Healthy Living in Connecticut Blog

Mat, the Fitness Director at the Northwest CT YMCA, chose another food that I eat nearly everyday as the next superfood. Spinach is awesome and should be incorporated in everyone's diet.

So why is spinach important? Just look at Popeye! It does build strength as it's 30% protein. If you combine spinach with sunflower seeds or beans, you'll have a complete protein, all of the necessary amino acids required to build muscle.

Mat, the fitness director at the Northwest CT YMCA made two good choices for the superfood of the week for the Fitness Commitment Challenge. Beans were the food of choice for Week 2 and Asparagus is for Week 3.

It's important to incorporate beans in your diet everyday. Famous nutritarian Dr. Fuhrman claims that beans prevent colon cancer and may prevent diabetes. Beans contain fiber, protein, folate, potassium and magnesium, among other nutrients.

COCONUT OIL! I'm sure you've heard about the "coconut oil" craze either on TV or on the radio these days. If, for some reason, you haven't, allow me to share with you why this is my new FAVORITE "must have" item in my household!

     There are HUNDREDS (that's right...HUNDREDS) of uses for this amazing stuff! Aside from the benefits it delivers from being a healthy fat that can boost your energy levels, raise good cholesterol & balance out blood sugar without the weight gain, cholesterol & other health risks that come from other saturated or trans fats, it can be used for a huge list of things that you would have never thought of! It, actually, is an antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-fungal, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, anti-parasitic, & anti-viral! This amazing stuff also aids in the absorption of vitamins & minerals. These reasons, alone, sold me on purchasing it.

The challenge is over after tonight, but I am so glad I participated in it! Although I'm not staying vegan for the moment, I do plan to try it again. More on that later. First I wanted to discuss my diet during the challenge.

I wanted to focus on quality food, nutrient rich and good sources of protein. I planned the foods I would eat before I started the challenge.

A while back, I wrote about the dangers of aspartame. This time, I wanted to focus on why I feel it's dangerous, on a more personal level.

Recently, I found a stash of Equal, Sweet and Low and Splenda packets. My sister had so many of these packets around and she brought them everywhere. I had already thrown out several hundred packets a while ago, so it surprised me how many she really hard. Just take a look at the picture above… the bag is filled with these packets. The problem is that my sister drank so much Diet Pepsi and Diet 7-Up that I think it may have made her depression even worse.