What a Nutritionist (Me) Ate in a Day

A few days ago an article started popping up repeatedly on my Facebook feed.  It's from the Australian Business Insider, and involves Dietitian and author Ruth Frechman bravely sharing her daily eats in an article titled "A Nutritionist Shares Pictures of Everything She Eats in a Day".

My first reaction to Ruth's example day was a predictable knee-jerk: No greens! Hydrating with hot chocolate?!  Chewing gum in the afternoon then curing her 'hunger and tiredness' (because.. undereating?) with M&M's? Measuring out her spongy carbs popcorn so she doesn't 'eat too much' ?! What?? Is this satire? Does she even nutrition??

Naturally, I proceeded to stalk her Facebook page and Amazon reviews and slowly climbed off my grass fed high horse. For sure, her approach is not like mine, but she's doing her thing, and she's been doing it for 20 years. Her book, 'Food is Your Friend' is co-authored by a comedian called Jackie Fabulous and is about losing weight and eating a more healthy diet than you were while maintaining friendly contact with your favourite food friends. It's about chilling out about food and yourself and I can see how that might work for some. In fact, now that I'm being less judgey, it's what worked for me way back when I had heaps of weight to lose, was riddled with food issues and wasn't in the headspace to stick to a wholefoods plan, or any plan that felt like a diet. It was a good transition point from which to learn the skills I needed to eat the way I do now.

Product placement aside, and ignoring for a moment my feelings about a lunch that leaves you hungry two hours later, I think the Business Insider article is an imperfect but authentic day's eating by one Nutritionist. Here's another. Please feel free to critique my style and substance. Try not to use the work 'oink'.

Breakfast

My habitual breakfast these days is some sort of porridge. I get up around 7.30 and start it cooking while I throw on some clothes and check my schedule. 

Today I had buckwheat porridge (half a cup dry weight) and while it was cooking I added some frozen berries. Once it was done, I added a large chopped banana, stirred through 2 tsp of ground flaxseed and poured a little maple syrup over the top. The milk is cashew that I made in the nutri ninja yesterday. That was eaten while catching up on essential Facebook happenings, checking email and getting sorted for the day.

Then I grabbed a cup of green tea and headed to my 'standing desk' home office to do uni work. I tend to top up my green tea all day, so that it gets weaker and by 5pm is basically warm water.

At about 11.45 I was getting a little hungry, plus I wanted to be at the office by 12.30, so had an early lunch.

Those are black bean burgers, left over from dinner last night, and they are huge but, I admit, not very picturesque.  The salad has a cashew dressing but you can't see it because I tipped it out of the storage container and so the dressing is mostly on the bottom.  

So, we have the burgers (these are plant-based/no animal products), salad with spinach, carrot, beet, almonds, cashews.. there's sauerkraut, horopito chutney and a sprinkling of sesame seeds.

I also had a shot of water kefir to check the fermentation progress of this batch. I've been off coffee for nearly 10 weeks, so it's nice to hold an espresso cup.

Then I headed in to the office and got busy on some supplement design work. At about 3pm I felt snacky and ate what happened to be in my bag...an apple, a couple of medjool dates and some dark chocolate. 

I have to say, when living a low-caff lifestyle that Green and Blacks 85% gives quite the kick. In the interests of science I logged everything in Cronometer today and to this point, I'm at about 1300 calories. Once upon a time, that was my calorie goal for the whole day. No wonder I had difficulty meeting it! One of the best things I did when recovering from binge eating was set a goal to have eaten at least 1000 calories once lunch was over, even though doing so scared me to death every day. It makes a huge difference to my mental state and hunger levels in the afternoon. 

I always eat a mid-afternoon snack, but almost never snack in the morning. Dinner for me is usually 7.30-8.00 pm or sometimes later, so a midway munch stops the crankies and the urge to raid the fridge if dinner is taking too long to cook. My snack is not usually as sugary as today, but sometimes it is, so let's just keep it real.

At around 4, I headed home and busted out a very short (~15 mins) core workout in my work clothes, then headed over to my mum's for a family dinner - my sister is visiting from Europe.

Here's where the one day example falls over.  That meal (beef stew on pasta with kumara, salad and wine, two glasses actually) contains three things that I hardly ever eat. Red meat - which I've eaten about three times in the last year, pasta - an 'almost never' food, and wine, which is a very rare thing these days.

I was tempted to fake this meal out with a picture from another day, but I knew that I couldn't keep a secret that big. One day I'd blurt out the truth and lose all my credibility.

The whole day came to about 2200 calories. 80g protein, 300g carbs, heaps of fibre, and due to the kumara, about 1500% the RDI for vitamin A. I didn't meet my targets for calcium, vitamin D and a couple of the B vitamins on this particular day, and that's why you need to take a broader view over a week or a month in order to get the full picture for nutrient intake.  

I'm keen to see some more 'What I Ate Today' posts. If you've done one, please link it up in the comments, or on Facebook and I'll add it to this post. Inspire me! And, what do you think about Ruth Frechman's day? A terrible example, or a fair call if you're just not ready to say ta-ta to the M&M's?

Top Recipe Re-Hash: Raw, Vegan, Gluten-Free Avocado Ganache Cake

Last night I attended a Michaelmas celebration.   This required some preparation.

Firstly, I had to rehearse a flute duet to play. In spite of playing the piece about 30 bazillion times during the working day perfectly, I still fluffed the start, twice, and wanted the floor to swallow me. Luckily, the small audience and my more experienced partner (thank you, Wendy!) were sympathetic, waited for me to recover from a nerves-induced giggle fit, and we muddled through.  The point was to share something creative, and, at least, it came from the heart, flat notes and all.

Secondly, I developed a burning desire to take a raw, vegan ganache cake.  Once again, my food processor nearly spat its guts making the base, but the result was gorgeous.  This cake just can't fail.

The recipe I followed this time was 'almost' exactly the Laura Coxeter one (pdf on the link).

The original recipe states 'serves 6'.  I don't think so.... I'd say 'serves 15 quite comfortably'.

I say 'almost' because, having made it before, I know that the intensity of the original recipe rendered it almost inedible to people not used to bitter chocolate.

Therefore, I used half the raw cacao (100g instead of 200g) and increased the coconut oil by 50g. Then I kept adding maple syrup (instead of any other type of sugar) until it tasted good. That ended up being 95% of a $15 bottle of raw, organic maple syrup.  It was a very expensive cake, but 110% worth it.  If you are very dedicated to the idea of 'raw', please note that most maple syrup is not. You could use unheated honey, agave or coconut sugar instead, if you want to keep it really raw.

It was still quite bitter, so I sprinkled some chopped dried apricots on the top. As I came home with just one slice left on the platter, and a couple of requests for the recipe, I'd call it a success.

The size of the mix meant I had enough to also make a smaller version for 'at home' use.  On that one I dumped some maple-soaked dates and called it good for breakfast this morning. Quite the buzzy way to welcome a Thursday.

Next post, I promise the overdue bacon, banana, maple, paleo pancakes recipe.  Can someone come up with an abbreviated name for that?

:D
((Friday hugs))

Talent, Dinner, Boobies..

Life this week is just breathing and assignments: one on sports nutrition and one on boobies.  The topic is breastfeeding and how to encourage more women to do more of it. I'm looking for a punchy quote to start the essay. 

Aunty K suggested "Everybody Needs a Bosom for a Pillow" - Cornershop. It could work... Any other ideas out there?

Vegan Brownies and Out to Lunch

I've had the hard word. I do own a nice camera and am no longer allowed to offend The Programmer's eyes by only using my phone for blog pics.

Except when out for lunch.

The Secret Weapon

Next year marks 10 years of me being in a healthy weight range. I've been sometimes at the upper end of it, and briefly at the lower limit, but since I finished losing 22kg in 2003 (I say 'finished' because the mission kicked off in 1999), I've more or less maintained that loss. Weight loss.

My method has primarily involved developing strategies for the various situations of my sometimes crazy life. I'm about to introduce you to one of my secret weapons. It's really complicated. You won't have heard of it. It's unique. I call it: leftovers.

Adventures with Avocado

Since I discovered Oh She Glows Avocado pasta sauce recently, I haven't been able to stop making it.

Vegan Apple Muffins with Gluten-Free Option

Firstly, is it bad that I bought these tea bags because I wonder what will happen when I give one to my cats?

Random Foodcam

It's been a while and the food pics are piling up with nowhere to go.
Time to offload.

It's lots of simple stuff going down over here, but so is my waistline, and without much effort (truthfully, who wants to work too hard at that?), so it's all good.

Getting the Crazies Out

It's exam week. That means, that although I feel like I don't have the time, it is more important than ever to eat right and exercise. Moving my bod helps get the crazies out of my head.

Sorry about the pic. I don't really exercise in the dark.  But, I only had time for one attempt at the self-timer, and there you have it. Today, study in hand (title of the paper: 'is exercise good for you?') I did a 'wave' session of 20 minutes.


What's that?

The Week in Eats

How's your week going?

Over here, I'm in full, crazy late assignment mode, so don't mind the crazy hair 

and desk that looks like a paper bomb went off. It's only going to be two days late, 

but still I get stressy about any missed deadline. The cure for a stressy Sara? Yoga. Aaaand...

Peach crumble

I even scribbled down the recipe so that I can write it up for you.. right after I've submitted my gazillion page research report on the wonderment that is attitudes, knowledge and behaviours
surrounding peri-conceptual nutrition. Mmmhmmm.

Souping It Up

L.O.V.E

Sorry, readers! This took a lot longer than I thought it would, and it still feels... like I've merely scratched the surface!
This is a completely self-indulgent nutrition post.

What I Eat

(It's all about me, me, me!)

As someone that has lost a decent amount of weight (16kg / 35 lbs), and kept it off, I'm often asked 'What do you eat?'  

It's a difficult question to answer, because what I eat, and how I eat evolves and changes as I learn about nutrition and adapt to any changing life situations. For example, working from home, I eat differently than when I had an office job.

If you had asked me five years ago, I would have pointed you to an online calorie counter and told you that I weigh and log every mouthful. These days, I would rather clean the oven than do that every day (and I can't think of a single thing I dread more than the horror of oven cleaning).

Food eating, food recording

The Mortar and Pestle

Last night I actually used my mortar and pestle. This is a little out-of-the-ordinary, because normally it just sits there, decorating my kitchen and making me feel like I'm the sort of person who might use such an earthy piece of kitchen gear.

Nuttiness..

Let's talk about my issues. 

You see this Nutino stuff? It is is basically a Nutella clone, and that means it holds the potential to exercise power over me.

Those of you who followed my adventures in England back in 2004 will know this story: I discovered Green and Blacks Chocolate Hazelnut Spread, the 500g jar. I managed to eat one jar a week, and gained 500g a week for three months. You'd think after a month, I would have quit, or at least cut back, but I found it strangely addicting.

Chocolate and Veges

Chocolate and veges; I am a fan of both, so why not combine them? I've been motivated by reading that the longest lived woman ever, Jeanne Calment (122 and a half years old), ate about a kilogram of chocolate a week.  She also biked, danced and was very active to a late age. Perhaps this is the whole secret of longevity: exercise and eat chocolate. That seems doable.

You think chocolate and veges might not work together? Have a look at these little foodie assignments I've worked up between my university assignments.

Exhibit A: Kumara (sweet potato) pikelets with melted chocolate:

These were made from leftover baked kumara, which I threw into my mighty kenwood, along with two eggs and some cinnamon and salt. Then I cooked dollops of the batter in a mix of coconut oil and butter. This is the mix I find best for non-sticking in my steel frypan. They look a bit overcooked in the pic but they were perfect - just slightly crispy on the outside and soft in the middle. 

I chopped some 85% Green and Blacks chocolate and sprinkled between the layers as I put them on the plate. As I was doing this I starting thinking about people that say crazy things like 'I use dark chocolate because you are completely satisfied with just a little square of it'. Not me.  I could easily munch 100g a day, but obviously I don't, because I value fitting my skinny jeans. It's vanity, not 'oh, I just couldn't'.

Exhibit B is an avocado icecream:

I guess whether this counts as containing a vege depends on if you think an avo is fruit or veg. Technically it is a fruit, of course, but for today, it can be a vege. The contents of this ice are: frozen banana, about 1/3 of an avocado, tbsp WPC, a pinch of salt, tiny amount of stevia and squeeze of lemon juice all processed with a little water. I've discovered that to avoid an avocado-y taste, you must use the dark green avocado's that have a thick skin. The light green ones that are not very textured just don't work at all. 

If you have been looking for recipes that you can use stevia in without getting a gag-worthy aftertaste, this is one of those. Anything with a bit of citrus tends to counteract that nasty stevia afterglow. That's a bit of science that I learned when formulating various flavoured powders. Citric acid counteracts bitterness by confusing your tastebuds. I would never try to use stevia with anything like chocolate or vanilla. You would give yourself an aneurism trying to figure out how to make it taste ok, let alone awesome.

I made a chocolate sauce by melting chocolate and honey together in the mickeywave and drizzling it over the top.

Yes, that was lunch today.. I'm on my way to 123 years.

**************************

Tonight I am off to an album launch for singer Amiria Grenell, which I suppose means I'd better get right back on that essay I'm attempting to finish today. There is nothing quite like having psychopaths or posttraumatic stress on the brain while trying to socialise. Also, it makes people shuffle away when I  accidentally drop into psychobabble. Best avoid by getting the draft finished. :D

Busy Bee, Healthy Bee

For the next week, I'm going to be a busy, busy bee. There are three university assignments to get finished and it's time for another production run of Sana stuff - that's always a kind of crazy time. It is quite fun to see the new product when it's done though. It gives me a little buzz, which I guess is a sign that I'm on the right track with this whole health business / health study malarky.

I've also got The Programmer home sick with strep throat. As you can imagine, I have him on a strict regime of pro-biotics (to balance the antibiotics he's on), vitamins, healthy food, rest and no kissing. Also, no beer, even though the Rugby World Cup in on. I'm a slave-driver. 

Yesterday I had to head out to see the guys at Puraz and snapped a few pics on the way. I have to say that Merivale, being a high socio-economic part of town, is certainly racing ahead with putting itself back together after the quakes. I saw my first container shop there; it was swanky, expensive Quinns. :D If it's good enough for them, it should be more than good enough for the $2 shop.

I drove past some things that made me feel a bit sad. The Knox church:

Pre-earthquake, it looked like this:

Source

I also saw one of two tower clocks that have stopped at the time of the quake:

It's been 12.51pm on that clock since February 22nd.

After getting a bit depressed through exposing my poor wee mind to reminders of earthquake destruction, it was necessary to do some food shopping, which is guaranteed retail therapy for fitness bloggers.

I found this thingy at the Liberty Market:

It's Daikon - pickled Japanese radish.  Not sure what to do with it, I added some slices to last nights super healthy feast - fish, veges, shaved raw parmesan. I think there is some seaweed in there too. I'm feeling a bit experimental, clearly.

Have you tried anything new lately? 

Ok, back to it. Just . 2000 . words . to .go......

Rugger

Source

I have a confession. I have lived in New Zealand for most of my life and I still don't 'get' Rugby. It's a terrible thing to admit to. I feel un-kiwi. It's probably more that watching sport has always bored me to death. Playing sport is great, but watching it? I get restless.

This year I am making a real effort though. My friend James directed me to GayNZ's informative guide to the rules of Rugby on their site, and now I am more educated. I know, for example, that during the scrum thing, you are supposed to yell "KISS HIM!".  :D 

With that essential skill of Rugby watching up my sleeve, I was ready for the opening game of the Rugby World Cup 2011. So was The Programmer, who arrived home with indispensable Rugby watching supplies.

Mamasana turned up similarly armed

I cooked a typical Friday night feast. Friday nights are usually when I'll lax off my usual eating habits and have a few glasses of wine, maybe whip up a butter-laden hollandaise sauce.

Which gets slathered all over the seasonal veg.

I roasted organic chicken drums with pumpkin and NZ yams.  As you will see here, the 'yam' has somewhat of a confused identity.

This is our yam.

Source

In other parts of the world, however, the picture below represents a yam.

Source

We call that a sweet potato, or usually use the Maori word, kumara.

No matter the name, they are both delicious, and full of vitamin-y goodness. But, I digress.

While munching dinner, we watched the opening ceremony which was many types of wow. It felt amazing to watch it on TV and know that up in Auckland, Eden Park had been transformed into a world class theatre. By some genius of smoke and lights the ground became sky, water and mountains, telling the story of New Zealand's history, from pre-colonisation to present day - the climax of which, naturally, is expected to be the AB's victory on home turf.

I, for one, could not handle a repeat performance of what happened in 2007.

Even though I'm not a Rugby-head, I am glad to have the World Cup here, now. It's perfect timing. We want to stop thinking about earthquakes and disaster. We need something to focus on that's fun and (if I may use the word without being kicked out of NZ) trivial, rather than heavy and sad. The opening teams - Tonga and NZ, both did a haka, which roused the energy level of the entire country to a new level, and then kick-off!

 At half-time, I snuck out and whipped up an impromptu dessert.

It was very experimental. I just threw random quantities of butter, cacao powder, raisins, rice flour, oats and melted dark chocolate in to the processor, baked it for 15 minutes, then changed my mind and chilled it.

By the time I got my dessert-making gear cleared away and conducted quality control, the game was nearing completion and the AB's were, as anticipated, about to win.  They scored more than the other guys, which GayNZ informs me is the most important thing. ;)

I hope your weekend is full of awesomeness. I have an assignment to finish, which deals with body composition measurement. I've measured up my volunteers and am just crunching the numbers. The Programmer is making sure that I'm not missing out on the important stuff. He just popped his head in to let me know that Romania very nearly caused an upset, giving Scotland a scare. I asked if there was kissing. Apparently not, which proves that I don't yet understand the function of that scrum thing. Not to worry, I'm sure that day and night Rugby for six weeks will enlighten me as to its mysterious ways. Oh Yay!

Rumbled

I was feeling a bit unhappy a few minutes ago, on account of being rumbled, twice. I was just in the kitchen, doing something with almonds like a normal person (more about these tomorrow)

when a .. 'noticeable' (I can't think how else to describe this one) aftershock came along and shook a few small things off the bench. Geonet tells me that was a 4.0, over in the Lyttelton area (epicentre of the Feb quake). Then I was resettling my nerves, doing a bit of pranayama, when a long, slow aftershock wiggled the house. This was not dramatic, but was long. The Programmer just Googletalked me that this was a 4.7, out in Rolleston, closer to the epicentre of the September quake last year. I think both these quakes are on the same faultline.

This increase in seismic activity is not fab. One is not amused.  

Look at that, these even made the news. As we have aftershocks frequently, the media hardly bother to report on them unless they are especially exciting and have caused a twitter landslide. Apparently 'we will rock you' was playing on the local radio. I guess mother nature loves Queen then?

It is not very helpful that today's little shakes come in the jetstream of another alarming prediction by The Moon Man. He is suggesting that the earthly and cosmic configuration of end of Sept 2011 might be right for a whopper. Awesome.  And for those who say that he is often wrong, I reply, he is not wrong often enough for my liking. 

There is only one thing for it.  Shopping. I feel an urgent need to restock the emergency supplies, preferably before most people finish work because there will probably be a little panic.  But first. Icecream.

A little word about my healthy icecream alternative. If it did not taste as good as regular icecream, I would just eat something organic and with few ingredients. I actually like these home-made ones far better, and I can alter the flavour to match my mood.

Essential ingredient: frozen bananas.

I tend to whack them with a heavy glass bottle before the food processor has a go at it.  Otherwise you get chunks of banana, which can be good or bad, depending on what you are aiming for.

The smashing activity also rids the body of unhelpful earthquake stress hormones.

Today's effort involved the following ingredients:

• 100g frozen banana
• 2 dsp unflavoured Sana WPC (**product placement alert** :D yes, but, I love it... BCAA's, calcium, protein and all that other good stuff). It is the addition of the whey that adds the creaminess, although you could leave it out and add more avocado for a vegan version.
• 1/2 small avocado (healthy fats!)
• 1/2 tsp maca (superfood!)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp raw honey
• 2 tsp water

Blend for about a minute, or until it is smooth and icecreamy. If you overdo it, it will just become a smoothie instead. Mine was a little overblended as I thought I heard another aftershock coming and got a bit distracted.

And now I am seriously departing to take part in the mass emptying of the canned food shelves.  If I didn't believe it was impossible, I'd think that food shops pay someone to cause aftershocks. It is certainly good for their bottom line. 

And my question for you today (and it's a big one, so you know it's important): are you disaster ready? 

Greenie

Good afternoon from chilly Christchurch, where I've been working on an assignment for my graduate diploma in Nutritional Science and pondering this question: What, exactly, is the point of cats if they can't even keep the fire stoked when I am out?  Truly, philosophical thoughts are really my thing.

Yesterday, while browsing the shelves at a small organic shop (the type where people let their kids loose to feast on the produce in a manner that would make the NZFSA shudder), I saw a old friend - Blackstrap Molasses. 

Blackstrap Molasses is the by-product of sucrose production. It is basically the good stuff left over after the bad stuff (sugar) is extracted. Back in the dark ages when I started studying nutrition, Blackstrap Molasses was the schizz. We kept a bucket of it in the kitchen of my student flat and used it in everything. Over the years, I just kind of.. forgot about it. 

I've decided to become reacquainted. After all, it is a mineral fest, being particularly high in manganese, magnesium, copper, iron, calcium. It also has some B6. Not sure what to do with it, I drizzled some in my smoothie mix. 

What's in this green thing?

• A frozen banana
• Three scoops of Sana WPC (unflavoured). Vegans could use rice protein.
• Tsp dried barley greens - I'm trialing this as a future product for the webstore. 
• Tsp Blackstrap Molasses
• Pinch of sea salt with kelp
• Water

The greens and the molasses together gave it a bit more bitterness than I usually like, but it was also sweet and my brain was a bit confused, giving me conflicting 'Mmmm, I love it, bleh, I'm not sure about this' messages. Molasses certainly doesn't have the instant sugary appeal of maple or agave syrup, which may be why it has fallen by the wayside.

I intend to explore the use of molasses in baking and smoothies. I feel that the 'dark', slightly bitter taste of it might go well with a strong chocolate flavour, and you know I'm ready to run with that idea :D.  After scoffing my green, molasses fortified smoothie, I felt strangely energised for the whole morning. I'll have to try it a few more times before I make up my mind about whether it's a winner or not. It might be like Maca - when I first tried it I was unsure about the taste, but now I really like it. Tastebuds are completely trainable.

Guilty, Guilty Pleasure..

I’ve been itching to bake/non-bake this chocolate torte for ages and today seemed the perfect day for it. We are embarking on a furious three days in Italy as of tomorrow and the weather is again a bit grey, so a relaxing hour in the kitch seemed just the thing.

Almost immediately, things began to de-simplify. Apart from the sugar, a deep search of Sistasana’s cupboards revealed none of the other ingredients. I headed off to the COOP to stock up, but had to take a reality check. Spending 70CF (nearly $100 NZD at the current scary exchange rate) of my travel budget on ingredients for one cake, especially when those ingredients would sit untouched once I leave on Tuesday, seemed…. not completely smart. I decided to grab a few essential things and improvise the rest with what was available.

The resulting recipe was a major modification of the original one. In fact, when considered in light of the ‘Oh She Glows’ recipe, it would be more correct to call it ‘inspired by’. The main thing is that I de-veganised the torte in just about every way possible (and must surely posture, scrape and offer penance to the goddesses of veganism). In the base, I used butter instead of oil and left out the maple syrup. In the filling I replaced half the avocado with crème fraiche and used nutella instead of both maple syrup and peanut butter (inventive, right?). I used organic white flour and organic granular sugar – half brown/half white and added a vial of Dr Oetker’s vanilla butter essence to the filling.

From the outset, I knew that one thing would mean death to my torte, and that was the presence of ANY visible green bits of avocado, no matter how miniscule. I constructed the torte in private so that nobody saw anything healthy going in to it. The merest hint of green and it would have been rejected my both my sister and niece – they are both super sensitive to anything remotely off the mainstream, food-wise. Even with 10 minutes of  electric beating, I could see a few tiny fragments of avocado, so I ended up pushing the topping through a strainer.  It took two hours in the freezer to firm up and a core sample reveals that it is just right in every way and probably as addictive as crack. Once I get back to NZ, I will make it again in its pure, vegan form, just to alleviate my conscience.

You may be thinking that I am spending my holiday eating sweet things and letting my fitness slide. Not so. One of my first purchases was a fantastic yoga mat, which unfortunately I will have to leave here as it is really too large for my luggage. I’ve been making use of it regularly. I’ve also been balancing up the indulgences with healthy, lower-calorie things. I’ve got a whole post on travel eating coming up next, but really my core strategy is super simple:

Instead of eating this every day:

Consider eating this:

It's the first part of a treat that is the best anyway and I'm sure that I don't have to tell you how saving 200+ calories every day will affect the fit of your pants on the plane ride home. It really is the little things that make a big difference over time.