Healthy doubles - guilt free pancakes

Switching to a healthy diet does not mean that you will need a whole new recipe book. Many of the all time favorites can be transformed into a slimmer version of themselves. I call these updates recipes - healthy doubles. I have been crating healthy doubles for several years and now I would like to share some of them here.

Let's start with a very easy adaptation of the common pancake. Luckily, someone has thought about this before me and turned it into a commercial product. Behold, the Coyote Pancake Mix (it has a howling taste):

A midwife? What kind of animal is that?

The picture of the pregnancy test was taken, your parents were notified and you have already looked through 15 baby name websites. Now it's time to find a care provider that will be with you throughout the pregnancy. You call your friends, or maybe ask your family physician, and perhaps even look at the ratemymd website. In most cases, you end up with an OB/GYN - a medical doctor specializing on pregnancy and birth. Maybe somewhere along the way someone mentions the possibility of getting a midwife, but that sounds too strange and witchcrafty. You're not a hippie after all.

I say midwives are worth a second look.

I have been lucky to have a close friend who has given birth with the help of midwives a few months before me and she has provided me with the information that helped me decide on a caregiver. I would like to share everything I have learned about midwifery here since it was a truly great experience for me.

First I'd like to address the main myths that surround the practice of midwifery:

1. Midwives have no education - In Canada midwives have to go through a 4 year program in a university or a college (there are 8 such programs country-wide) and then pass exams to be recognized by the provincial regulatory bodies.

2. You have to pay to get a midwife - Midwifery care is covered by OHIP. Just like your OB/GYN or family doctor.

Hiking in Ontario - Little Cove to Tobermory

Trail map. The Little Cove-Tobermory hike is marked in green.

Tobermory is the place where the 885 km. Bruce trail starts (or ends depending on how you look at it). It is located on the tip of the beautiful Bruce Peninsula, home to two national parks and countless hiking trails. I'd like to tell you about one of them that connects Little Cove with Tobermory.

Buying organic - meat and poultry

The organic jungle
In the last few years organic food became almost main stream, widely available not only in specialized health stores but also in large supermarket chains. The prices on products labeled organic are always larger than those of their "vulgaris" counterparts, often by a substantial amount. Not only the health conscious customers have to pay more they also have no true insurance that the items they buy are really an improvement over the usual deal. The regulations for organic farming provided by the government have lots of room for interpretation, which is inevitably exploited by money respecting businessmen. Moreover, not everything that is sold in the supermarket is bad for you. Some products do not really need organic twins. Navigating the organic market requires substantial amount of research and this here is my attempt to shed some light on this issue.

Organic meat - a good investment
If you are going to spend money on organic food and you are not a vegetarian, meat is probably the first item you should substitute. For an educational and detailed description of how industrial beef and chicken are produced you could read  Michael Pollan's brilliant "Omnivore's dilemma" or "Animals in translation" by Temple Grandin. You could also watch Michael's movie Food Inc. (albeit Pollan is talking about USA I believe that Canadians are following their southern neighbors closely enough). Or you could just type "beef/chicken factory farms" in Google and go through the links and images the search engine found.

Jogging trails in Toronto

As part of my exercise routine I jog twice a week on the small residential streets around my house or on a treadmill when the weather is not being kind. This is enough to keep my heart exercised, however, lately I have been entertaining the idea of completing a half marathon, and the training requires jogging for one hour at least once a week. Spending an hour on a treadmill or making circles around  the block is quite boring, so I turned for help to my good friend, the internet, in search for nice jogging trails in Toronto. Fortunately, Toronto is a pretty green city with many parks and recreational areas. Two of the longer routes I found are described below. The descriptions of these and other trails can be found here. Great PDF maps of the recreational trails are provided here.

Weight lifting for women - Part 2

Tips on building your program

• It is recommended to start with a two or a three day program. You could break the days according to muscle groups targeted, i.e. upper body, lower body, or types of exercises you are doing, i.e. push or pull. You could also do full body exercises each time you are in the gym. This type of workout is often recommended for beginners. Currently, I have a three day break - upper, lower and back (I pay special attention to my back due to posture problems).

Weight lifting for women - Part 1

Weight training, why me??
Weight training refers to physical exercise with different types of weights including barbells, dumbbells, cables, bands, and even the weight of your own body.  
To start, I would like to offer a few reasons for why in the world women (or anyone really) would want to train with weights:

• Weight training helps prevent osteoporosis. Training the muscles causes increase in bone density, which counteracts the deterioration of bones to which women are especially susceptible after menopause.
  
• You develop strength and endurance which can help with everyday tasks such as carrying groceries, lifting heavy objects (i.e. babies and pets), running after the last bus and others.