SmarterFitter Blog Less diet, more brain

The expensive way to NOT lose weight?

Are you a fan of 100-calorie snack packs? You may want to reconsider these little devils in disguise.

Some interesting research has emerged from the Journal of Consumer Research. Rik Pieters and colleagues at Tilburg University in the Netherlands have shown that diet-sized snack packs may actually cause people to eat more.

As published in Wednesday’s New Scientist:

They had 140 students watch TV - to rate advertising, they were told - and gave them either two 200-gram bags of potato chips or nine 45-gram packs. To activate “self-regulatory concerns”, half of the students were asked about weight issues and weighed in front of a mirror - all supposedly as part of another study.

Among students without weight thoughts, three-quarters opened their small bags and half opened their large bags. Both ate about the same amount. In volunteers primed with a diet mindset, however, just a quarter of students opened their large bags, eating half as many chips as the 59 per cent of students who cracked open the small packs.

Pieters thinks that people drop their guard around pre-proportioned snack foods and thinks other “health” foods may have same effect.

It’s always about willpower, isn’t it? I can see the appeal of these snack packs to people who have trouble with the WILLdebeast. How irritating that something that’s supposed to help us learn self-control actually hinders it.

Willpower or not, these snack packs are just spendy ways to buy processed food and I wouldn’t recommend them to anyone. If you’re trying to practice portion control, then what about nuts or fruit? You can figure out the right portions yourself and this way you’re LEARNING something rather than letting a big evil company do the work for you. They don’t care if you lose weight or not. They’re just in it to make more money. Sad thing is, they are.

Diet-sized snack packs turn off willpower [New Scientist]

Tim and I have rented a car and at this moment we are packing up for ten days of camping on England’s southwest coast. As opposed to our trip to California, where we crafted the Ultimate Car Camping Checklist, this time we’re trying to keep it pretty light. Lo and behold, the Minimalist Car Camping Checklist was born!

I’m sure I’ll be adding or removing items throughout the following day/week/months as we discover all the obvious things we forgot or realize that we didn’t really need fresh underwear after all (not bloody likely!). I’ll keep the following Google Document published with any updates:

Minimalist Car Camping Checklist

Here’s where we’re at as of 9:19AM. Any obvious omissions? The minimalist car camping checklist is surprisingly long!

Minimalist Car Camping Checklist

Cooking Supplies

* Knife
* Pots and pans
* Cup
* Plates
* Cutting board
* Cutlery
* Baggies
* Wet wipes
* Sponge and soap for washing up
* Dish towels (2)
* Camp stove (we like the MSR Pocket Rocket)
* Gas for camp stove
* Lighter

Clothing

* Wind/waterproof wear
* Thermal underwear
* Wool socks
* Bathing suit
* Towel
* Warm hat, gloves, scarf
* Warm fleece
* Underwear
* Sunhat
* Gaiters

Camping Gear

* Tent
* Sleeping bags
* Thermarest air mattress

Campsite Accouterments

* Headlamps
* Flashlight
* Lighter
* Platapus water bag
* Garbage bags
* Picnic blanket (preferably with a waterproof bottom)
* Bugspray/Insect Repellent

Personal Items

* Toilet Paper
* Sunglasses
* First aid kit
* Toothbrush/toothpaste
* Nail clippers
* Lip balm
* Face wash
* Hand/body soap
* Sunscreen
* Camera
* Diary/pen
* Field/travel guides
* Maps
* Vitamins
* A good book

Extra stuff for off-campsite activities

* Camelback
* Daypack
* Mountain/Road bike and cycling kit
* Hiking boots/shoes
* GPS

Car Stuff

* Inverter
* Road atlas
* Campsite Directory
* Emergency Car Kit

If so, then the American Hiking Society is hosting a recipe contest for the best front country and back country recipes for their new Volunteer Vacation cookbook. Time is running out: deadline for submissions is July 31, 2008.

Submit your recipes with a photo and a short story about the Volunteer Vacation or outdoor excursion where you made your masterpiece (no more than 300 words please). Recipes will be tested throughout the summer and fall by volunteers across the country. Winners will be included in the cookbook to be printed in 2009 and the top camp cook will receive an Outback Oven from Backpacker’s Pantry.

It sounds like you can submit more than one recipe. I think I’m going to enter my recipes for mushroom and soybean stew, saag channa, and vegan chili. I’m just not sure if the latter two are “front country” or “back country” as they both rely on tinned ingredients. Any thoughts?

Are you a master backcountry chef?

Last May I featured Manjula’s Spinach Paratha recipe on the vegetarian carnival. Spinach parathas are an Indian flatbread stuffed with a spicy spinach filling. I finally had the opportunity to make these tonight and already I can’t wait to make them again. These tortilla-like parathas were surprisingly easy to make and I loved the cumin-spiked spinach. My only complaint is that I couldn’t get mine to puff up the way hers did in the video. This I blame on my lack of a cast iron skillet. I tried making a couple under the grill in the oven and they turned out more like pizza bases, but I still enjoyed them (this I did after putting out the fire that the grill set on some old cheese grease that was left in a pan - whoops).

After cooking the parathas, I put them in some foil and kept them warm in the oven. This had a bonus effect of softening the bread making them easier to fold up and wrap with yummy things like lentil dal with panch phoran. For you protein junkies, do you know what you get when combine the leguminous lentil with the whole wheat paratha? That’s right: a complete protein. Feast on that!

Manjula recommends serving parathas with yogurt and pickles, or filling them with cheese! Yum. Just like a quesedilla. Just don’t set fire to the grease.

For more paratha goodness, check out lolo’s Aloo Parathas at VeganYumYum!

Spinach Paratha [Manjula’s Kitchen]
Aloo Parathas [VeganYumYum]

Thank you, Lifehacker, for introducing me to The Bicycle Tutor, a website that shows you how to fix just about any kind of bike problem.

Run by a photography enthusiast and serious bike geek, the site offers plain-English tutorials in both hi-res video and full text. The streaming videos are free to watch on the site, but you can buy QuickTime videos for a buck or two to load on your iPod and bring out to where the work is. It’s a good bookmark for everything from changing a flat to replacing your chain rings.

I so need to watch the How To Tune Up Your Bike video.

The Bicycle Tutor [via Lifehacker]

If you’ve ever wanted to bake bread but were always too chicken to try, then please visit Jim Lahey’s article and give No Knead Bread a whirl. I’ve been baking bread this way for months and I swear it’s the best thing ever. Why? Because fresh homemade bread is like sliceable heaven. There is a certain beauty in its simplicity: water, salt, yeast and flour. That’s all it takes! This is whole, natural food, folks. No preservatives needed. All that hippy stuff aside, what really gets me baking are the flavor and the time. Jim Lahey’s recipe turns out a seriously delicious loaf of bread, and because there’s no kneading involved, it’s super quick to throw together (aside from the 18-hour rise time!).

I’ve made dozens of no knead bread loaves, and with each new attempt I usually try something new such as added seeds or different flour (I highly recommend Dove’s Organic Strong Wholemeal Flour). Last week I was feeling ambitious and went for a variation of the Seeded Sour loaf posted on Breadtopia.com. The loaf contains quinoa, millet, amaranth and poppy seeds, plus a bonus seed coating on the outside. I didn’t have sourdough starter so I used yeast. The resulting loaf had a nice texture and I discovered how much I love poppy seeds. The only think I’d skip next time is the amaranth in the seed topping - it was a little crunchy for my tastes. Otherwise, the seed topping is awesome and I think I’ll use it for all of my loaves because it makes it easy to get the dough out of the bowl.

To make sense of what I’m talking about, visit Breadtopia and check out their recipe and video. I highly recommend watching the video; I learned so much just by watching the baker handle the dough and manage the seeds. It also gave me extreme baker envy as he had all these useful tools like a dough scraper and a “proofing” bowl. The same page also contains three other no knead variations that might suit your fancy.

Tempting Textures: Quinoa, Amaranth, Poppy and Millet

Four-Seed No Knead Bread

30 grams rye flour
70 grams strong whole wheat bread flour
370 grams strong bread flour
1 1/2 tsp. salt
3 1/2 tsp. quinoa
3 1/2 tsp. millet
2 Tbs. amaranth
1/2 Tbs. poppy seeds
1/4 tsp. yeast
350ml water
2 Tbs. yogurt

Seed Topping Ingredients:

1/4 cup sesame seeds
1 1/2 Tbs poppy seeds

Combine all dry ingredients (except the topping ingredients) and mix with the combined wet ingredients. Stir until the dough has the consistency of a shaggy ball, adding more water if necessary. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let the dough rest in a warm place for at least 12 hours (and up to 24 hours. The dough is ready when it’s about double in size and spotted with big bubbles.

Give the counter top and your hands a generous sprinkle of flour. Turn the dough onto the counter. Pull the dough at either end to form a strip. Fold this strip into thirds (like a business letter). Give the dough a quarter turn and fold in thirds again. I’ll refer to these folds as “seams”, i.e., “right now your dough is on the counter, seam side up.” Cover with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

Oil a large bowl with olive oil. Add the seed topping ingredients in the bowl and swish the bowl around until the inside is covered in seeds. Put the dough ball into the bowl seam side down. Cover with the plastic wrap and let sit for 2-3 hours. The dough is ready when it has more than doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When the dough is ready, remove the HOT pot and pour in a bit of olive oil. Swirl it around so that oil covers the entire inside of the pot. Now, take the bowl containing the dough and quickly turn it upside down over the pot so that the dough falls in seam side up. Cover the pot with a lid and bake for 40 minutes. Then remove the lid and bake another 5 or so minutes, until the loaf is browned and the seeds are toasted. Cool on a rack at least 45 minutes before slicing.

No Knead Recipe Variations
No knead Bread - Jim Lahey’s original recipe

You may already know that I’m bonkers for Bircher muesli. This week, I continue to spread the word over at Diets In Review. Check out the post for a little history lesson and a tasty recipe.

Here’s a snip:

In 1900, Bircher invented the now famous “muesli cereal”. His original recipe is vastly different from the sugar-coated, toasted muesli we typically find in the grocery store today. Instead, Bircher combined soaked oats, fruit and nuts with grated apple and lemon juice to create a naturally sweet breakfast cereal designed to energize and heal the body.

For any raw foodies in the audience, be aware that rolled oats aren’t raw (they are usually steamed before packaging). However, you can sub sprouted buckwheat or whole oat groats for a totally raw breakfast treat.

Read on for the recipe…

Veggie Breakfast Bircher Muesli [Diets in Review]

It’s a bad week for the Corn Refiners Association. First, the Center for Science in the Public Interest slammed the CFA’s PR campaign to convince susceptible consumers that high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is “natural”. Now, a new study suggests that fructose-based sweeteners, including HFCS, may be worse for your health than other sweeteners.

Scientists at UC-Davis tested the impact of fructose against other sugars by studying 33 overweight individuals, half of which received a quarter of the their calories from fructose and the other half from glucose.

The findings show that both groups put on the same amount of weight, around 3.3 lb, over the 20 week experiment.

However, while those eating high amounts of fructose accumulated fat around their middle, in the glucose group extra weight was spread across the body.

Previous studies have shown that people with “pot-belly” fat are at greater risk for developing heart disease and diabetes.

Corn Refiners’ Ad Campaign Called Deceptive
Sugar from fruit ‘encourages a pot belly’

This is a guest post by Heather Ashare. Heather has been a dedicated practitioner and instructor of Ashtanga yoga for the past six years and is a staff member of the website, Diets in Review. Read her previous guest blog about the 5 things beginners should know about yoga.

There is a misnomer that in order to do yoga, you have to be able to touch your toes. Feeling that you have to be flexible in order to take a yoga class is on par to feeling like you have to be an Indy 500 winner to drive a car. It is just simply not true.

If your stiff joints are keeping you from doing yoga, here are three tips to quell your fears:

1. Yoga practitioners come in all shapes, sizes and ranges of motion. I’ve often heard that those who are the least flexible are open to gaining the most in yoga. Their bodies will respond so well to the opening of the joints and the extension of the muscles and ligaments that yoga requests of each student.
2. You can only improve. By not doing yoga and not stretching your muscles, you will only continue to develop more rigidity. Even if those first few classes have your hamstrings feeling like sore taffy the next day, over time, you will create more length in your body and that will make the postures easier to do.
3. No one is looking anyway! In yoga, rather than looking at the person next to you, you focus on what is called the drishti or focal point. Each posture has a drishti point whether it is your nose, your navel or your toes. The idea behind having this set gaze is to keep your attention focused and not distracted by what your neighbor is doing or even by what you may look like as you stay in a posture. A drishti quiets the mind and prevents your thoughts from racing which happens when we start to flick our eyes back and forth at things and people. So remember, no one is looking at you.

The main idea behind any yoga class is to have fun and set your fears aside. When you tune out what is going on around you and tune into your own body, you might be amazed at what you discover.

You can read more from Heather at the DietsInReview.com Diet Blog.

Best cycling tattoo ever: the classic chain ring smudge on the inner calf.*

The always useful tredz blog shares ten great tips for summer cycling. Most of the tips are great advice all year round, such as staying hydrated and carrying a quality bicycle lock, but they do point out one thing that I always manage to forget when the sun is out: SUNBLOCK! Very important stuff for keeping your skin happy and your tattoos bright.

Talking of sunburn, and I will be for the next three months being ‘strawberry blonde’, don’t forget to slap on plenty of sunblock. Cycling not only makes the rider vulnerable due to the typically long periods of exposure, but also the sweat on your skin will increase the effect of the sun. And of course you’ll look like a wally with the tan lines from your cycling gear.

My advice: keep a small container of sunblock with you. My sis gave me a stick of SPF 18 Hemp Tattoo Balm that I keep in my bag. It’s pretty good and the stick makes it easy to apply without getting my hands all nasty.

Top ten summer cycling tips [Tredzblog]

* This groovy tat belongs to my buddy, Michael. I was there when he had it done, using a picture of my real-life chain ring smudge as a template. I felt honored.