When It's Time To Declutter: My Story

Photo by spykster on Flickr

Yesterday, me and my husband went through our collection of comic books and chose over 700 to give away/recycle. If 700 sounds like a large number, you can only imagine how many comics we started with!

We are both in the comic book industry, and in addition to getting comp books through our work and through friends, we spent a significant amount of money on the publications each week as new ones arrived at the store. I was by far the more avid collector than my husband.

Comic books can be a hoarding nightmare. They are thin but quite plentiful, and they really add up in bulk. Because there is so many of them -- and new ones every week! -- trying to keep track of, and organize, them becomes a constant chore. At some point, you start to give up, shunting your new finds to the side on top of an ever-larger pile that you never really read, much less file away into some meaningful order.

What Is The Healthiest Bottled Water? (It's A Trick Question)

Picture by LeeBrimelow on Flickr

The first thing I learned when researching what is the healthiest bottled water was: drink tap water.

According to the Environmental Working Group's 2011 Bottled Water Scorecard, nine out of the ten best-selling brands of bottled water could not answer at least one of the following key questions:

Key Health Questions Regarding Bottled Water:

1. Where does the water come from?
2. Is it purified; and if so, how?
3. Have tests found any contaminants?

How is it possible that mega-popular brands like Aquafina and Dasani can't answer a simple question like where their water comes from? How can we be sold a product so essential for life -- and so intimately connected to our health -- like water and not be informed about these basic things? And why don't we care more?

Columbia Gorge Organic Drinks: A Challenger To Naked and Odwalla?

The time was, buying juice drinks from brands like Odwalla and Naked required a trip to the natural foods store. Now I can find Naked at pretty much every larger corner store, including the bodega across the street. Isn't this a good thing -- healthy drinks getting more mainstream? Or has the fact that Naked is now owned by PepsiCo and Odwalla owned by Coca-Cola a reason for concern?

This is not the blog to foster immediate panic and suspicion over the fact that a large company is distributing "health food." One should never assume anything when it comes to personal health and nutrition -- research and personal experience should be your guiding lights.

That said, there is nothing wrong with researching alternatives, either. In this post I'm going to talk about two drinks I've recently bought from a potential challenger to the Naked & Odwalla throne, Columbia Gorge.

Look, your big issue with buying any of these juice products on a regular basis is sugar content. Many years ago I had to go to a specialist with a pre-diabetic condition, and they said: watch it on the sugar from juices. This is a constant struggle for me in terms of finding healthy juice drinks ("smoothies"), and why I'm more likely to stick with something like kombucha.

You Gotta Fight For Your Right For Wellness

I think one of the biggest mistakes I've made regarding the quest for my own personal wellness is assuming it is something that comes smoothly and naturally -- without effort. "Simply find time during the day and meditate," is the advice commonly given. "Just integrate greater physical activity into your day." "Be happy -- if you be it, you *are* it!"

That isn't terrible advice in-and-of-itself, but it is incomplete. It doesn't speak of the dark nights of the soul one experiences on the way to wellness -- that week *after* you've seen the light and everything is golden. What about when you're stressed at work and have eaten that particular cupcake mostly to feel better and have more energy -- and then feel *horrible,* as if you've destroyed your entire diet?

What about all the excuses we make *not* to have that precious *me* time each day -- rationalizing that it isn't really important, and that we can make it up later? We have to literally *fight* for those moments each day, demanding (usually to ourselves) that they be spent focusing on ourselves and our own wellness.

I wish there were more self-help books that stressed this element. In this world, in this society -- unless we live in the woods in a log cabin -- there are so many demands on us to *not* engage in wellness tactics. And even when wellness initiatives are offered at our workplace or in our immediate neighborhoods, we sometimes feel so bogged down with other stuff that we either ignore them or minimize their importance.

More Gluten-Free Goodies: Blue Diamond's Almond Nut-Thins

The quest for the perfect cracker to eat with my hummus and Faux Gras has led me from old standards such as Wheat Thins and Triscuits to a galaxy of choices that contain less fat and no gluten. And our crackers of the moment are Blue Diamond's Almond Nut-Thins.

To start: I much prefer thinner, wafery crackers to breadier stuff of the Wheat Thins variety. Since I plan on snacking upon multiple (read: many) crackers, I want something relatively low in carbs, fat, and sodium. And my husband has an additional concern -- he prefers items that are gluten-free. So with Blue Diamond's Almond Nut-Thins, we found a cracker that is relatively easy to come by (a staple of health food stores, but also occasionally found in better-stocked local groceries), with a great taste and the health requirements we need.

5 Excuses We Use To Give Up

Photo by medoriastar on Flickr

I think we all have the best intentions. I think we all have it within ourselves to stay on the path to a more fulfilling and healthy lifestyle. It is no hyperbole to say that we can achieve almost anything we put our minds to. But sometimes the biggest obstacles we face aren't really that big at all.

People, here is the real enemy: excuses.

5. It won't matter anyway because the world's probably going to end.
Hand to God, I've used this many times, moreso with it being 2012. Why kill myself trying to achieve some lasting legacy when global warming will probably turn New York into a fishbowl? Or try to invest in anything (life insurance, good teeth, stocks) when a meteor could wipe out life as we know it at any time?

The Media really does a great job, apocalyptic movie after apocalyptic movie, to reinforce these fears...fears that, honestly, I cannot say are 100% irrational. Yes, something bad, literally Earth-shaking, could happen, at any time. But it also may not happen. More importantly, what we really get out of pursuing the goal are all the life experiences and knowledge we gain along the way -- not the prize at the bottom of the Cracker Jack box.

Mrs. Crimble's Choc Macaroons: The Best Gluten-Free Cookies EVER?

My husband can't eat anything with gluten...well, I mean he can, but he will end up feeling queasy afterwards. So we try to buy gluten-free snacks when we're able. But we've found that the quality of gluten-free products such as cookies has been all over the map. If a gluten-free cookie tastes like our conception of what a gluten-free cookie would taste like, it's not a good thing. We crave a gluten-free cookie that just tastes like an ordinary cookie -- is that too much to ask?

And this is why we swear by Mrs. Crimble's macaroons.

Mrs. Crimble's macaroons don't just taste like regular cookies...they taste better.

Our favorite is the Choc flavor. The packaging boasts "deliciously gluten-free," and they ain't kidding! I do not have issues with gluten, and it's pretty much my favorite store-bought cookie.

But like some gluten-free products, these are also not cheap. A pack of six large choc macaroons runs about $5-6 in our neck of the woods...a little less than a dollar per cookie. I would assume that part of this is due to the fact that they are imported from Britain. I rake out the extra dough because the taste is so superior to other gluten-free cookies we've come across.

7 Easy Steps For Better Health

Photo by Darwin Bell on Flickr

I was going to add the sub-head "That I Often Don't Do Because It Seems Too Easy" -- because that's the  truth! What follows is a list of dead-simple additions to one's routine that are hard to do because they're too simple to do. "Drinking more water will make me much healthier? Drinking any water will make me healthier? Lies, lies, and crazy-talk!"

7. Eat Vegetables. 
Seriously, eat some damn vegetables. Not just veggies that have been boiled or fried within an inch of their lives...but add some fresh vegetables in there. I've gone long periods of my life barely eating any vegetables, unless you consider potato chips a valid veggie portion. My skin was literally grey from unhealthiness. And yet as crazy as it may seem that someone would go through life without getting plants in their diet, I've known plenty of people like this. The worst are the ones who insist they are getting enough nutrients from heavy meat-eating so that they don't need vegetables; those must be some really unhappy intestines.

6. Get Fresh Air and Sunlight.
This is particularly aimed at those who work in the Cubicle Nation, though some artists and writers tend to become unhealthily housebound as well. Many of us are blessed to work in progressive offices where every amenity is provided to you, including a wonderful cafeteria filled with countless (and healthy!) food choices. One may be tempted to never leave the building during the 9 to 5. But that's really, really bad -- not only because of the relatively stale air and lack of vitamin D-producing sun rays, but because such a practice seriously reduces your perspective on life. Think about it: you have this wonderful hour to yourself that you could spend doing non-worklike things, and you choose to stay in the Work Zone. That's 5 hours a week you could have used going to the library or eating at a new restaurant or meeting up with friends or dancing in the grass in your bare feet.

Red Wine Found To Aid Digestive Health

Photo by krossbow on Flickr

If you want to get some probiotic action going on inside of you & promote digestive health, you don't have to reach for yogurt -- just down some red wine.

I love these articles about how red wine can be a health aid, especially when there's some science to back those claims up. A recent study has demonstrated that red wine -- both with and without alcohol -- promotes growth of "good" intestinal flora, as well as reducing proteins that promote inflammation and lowering blood pressure. In the same study, gin was also found to help with digestion, but to a much less extent.

Taking Time For *You* Is Essential

Photo by Alice Popkorn on Flickr

Do you have such a busy schedule that you've forgotten who you really are? If you strip away the part of you that's related to work and social engagements, does it seem like there's nothing left? Or that what does exist there seems almost foreign to you?

I've recently started to get up earlier each morning in order to have quality, undisturbed *me* time. Time to think -- to check in with myself and evaluate how things are going. Time to write and read about stuff that's important to me. And time to do nothing but relax. Surprisingly, the biggest hurdle here is not making up for the missed hour or two of sleep, but struggling with a sense that I'm being selfish or too self-absorbed by indulging in this "luxury."

Strawberry Fruit Roll-Ups: Now With More Pears And No Strawberries

I've always sorta assumed Fruit Roll-Ups didn't have any real fruit in them...but also kinda assumed they did. Maybe they had little "fruit bits," or something. Little ground-up fruit-bits that granted the product the right to be advertised as "made with real fruit." The same way that I assumed Lemonheads had little bits of real lemon...because they have a picture of a guy with a head made out of a lemon on the packaging.

And it appears that the Strawberry Fruit Roll-Ups, at the center of a lawsuit brought on by California resident Annie Lam, does have real fruit in it...just not any strawberries.

Instead, the product contains pears from concentrate. So basically Lam is saying: "If I wanted some damn pear Fruit Roll-Ups, I'd have bought some pear Fruit Roll-Ups!"

But I would imagine that the larger issue at the heart of this lawsuit -- which was recently OK'd to go on to trial -- is that General Mills presents Fruit Roll-Ups, in its packaging, as seeming like a healthy fruit-based food. For example, the box of the flavor in question prominently displays strawberries, along with the tag at the top: "Made With Real Fruit." This, plus the images, would lead any but the most jaded and suspicious shopper (and Lord knows I'm slowly getting there) to assume that there might be actual strawberries in the product.

Reusable Bags Need To Be Washed

Recently, an outbreak of norovirus in Oregon was traced to a reusable grocery bag. A girl transmitted the virus to her soccer teammates by using a reusable grocery bag she kept in the bathroom to transport their snacks.

OK, rule #1: don't keep a bag you are going to use for food in the bathroom.

But beyond that, these bags, just like anything else, are going to get funky with bacteria the more times you reuse them. According MSNBC, a 2010 paper by researchers at the University of Arizona and Loma Linda University, large amounts of bacteria -- 12% of which was E. coli -- was found on reusable bags. To be fair, that study was funded in part by the American Chemistry Council -- who are somewhat pro-plastic disposable bags.

But it is just common sense to wash your bags every so often if you intend to use them more than once. That 2010 study concluded that contamination decreased by 99.9 percent with regular washing. You wouldn't wear the same shirt without washing ever, right? How much more careful should you be about something that is potentially touching your food?

Quaker Vs. Nature's Path: Who Has The Best Instant Oatmeal?

From Quaker's revamped website

This post was originally going to be a review of  Nature's Path's Organic Instant Hot Oatmeal. I compared it to the horrible, sugary commercial instant oats I remembered from brands like Quaker -- it's like if I wanted a breakfast that tasted like candy, I'd go to Dunkin Donuts.

But in the course of double-checking the nutritional information against Quaker's new extensive line of instant oatmeal, I realized to my horror that in some ways, the Quaker brand seemed to be superior nutritionally -- less sugar, less carbs. Then again, Nature's Path boasts an all-organic list of ingredients. I'm so confused! What is the better instant oatmeal to buy?

Review: Jo's Japanese Dressing, Ginger Flavor

I found our decision to just have a salad for dinner a bit daunting...and we knew that choosing the right dressing was going to make all the difference. But a creamy, calorie- and fat-packed dressing was going to defeat the purpose of the entire thing. Then again...we were eating *salad*. Though I have learned to appreciate the subtle and unique flavors of various raw vegetables, I mean COME ON! I was dying for some flavor, here.

Luckily, our local "one-stop mart" carried a range of natural, smaller brand dressings, and we decided to go with Jo's Japanese Dressing in the ginger flavor. This dressing kept the fat, sugar, and sodium content down, while still delivering a creamy and delicious ginger taste. I will totally use this dressing again, and am interested in its uses with other dishes like pasta and sandwiches.

The listed ingredients are: ginger, carrots, onion, rice vinegar, white vinegar, soybean oil, soy sauce (soybean, wheat, sea salt), sea salts, organic sugar, and Xanthan gum.

Now, there is some debate on the merits of Xanthan gum, a food thickener made by the fermentation of vegetables. Some claim to be allergic to it, while others tout its benefit as a food substitute for gluten-free cooking. Xanthan gum is a common additive to salad dressings, but I'm just pointing it out here in case you think you might have issues with it.

I'm not a heavy salad dressing user. If salad comes as a side, I will either use a little balsamic vinegar or nothing at all. But as a main dish, some sort of flavoring is a must, and Jo's Japanese Dressing is a good solution for a person like me who normally rejects other dressings for being too fatty and high in sugar.

Welcome!

Photo by tiarescott on Flickr

It's sometimes hard to get the motivation to eat healthy -- when you live in a house overlooking a Kentucky Fried Chicken! We hear late-night orders for biscuits and cole slaw quite clearly through our bathroom window, and the smell of thoroughly cooked chicken flesh inundates our nostrils as we walk to work in the morning. Two blocks away a Dunkin Donuts strikes a come-hither pose, tempting us with its formidable array of frosted goodness (it was hard to resist their star-shaped Captain America promotion last year).

At the same time, there are several health food stores in our neighborhood, if we are willing to walk a little bit (which, in a quest for better health, would probably be a good first step). Many of the smaller grocery stores are now stocking health food, organic snack bars racked next to Snickers. The choices become overwhelming -- what health food is best? What's just a rip-off, or too pricey? Am I eating something I think is healthy but really isn't?

But me and my husband put in the effort each day to learn more about how we can eat smart and maximize our wellness while living in a big city. We are not experts, but rather consumers and eager students learning about the best products, services and activities for our health -- and this blog is a document of our journey. I'm going to talk about some of our personal experiences with various products, as well as some of the research I've conducted in my quest to better understand what I'm buying.  Any additional insight on these and other products are welcome!