Living a life fueled by good eats and extreme fitness.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

I just don't understand the "Extreme Couponing" thing.

While at a, fabulously sweaty, Ali Campbell, workout session today, an interesting topic arose. We got to talking about eating healthy and trying to 'live the lifestyle', when Ali, our trainer, said she has a problem sometimes with companies trying to get her to endorse their shakes, or supplements, or whatever, because of how she looks (She looks incredible, and I can see why companies would flock to her). She said she always declines because the best advice she can give her clients, when looking for ways to be healthier, is to eat whole, unprocessed foods. I loved that she said this because Mike and I had just had this discussion and I totally agree, 100%!

Mike and I try as hard as possible to stick to the rule, "If it can't go bad, we don't buy it." We mainly stick to the outside perimeters of the grocery stores because that is where you find the foods that will do the most beneficial things for your body. There are some exceptions to this, yes, but mainly the produce section, meats, and eggs win my vote. Sometimes I meander down the chocolate isle, but shhhhh. The downside to this may be a bigger dent in the wallet, however, the bigger picture is worth the extra dollars. This is where my problem with the whole "Extreme Couponing"thing comes into play.

I was channel surfing the other night, and happening to come across TLC's show, Extreme Couponing. It details the lives of these people who make it their mission to not buy one thing in the grocery store at full price. They have coupons for everything! They build these 'stock piles' in their homes that look like they could survive the coming of WWIII, but no matter how much stuff they get, it is never enough. The amazing part comes when they take a bill that would originally cost upwards of $2000, and pay only $6. This may be amazing, which I will admit, shocked me at first, but then you take a second look at what they bought, and understand why only women who are severely overweight and don't work, seemed to be featured. 90% of their haul is boxed, processed foods that your body doesn't know how to breakdown. I think the show could be called "Yakisoba Promotional Ad," with the amount of those boxed noodles they buy.

Crap, crap, crap, toothpaste (86 tubes), and more crap. What makes me sad is their pride in what they have managed to buy, and wanting to pass this skill down to their children, breeding more bad eating for the future. Yes, you are saving money, but nothing will pay for the rebuilding of your child's self esteem when they end up 200 pounds overweight because of their bad eating habits. It is not all bad, though, and those who do it to donate to local shelters, and military, I commend you on such a selfless act. As for most of it though, I cringe when I see 8 flats of Coke being wheeled out of the store to be enjoyed by naive kids. I would rather spend a little more money on whole, fresh, unprocessed, foods that my body will thank me for into old age, hopefully. It also gives Mike and I a reason not to spend money eating out so much, because all of our food will spoil eventually and I wanna enjoy it while it's fresh!

Onto tonights meal adventure. Mike had to work, so I got a little creative in our, mostly packed up, kitchen. I rarely eat pasta, but when I saw these bad boys in 'Earthfare' the other day, I had to get them. Plus, their nutritional stats were acceptable, and the ingredient list had actual food listed.

These raviolis were in the frozen section, and they had many different varieties, but these sounded wonderful. Before I tell you what I mixed them with, I'll let you know that Mike and my favorite 'Tomato Sauce' is the simplest thing to make, along with being super healthy. We normally just grab a can of crushed San Marzano tomatoes (must be San Marzano, they taste the best!), chop up some fresh basil to add, mix in some minced garlic, and then add a little salt and pepper to taste, and voila! Super yummy, tomato sauce. We normally store it in an air-tight container in the fridge and use it for everything, from pizza sauces, to a makeshift sauce for my little raviolis. 
Laughing Cow cheese wedges kick bootay!


Once the little raviolis were cooked, I just threw in some shredded rotisserie chicken (another must have in my fridge),our famously un-famous tomato sauce, a laughing cow cheese wedge (only 35 calories, and they melt perfectly into the sauce) and a splash of Unsweetened Almond Breeze, and you have a perfectly tasty, makeshift creamy tomato sauce! 
Served with Asparagus, of course.
It tasted wonderful! I recommend these little raviolis to anyone in need of a quick dinner, they only take 8 minutes! Add some extra protein to amp the nutritional value and it made for a great dinner!

 Mike and my last rule, that we try and stick to is, "If you eat healthy and whole 90% of the time, and haven't drank your calories, the last 10% can be whatever you want....within reason of course." 
Earthfare has the BEST carrot cake!!!
Don't worry, my "within reason" is only a 1/3 of this slice of cake....maybe 1/2, I kicked butt at the gym today :) I'm off to watch some terribly desperate mothers exploit their little girls on Toddlers and Tiaras! It's kind of like a crash you can't take your eyes off of, you don't want to watch...but you have to! Goodnight!



1 comment:

  1. I couldn't agree more. I sit there and awe and amazement but to think these people are being so wasteful with their hauls and damaging their bodies is saddening!

    xoxo

    ReplyDelete