join in with holiday feasts, but I always put them in my bedroom and lock the door. There are several reasons why I keep my felines away from the holiday table:

1. People food can often be hazardous for animals
2. My cats will run underfoot and probably trip people
3. My cats will suddenly forget the rule about not jumping onto tables and will create an unsanitary environment for guests
4. My cats will turn into pesky little beggars
Holiday-treats

Some of you may also be wondering what I am planning on cooking and eating, so here is my Thanksgiving menu:

  •  16-18 pound turkey
  • my secret stuffing recipe which has lots of goodies in it, but is relatively low in fat and calories compared to other exotic stuffing recipes
  • mashed potatoes made with light butter and sour cream
  • green bean casserole
  • my homemade fudge
  • whole cranberry sauce
  • turkey gravy
  • wine
  • store-bought pumpkin pie

Obviously there are some items on my menu that fall outside of my “clean food guidelines”, but since the holidays only come once a year, I have no qualms about it.   This is the time during which we should count our blessings and spend quality time with the people we love without getting anxious about what we are eating.  However, this does not mean you have free license to go nuts on bad foods for the next month!  If you end up indulging in other foods, don’t beat yourself up.  Instead, enjoy the feast and resume healthy eating the next day. 

Happy holidays!

How To Stay Lean During The Holidays

drstaceynaito Leave a comment

holidays-holiday-foods-full
It seems that I will continue to uphold my yearly tradition of making my incredible (and incredibly UNclean) fudge for the holidays, as well as my signature turkey stuffing. Since the holidays come only once a year, it seems reasonable to indulge a bit, right? Well, if you’re a fitness fanatic and you have competitions coming up like I do, you can’t exactly throw caution to the wind and consume whatever you want. However, you CAN still indulge in small amounts of rich foods which are not considered clean as long as your other foods are healthy and clean. This means that your abs don’t have to hibernate during the holidays!

There are a few tricks to minimize the amount of bad foods which you may be tempted to devour.  You can consume a small amount of lean protein right before you have a carb cheat.  This will slow down digestion so that the carbs aren’t stored as readily.  Another trick is to drink at least eight ounces of water before you indulge in a decadent treat.  This will help to fill you up so you consume less food afterward.  When you are aware that you will be at a function in which tempting foods will be around, make sure your meals beforehand are kept clean and that you you eat every 2-1/2 to 3 hours to ensure that you won’t be ravenous come party time.

A newer tactic which can often work wonders for some people is to practice an intermittent fast the day before in which you consume a small number of calories, say 400-500, then go to town on turkey day, consuming your maintenance calories then. This seems to work better if you ramp up the week before with a series of intermittent fasts in which you consume your food (maintenance calories +10-20% on training days, then drop to -20% of maintenance on rest days) within a 4 to 8 hour window, then fasting the rest of the time. If you do this, crank up your protein intake so that it is at least 1 gram per pound of body weight. I personally love this diet approach and my body responds well to it, plus I can enjoy all the goodies on Thanksgiving without remorse.

There are food choices which are cleaner than others during the holidays. Though common holiday foods are rather calorie dense, here are a few food items which are lower in calories and fat:

  • Roast turkey breast
  • Green beans without butter
  • Mashed potatoes made with whipped butter and Greek yogurt instead of milk and regular butter
  • Pumpkin Pie

I know some of you are assuming that my cats join in with holiday feasts, but I always put them in my bedroom and lock the door. There are several reasons why I keep my felines away from the holiday table:

1. People food can often be hazardous for animals
2. My cats will run underfoot and probably trip people
3. My cats will suddenly forget the rule about not jumping onto tables and will create an unsanitary environment for guests
4. My cats will turn into pesky little beggars
Holiday-treats

This Thanksgiving will be a bit different since I will wait until the Sunday following Thanksgiving to cook a feast. This is in honor of my friends who are competing at the NPC/IFBB Ferrigno Legacy this weekend. Some of you may also be wondering what I am planning on cooking and eating, so here is my Thanksgiving menu:

  •  20 pound turkey
  • my secret stuffing recipe which has lots of goodies in it but is relatively low in fat and calories compared to other exotic stuffing recipes
  • mashed potatoes made with light butter and sour cream
  • green bean casserole
  • my homemade fudge
  • whole cranberry sauce
  • turkey gravy
  • wine
  • store-bought pumpkin pie

Obviously there are some items on my menu that fall outside of my “clean food guidelines”, but since the holidays only come once a year, I have no qualms about it.   This is the time during which we should count our blessings and spend quality time with the people we love without getting anxious about what we are eating.  However, this does not mean you have free license to go nuts on bad foods for the next month!  If you end up indulging in other foods, don’t beat yourself up.  Instead, enjoy the feast and resume healthy eating the next day. 

Happy holidays!

Holiday Leftovers

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I grew up in a single-parent household in which finances were very tight. Consequently, I never saw food being thrown away unless it had dropped onto the floor. Food never spoiled in our home because my mom made sure we ate it all before such a thing could occur. This has created a major dilemma for me during the holidays, when I am forced to decide whether to toss out leftovers which do not fit into my clean eating plan. I always feel a twinge of guilt when I throw out meal plan-busting foods because I can hear my mom’s voice admonishing me not do it. Shortly after Thanksgiving, I threw out fat free whipped topping and a small container of mashed potatoes, knowing full well that they would not be consumed, yet I was riddled with remorse when I did so. I was relieved that my mom couldn’t witness me throwing out food that she would deem perfectly acceptable. But I have to remind myself that I have to take the clean eating thing seriously and that my mom lives in a different environment from me.
cropped-leftovers

Even now when I visit my mom, she will try to convince me to eat foods which are full of sugar and fat, insisting that “one bite” won’t hurt me. Of course, this often occurs a couple of days before a photo shoot, so I have to say no. Sometimes she will show her frustration, but I need to tell myself that she does not understand what an impact eating forbidden foods has on my physical conditioning, digestion and mindset. It is far worse during the holidays, when evil foods abound. My mother will say, “But it’s Christmas!”, as if the holidays excuse me from eating clean. I recently attended a party at the assisted living facility where my mom resides, and could not resist my mother’s insistence on having some of the prime rib which was on my plate. It was unlike any prime rib I had ever seen, not very appetizing, but to appease my mother I had a couple of bites.

I am no different from other fitness people who are almost terrified of the holidays. We all know that culinary temptations will be in force for a full month, threatening to set us back considerably. Even our fun meals are calculated. I just spent Christmas Day in a very non-traditional and totally fun way, consuming sushi, frozen yogurt, and late-night appetizers with a bunch of fitness friends. We hemmed and hawed over menu selections at the sushi place, then opted for nonfat yogurt options at the yogurt place. We finally let down our guard when late-night appetizers came into the picture, but of course they were appetizer sized and much more acceptable. Clearly this sort of behavior separates fit people from the rest of the population.

Now that Christmas is over, I can breathe a sigh of relief over the fact that tempting foods have, for the most part, made their exit. I don’t need to worry about seeing my homemade fudge in the fridge (I can thank my ex-boyfriend for clearing that out!) or being tempted by holiday pies or cookies because they are all gone. It’s time to bring out the steamed vegetables, lean protein, oats, brown rice and yams. I am actually looking forward to it and craving it!

Christmas As A Grownup Sucks

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I will freely admit that I adopt a bit of a Grinch attitude during the holidays, but that doesn’t mean I am unpleasant to others. It simply means that I no longer look forward to putting up a tree and stockings, mostly because my mother is never there to enjoy it (she has limited mobility and cannot walk up all the stairs where I live), and also because my rascally cats would readily destroy a decorated tree in no time flat. I have even balked at the idea of putting lights up on the patio, because our electrical outlet is so temperamental that we would only be able to enjoy a few minutes of light before the circuit would shut it all down.

grinch03While I enjoy giving gifts, I cannot stand the whole ordeal of shopping and also have the worst time trying to figure out what everyone wants. What I look forward to during the holidays is seeing my friends, having them come over to eat and share in some good laughs. I get so much enjoyment out of feeding my friends, but I have yet to determine how this quirk developed. Perhaps it has something to do with my love of food, or my desire to nurture. I only hope my friends enjoy the experience as much as I do.

It’s not like I sit around and grumble, but I swear that my rescue kitty Shima could be Max while I could observe all the holiday activities with a touch of disdain. Though I appreciate the climactic scene in “How The Grinch Stole Christmas” in which the Grinch’s heart grew, I am not too keen on signing up for cardiac enlargement!

Probably the most significant element which makes Christmas special for me is having a significant other to share it with. The last time I was truly able to share the holiday with someone was eight years ago, so it has been a LONG time since I experienced such a thing. Even in my last relationship we spent Christmas apart because he went back home to be with his family every year. A new definition of Christmas will remain in place until someone comes along to truly share the holiday with me.