fitnessprincess’s BodyBlog

Want to know what to get your girl friend who’s into fitness for Xmas?  Well, listen up! I will share three ideas with you:

One of the best gifts I ever got was a Dakine Campus backpack (http://www.dakine.com/street-series/guys/packs/campus/) and good news guys it’ll only set you back at most $40 (less if you look around a bit).  This 1825 cu in. backpack rocks!  It has a special insulated front compartment where your girl friend can store her food for the day - the section is surprisingly deep and I have stuffed an 8-oz container of cottage cheese, a salad, apple, salmon, fresh veggies all inside and had them stay cold all day.  Not bad.  The backpack also has a nice large padded laptop compartment inside the very large main compartment.  The laptop compartment is elevated so when you insert your laptop into the backpack, it won’t strike the floor and get damaged.  The backpack also has a nice lined compartment  intended for your sunglasses but I use it to store my charger and assorted computer supplies and cables.  The bag also has a small organizer section that includes a place for your cell phone, iPOD nano, 3 pens, and keychain.  Of course there’s a cord port for easy listening.  There are also two deep mesh side pockets for her coffee/water bottle.  The back is very well padded, rests eronomically at her hips, and the thick shoulder straps cinch together with a safety strap in the front.   It comes in several cool colors and patterns.  Amazon and Swell are among the websites where you can purchase it (and get it shipped overnight just in time for the holidays!)

If she’s a foodie, check out Chatila’s Bakery (http://www.chatilasbakery.com/).  They have simply marvelous fat-free, sugar-free, gluten-free, and low fat bakery products  (Kosher by the way!!!) that are actually relatively high in protein (they have two different muffin lines and one contains soy flour).  They sell the most remarkable mountain bread, bagels, muffins (to die for), pies, cakes, and cookies.  They ship overnight!

Lastly, if she’s a real fitness princess then she probably loves clothes and enjoys looking great in the gym as well as out on the street.  So, why not get her a gift card so she can shop on-line and get some nice new clothing for the gym for the New Year?  One of my absolutely favorite websites for fitness clothing is SanDiegoFit.Com (http://www.sandiegofit.com).  They sell an amazing array of fitness clothing from some of the hottest fitness manufacturers in this country and from South America including Kos USA, Bia Brazil, Nina Bucci, Faremon, and Pezzi.  Another line I really like is Carushka Bodywear (http://www.carushka.com/).  If your girl friend is more into functional clothing then you might consider getting her a gift card for Activa (http://www.activasports.com/) or TitleNineSports (http://www.titlenine.com/).  Both carry a lot of popular lines including Prana, Patagonia, Lole, Horny Toad, and Kos USA.

Whatever you get, let me assure you, you can’t go wrong.  It really is more about the fact that you got her something more than anything that matters to her.  I know that’s true for me.

Have a great holiday!

Recently it seems like someone has posted on just about every discussion board I am a part of a link to a UTube video advising dieters to weigh their food.  Good advice - as a chemist this is just common sense to me I guess and something I have always done just naturally without thinking about it.  In case you haven’t run into this video the gist is that if you use a measuring cup you may be consuming larger servings than you thought you were which translates into more (likely unwanted) calories.  That said, the video clip fails to make an important point that supercedes the issue of measuring and that is that nutritional labels on processed foods are sometimes wrong and I mean really wrong  .

I will give you a very real example that I hope will drive it home to you.  One of my favorite tofu products is a tofu-veggie burger made by Wild Wood Foods, a very reputable company by the way.  The tofu-veggie burgers are sold in a two-pack.  The nutritional label on the back states that each burger is 110 calories and we’ll stop there (the macros are obviously off if the calories are off).  Given the nice low calorie value for a single burger and the fact that they come in a two-pack, it is quite tempting to make a meal out of two burgers for 220 calories.  Unfortunately a recent visit to the company’s website and the nutritional info posted there suggested there might be some labeling problems here.  According to the website each burger is 180 calories- agh!  I emailed several times until I finally got the following email back from “Aaron”:

“Hello,
I’m sorry for the slow reply - there was an unfortunate mistake with
our label printer and 110 is not correct. We are working very quickly to
correct the labels, and they should be on the shelf shortly. The website is
correct. I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.

Thanks so much for writing!”

Nice cheery email from “Aaron” someone who obviously doesn’t recognize the significance of the problem (70 calorie excess per burger!).   The last time that the FDA investigated the accuracy of nutrition labels was sadly in 1996 (ahem! folks!) and at that time 91% of the nutrition labels tested were found to provide accurate information (this means folks that 10% of time the labels are incorrect!)  And this is only half the problem: the other half is what is in your food that ISN’T listed on the label.  This is a problem that has only recently received any public attention due to the horrific, unwitting poisoning of pet food (gluten).  If you or a loved one has a food allergy to tree nuts, gluten, etc. you may be a bit more aware of the challenges presented in purchasing processed foods that fail to acknowledge problematic ingredients.

Now I am not suggesting that you become paranoid about what you buy but I am encouraging you to rethink your consumption of processed foods and suggesting that here is yet another reason you may want to eat natural foods and prepare your own entrees, desserts, etc.  The nutritional and caloric value of whole foods is fairly constant.  If you purchase your whole foods from a good grocery paying due attention to the food’s country of origin, you will be more in control of your nutritional and caloric intake.
If you would like to learn more about nutritional labeling and I would strongly suggest that everyone should (certainly you should if you are truly interested in fitness!) the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition at the Food and Drug Administration is the unit that oversees these issues.  They have a very comprehensive and user-friendly webiste at URL:  http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/  There you will find information on food labeling, how to read a nutritional label, etc.