Alex Curtis, RD LDN

As mentioned in my last post, I am starting a new series of posts called HECTIC, which stands for “Healthy Eating College Tip Thursdays.” I know the acronym doesn’t fit exactly, but HECTIC relates to my life and sounds a whole lot better than HECTIT or HECTT.

I should be publishing a page soon in the Header for HECTIC, so please be sure to check back there soon.

In college, you are mainly eating and cooking for one. Therefore, you may not eat fruits, vegetables, and other perishable products as quickly. These will go bad, so it is important to have a well-stocked pantry full of non-perishable (or foods that don’t perish as quickly) items. In a dorm this may be a large storage bin or bucket.

I bought this bin from Target for $10 to place all my pantry items in. (pic source)

Peanut Butter

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This is on the top of my list because I eat it almost everyday. Not only does it taste delicious, but it is packed with protein, healthy fats, and minerals. Eat it by the spoonful or spread on crackers, fruit, or chocolate!

 Unsweetened Chocolate

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You may not be a fan yet, but try it a few times and you will! It has intense chocolate flavor for true chocoholics. Full of antioxidants and healthy monounsaturated fats. Read more here.

Bananas

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Bananas have a great outer layer to protect them, and they don’t require refrigeration. Eat with peanut butter or make cookies! If they start getting too brown for your taste, freeze or make into a smoothie.

 

Canned Goods

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Canned items last a very, very long time. I like stocking up on all-natural soups (Amy’s brand sells a lot of vegan and dairy-free products), beets for snacking, and beans for topping salads or making cookie dough.

Nuts

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Pistachios, almonds, walnuts, peanuts, pecans, cashews, and hazelnuts. Great for snacking on-the-go and a good source of minerals, protein, and healthy fats. They can help make you satisfied longer, too. Try making my Roasted Chili Lime Nuts.

Chia

Chia is a great superfood (you can read more about it here). I like keeping them on hand to throw in my oatmeal, make chia pudding, put in water for hydration, or simply add a handful to any recipe.

Oats

Oats are cheap. Perfect for college students. I have a lot of recipes for oatmeal (Oatmeal Raisin Bizookies pictured above), but they are also great to cook up a comforting bowl of creamy oats after a long day at school. They are also extremely healthy!

Rice Cakes

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Gluten-Free and made with whole grains. I like to spread a bit of peanut butter and maybe a smashed banana on these for an easy sandwich. Make sure you look for the brown rice, no-sugar added kind.

Popcorn

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Popcorn is a whole grain filled with fiber. Make your own with an air-popper or on the stove to avoid nasty chemicals and oils. I like using extra-virgin coconut oil to pop mine, and I sprinkle it with Himalayan sea salt and nutritional yeast for an extra punch of vitamin B.

Spices

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This is not a must-have pantry item for the college dorm, but I thought I’d throw it in here because spices are packed with flavor and antioxidants. Did you know one teaspoon of cinnamon has the same amount of antioxidants as a cup of blueberries? I like to keep my own black pepper, Himalayan sea salt, cinnamon, cocoa powder, liquid aminos (gluten-free soy sauce), vanilla, and peppermint extract on hand to add flavor to bland foods.

Thought-provoking, mind-prodding question of the day:

Am I forgetting something? Tell me what your pantry must-haves are!

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” -Lao Tzu

Loving every chance I get to spend in nature…

Being a “typical” college student….sometimes…

Eating lunch at a cafeteria (yes! That is gluten-free bread). More on this later.

Using my magic bullet as much as ever for smoothies and energy bites.

Drinking hot chai tea to wake up the brain and start the day with a tasty kick of cinnamon.

Licking clean 3 jars of peanut butter in 3 weeks.

 

Then, of course, all the homework, classes, reading, socializing, 6am workouts, tennis practice, and joining 3 organizations. My life has been a tad bit hectic, but I am loving it. I’m not in the kitchen experimenting as much as I like, and my lack of car makes it hard to go grocery shopping. However, I have made a couple new treats that I can share with you once I photograph them. In the meantime I am setting up a new weekly edition on the website:

“Healthy Eating College Tip Thursdays”

Otherwise known as HECTIC!

I know the acronym doesn’t match up exactly, but HECTIC works a whole lot better than “HECTIT” or “HECTT.” It also describes my life these days perfectly. 

Starting this Thursday I will be posting a new “Healthy Eating College Tip.” You do not have to be a college student, though, to benefit from these weekly postings. Anyone can use these tips because they will be based on fast and easy food choices.

Even if I don’t have a recipe to share with you each week, you can count on the HECTIC posts every Thursday from now on. Within the next couple of days I will also make a new HECTIC page that will have a tab placed under the image header.

I’m excited to start sharing these new tips with you!

Thought-provoking, mind-prodding question of the day:

Do you have any questions or thoughts about eating healthy in college or eating healthy in general? I can start compiling these ideas for my new HECTIC posts!

I am very excited to have Skylor from Sprout Health guest post today! While she is posting on my site, hop on over to hers to see my post on her site. Enjoy! 

Hello Alex Fans and SOSF Foodies!  My name is Skylor, founder of Sprout Health, and I feel fortunate to guest post for such an inspiring blog. I am a health coach currently house sitting in Minnesota, originally from Ohio, with my heart in Colorado!  I send Alex’s recipes to my clients all the time.  I help people define their food sensitivities and allergens through cleansing, which is  a lot easier to do when they can refer to awesome recipes that don’t take forever to make. Thank goodness that Alex created this blog that we can all use as a reference!

Knocking foods off your plate that you love is hard work. For a lot of you, it goes deeper than just loving the flavor of sugar or the fluffy texture of bread. We have attachments to food that are sewn into our lives with emotional strings. Emotional eating stems from happy memories,  like loving mashed potatoes drenched in butter because it’s what your grandma served you as a little kiddo, to having an unhealthy relationship with overeating because it was a coping mechanism after a traumatizing experience when you were young.  It may also be related to your current dissatisfaction with your career, your relationships, and so on.

The cure for emotional eating involves work much deeper than where your fork and spoon go. However, on the pathway to healing, it’s important to use food as a tool to make you feel strong and confident about your decisions. If you choose grain free pumpkin spice bread instead of a chocolate cupcake for a snack, that will encourage you to continue making good decisions for yourself, like asking your partner to talk out some issues or tell your boss that you won’t work 50 hours a week any longer.

 

Try this Sesame, Cashew Avocado Dip as a healthy alternative to ranch dressing or a creamy artichoke dip! Mix it with another teaspoon of water to thin it out and use as a dressing.

• 8-10 cashews
• 1 avocado
• 1 Tbsp sesame oil plus 1 tsp, kept separate
• 1 large shallot, chopped
• 1 tsp water
• 1 tsp lemon pepper
• 2 pinches salt

In a pan over medium heat, saute the shallot in 1 tsp of sesame oil for about 5 minutes.

Remove and put in a blender with the cashews, avocado, lemon pepper, salt, water, and sesame oil. Blend until smooth. Remove and scoop into a bowl. Top with fresh lemon pepper and enjoy with your favorite veggies or pita!

 Thought-provoking, mind-prodding question of the day:

What is your favorite dip? Recipe links welcome!

Am I the only one who used to love an Orange Julius?

They are hard to find now these days! It isn’t that I actively seek out orange julius stands because, after all, the fruity, frothy, creamy beverage contains large doses of sugar and dairy. However, what can be better than and orange-creamsicle in a cup?

With a pantry filled to the brim with oranges and brown bananas, and a craving for a refreshing morning smoothie; I set out to recreate my beloved orange julius, the healthy way.

Thought-provoking, mind-prodding question of the day:

Are you an orange julius-lover? Tell me what your favorite milkshake/smoothie recipes are so that I can try and “healthify” them for you!

I’m officially moved in to my new dorm!

I apologize for my long absence of posting, but I have been very busy traveling, moving in, and getting ready for school to start. In my last post I promised to share some pictures of my new room, so here it is!

My side of the room. 

Art at the head of my bed, by Beth from Hero designs and Tasty Yummies.

Wall art to make my room more lively and colorful!

DIY Wall art made from simple materials: decorative paper and cardboard. Tutorial found here.

My stash of peanut butter and peanuts. This is most important to survival on campus.

Bragg’s liquid aminos is a great gluten-free soy sauce seasoning. Perfect for adding flavor to bland dorm food. Coconut milk is an all-around great product to have for baked goods and desserts. 

Carrot sticks and hummus: the perfect snack for an extra dose of protein and vitamin A. 

My pantry. Chock full of must-have goodies like bananas, oranges, spices, tea, unsweetened chocolate, dates, oats, rice cakes, and a gluten-free pancake mix. 

Canned goods are great because they don’t need refrigeration and can be used when you need sustenance quickly. 

Tupperware for leftovers, my magic bullet for smoothies and other blended items, and a reusable water bottle to stay hydrated.  

These are just a few of the scenes in my small dorm. It’s cozy, but it has everything I need. A good-quality mini fridge keeps all my produce fresh, and storage boxes hold all my extra cooking utensils, tools, and pantry items.

The dorm food is not great, and it is hard to find gluten-free, sugar-free, dairy-free menu items. For this reason, I like to stock up on food to eat in my dorm. Currently, there are a few sweet potatoes baking in a small crockpot, and I can’t wait to dig into those with a dash of cinnamon!

After a few weeks of getting used to the school, I plan to compile a few tips on eating healthy in college. Until then, expect a few dorm-friendly recipes coming your way! (Which are tasty enough that you don’t need a dorm to eat them).

Thought-provoking, mind-prodding question of the day:

Any tips you’d like to share with me and others about eating healthy in college?

Before I begin this post I’d like to say a big thank you to all my readers. Thanks for your encouragement from my last post. It is you all that push me to keep creating my sugar-free recipes!

Also, I’d like to thank my sponsors, Swanson Vitamins and Snacklets Inc., for making this site possible. If you have a chance, check out their sites. Swanson has great prices on vitamins, minerals, and health products. In fact, I even buy my vitamins there! Snacklets Inc. makes great kale chips snacks in a few different flavors. They’re portable, easy, tasty, and much healthier than a bag of potato chips! If you are interested in becoming a sponsor yourself, check out this page and email me at spoonfulofsugarfree(at)gmail.com.

Now onto the real topic of this post,

 7 Nutritional Strategies to Optimize Athletic Performance

I was privileged enough to attend a seminar this past weekend for female athletes. One of the guest speakers was Cynthia Sass, author of Sass Yourself Slim and the Flat Belly Diet. Ms. Sass is a Registered Dietitian and certified in Sports Dietetics.

Her 7 Strategies for Athletic performance don’t just apply to athletes, though, but to all who wish to optimize their health and recovery. Here are the strategies:

1. Don’t workout on an empty stomach. Many believe that working out on an empty stomach will help you burn pure body fat. However, it is impossible to burn just pure body fat; and when you don’t eat, your body kicks into starvation mode to try and save the extra fat and energy you have. You can exercise longer and harder with fuel, even if you eat only a small piece of fruit.

2. Eat a moderate amount good carbs, not bad carbs. Carbohydrates are the preferred food source for the body because they are readily usable for the muscles. Choose carbs from fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, not refined sugars and flours. A bonus from eating  carbohydrates from fruits ans veggies: the antioxidants in the produce open up your body’s cells improve circulation and fuel the cells.

3. Focus on good fat. She prefers healthy, plant-based fats like those found in nuts, avocado, and olive/coconut oil. These fats help you stay fuller longer and increase the production of a chemical in the gut that shuts off hunger cues. Studies show that eating saturated fats from processed sources (like refined oil or meats) will decrease your circulation for 4+ hours after eating. This can lead to a decrease in sports performance.

4. Don’t overdo protein. Protein is good, and the body needs it to recover muscle mass. However, a typical female athlete needs only 105 grams of protein per day (males need more like 150g, depending on your size). If you eat too much protein, it will either get stored as fat or used as fuel. The problem with this is that protein is not readily absorbable like carbohydrates. There is an extra nitrogen attached to the protein molecule that will break off during digestion if it is being used for fuel. This nitrogen molecule then turns into ammonia in the blood stream, which is acidic and can break down bones and is hard on the kidneys.

5. Go Organic as much as possible. Some say that organic food doesn’t have any more health benefits than conventional, but it does! Antioxidants in fruits and vegetables protect the food against parasites and other natural dangers to food. When the produce is sprayed with chemicals, though, the produce doesn’t have to produce as many antioxidants to defend itself. Organic is expensive, though, so try buying organic for meat and the “dirty dozen.”

6. Make produce the main attraction of every meal. Produce helps with athletic performance and recovery because of the high vitamin, fiber, and antioxidant content. One study shows that athletes who ate watercress after working out experienced less DNA damage than those who didn’t. Another study showed that athletes who drank tomato juice tested no oxidative stress, while those who didn’t drink the tomato juice had up to 75% more oxidative stress.

7. Go easy on alcohol. If you must drink alcohol, limit it to one serving because alcohol can increase the risk of cancer. It also decreases glycogen replenishment by up to 50%, which means your muscles don;t recover as quickly.

What to eat Pre-Exercise:

Eat something that is easy to digest and high in carbohydrates. Don’t eat something high in fat, protein, or fiber because they take longer to digest and aren’t easily available for the body to use. Example: a small bowl of brown rice cereal with almond milk and a small banana.

What to eat Post-Exercise:

What you eat after exercising is meant to replenish and recover your muscles. Eat a meal that contains each of the following: a lean protein source, a healthy fat, a whole grain, produce, and natural seasonings/spices. Example: Basic Brown Rice Stir Fry.

Fun Fact!

Spices, herbs, and seasonings are really high in antioxidants, which can help with recovery and prevent disease. Did you know one teaspoon of cinnamon contains the same amount of antioxidants as a cup of blueberries? Also, one teaspoon of oregano contains the same amount of antioxidants as a sweet potato! So load up on your herbs and spices, and sprinkle them on everything.

 

Thought-provoking, mind-prodding question of the day:

What are some of the “rules” you follow to optimize your health and athletic recovery?

 

Conference Works Cited: Sass, Cynthia. “7 Nutrition Strategies to Optimize Athletic Recovery.” The Female Athlete: Strategies for Optimal Performance and Injury Prevention. Bay Care Health System. Hilton Hotel, Tampa, Florida. 4 Aug 2012. Keynote Speech.