Why Dieting Is a Waste of Your Time

Last week, I got my daily Quartz Obsession email and the topic was “diets.” With Weight Watchers recently hiring DJ Khaled as its social media ambassador – for the culture – and January being the month that everyone and their mother going “new year, new me,” it isn’t surprising that dieting is a hot topic.

I’m going to share a potentially unpopular opinion here – dieting is a scam.

Now, let me clean that up a bit. Shifting your perspective and making wise food choices is always the move. But diets as a larger cultural movement of restricting calories, eating Frankenfoods, and judging foods as “good” or “bad” has never made sense to me.

I grew up in a house where dieting – Atkins, low-fat, low-calorie – helped my mother lose weight and keep it off. Thankfully, she never assigned labels to the foods my sister and I loved to consume, which were sugary, salty, savory and generally not good for your health long-term.

As a 30-something wife, stepmother, and aunt, I recognize that my attitudes about food influence the young minds around me. Rather than say a food is “bad,” I let my behavior show that my choices fuel a healthy lifestyle and help me move, sleep and feel better.

Image via TONL

Diet companies that promote their branded foods that you have to nuke before eating, along with proprietary cookbooks, scales, clothing and more, leave a nasty taste in my mouth. I find it hard to believe the programs are set up for success, since success for their clients means a loss of future money for them. Once I lose the weight, what good is your point system and associated prepared meals to me?

I’m not alone in this sentiment; 77 percent of Americans said they’re trying to eat healthier, but only 19 percent said they’re on a diet in a 2015 survey conducted by Fortune magazine and the percentage of women who claim to be on a diet has decreased by 11 percentage points between 1992 and 2012 according to NPD Group, a research firm.

I will not pretend that making healthy options is something I do every day, all day. When I read about people who say they haven’t had sugar in a year, I shake my head and go have a bowl of cereal for them. I just know that I’ve had my best gains in pounds lost and muscle gained by upping my weights, low-impact cardio, and mindfully eating more whole foods and less processed foods. Surprisingly, I’ve lost weight over the past couple of months, even after I slacked on my workouts due to travel and general year-end ennui.

A post shared by Leisa (@veleisapburrell) on

Bottom line: there are no “good” or “bad” foods, only better decisions to make about what you eat and drink. Consider ditching a “diet” and focusing on eating what makes you feel good long-term, not just in that moment (hello, donuts), and you may find the results you’re looking for.

Image via TONL

 

All Plantbased Everything: Review of The Honey Pot Company

In my plantbased life, I’ve been attuned to the importance of consuming whole foods, products with ingredients of I can recognize and pronounce, and beauty products that contain fewer chemicals. While on a Target run with my hilarious friend, Jerica of Jerica Says, we happened down the feminine care aisle and came across the “specialty” brand section. I put specialty in quotations because upon closer inspection, I saw that what these brands clued into is that consumers today want to know what’s in their product, and that I was woefully ignorant.

The brand that caught my eye was The Honey Pot Company, with their great tagline: Made by humans with vaginas for humans with vaginas. How can you ignore that line?! I picked up the package and soon began to question everything. As a woman, how could I be so ill-informed of the processing of the care products I’d come to know? With my interest piqued, I reached out to The Honey Pot to learn more. It turns out their team was putting together a brand ambassador program and I was invited to join.

Help promote a female-owned, vegan feminine care company? It wasn’t even a question for me!

What I love about the Honey Pot Company is that it is a subscription service. What’s more monthly than your monthly, amiright? Once I agreed to be an ambassador, I received my introductory package containing the Sensitive Bundle and the Regular Herbal Pads to familiarize myself with their products.

My Review: The Honey Pot Company

The Sensitive Bundle

I’m a sucker for great packaging, and The Honey Pot Company does a great job with their design. The baby-blue Sensitive Bundle box has adorable illustrations and quotes. Inside I found the Sensitive Wash and Sensitive Wipes, both which are prominently described as the alternative to “toxic, chemical-laden, fragrance-filled feminine washes and wipes.”

(photo courtesy of The Honey Pot Company)

The wash has little to no scent, which I can tell you is quite unlike most feminine products on the market. I’ve actually avoided most scented soaps and lotions of all kinds because I tend to sneeze at the overwhelming aroma. The wipes, which can be used on your entire body, were my quick solution for post-yoga sweat so I was presentable enough on the drive home to take a full shower.

Regular Herbal Pads

Where the Sensitive bundle eschewed scents, the pads are infused with herbs, lending them a fresh scent. The pad is also “manufactured with chlorine and pesticide free cotton.” Of the herbs, which include rose, lavender, aloe and mint, it was the mint that gave me a bit of a surprise. The brand tells customers that mint is supposed to help alleviate menstrual cramps, but if you have sensitivities to mint on your skin, you may want to skip these and stick to your regular, non-herbal products.

(photo courtesy of The Honey Pot Company)

HoneyBeNatural Magazine Event sponsored by The Honey Pot Company

As an ambassador, I had the chance to attend an event The Honey Pot Company sponsored here in Dallas. Eat for Your Yoni was presented by HoneyBeNatural magazine and featured a vegan chef who showed attendees how to make plantbased smoothie, snacks and a light meal. I loved being a room with other healthy-minded women; check out the recap on HoneyBeNatural magazine’s website.

 

 


Excited and ready to try The Honey Pot Company?

As a reader of my blog, and for those who are looking to incorporate plantbased living to your care products, I invite you to try out The Honey Pot Company. Order as a monthly subscriber or try out a single product; I don’t think you’ll be disappointed in anything you receive from the company. Not sure if you should start with Normal, Sensitive or Mommy-to-be? Start with their quiz.

PLUS: The Honey Pot Company launched an Indiegogo campaign in order to crowd fund the next stage of plantbased feminine care: organic cotton tampons. Support their cause today at the level you can.

As a Honey Pot Wellness ambassador, I receive a small commission on your order if you purchase. I would SO appreciate you using my affiliate link if you do buy.

Plantbased Product Review: 22 Days Nutrition + Giveaway

Earlier this summer, I had the wonderful opportunity to attend BlogFest at IDEA World in Las Vegas. Not only did I meet some of the best fitness bloggers in the country and hang out with some of my Dallas Fitness Ambassador family, I also got schooled on the latest in plantbased protein at the Expo.

Walking the aisles of the exhibition floor, I saw everything from sweet potato-based noodles to Daiya’s yummy desserts. The company that caught my eye was 22 Days Nutrition.

Their premise is that it takes 21 days to create a habit and they want to help everyone get to the 22nd day and achieve a major breakthrough. Founder Marco Borges is a vegan and an exercise physiologist who was constantly searching for a solution for optimum wellness so he formulated the perfect vegan options for folks trying to “transform their lives, bodies and habits.” Plus, Marco was the trainer that helped Beyoncé and Jay-Z when they went on their 22-day vegan journey a couple of years ago.

I thought to myself “If he can help the Queen B, how much of a glow up could I achieve?” I reached out to the 22 Days Nutrition team, eager to try more products after tasting the sample of their protein bar at IDEA World, and they obliged by sending me their vanilla protein powder and several flavors of their protein bar: Chunky Peanut Butter, Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip, Salted Caramel, and Fudge Brownie. Below is my review of the powder and bars, which are my own opinion and not influenced by 22 Days Nutrition.

What I Loved

I enjoyed the variety of flavors from the bars, with Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip being my favorite and probably Salted Caramel as my least liked. The PBCC had the perfect balance of salty peanut flavor to the sweet of chocolate. I ended up grabbing bars when I was on the go, running from teaching a class to making a proposal for clients, and it kept me full and energized.

The 22 Days Nutrition Plant Power vanilla powder was one of the tastiest I’ve had. I tried it in a simple form by shaking it into 8 ounces of almond milk and I blended it with a fruit smoothie. Either way, it’s excellent. The powder gave my drinks a nice protein boost and was easy to blend and take with me on the go.

For those who are concerned with getting “enough” protein from plantbased foods, rest assured that 22 Days Nutrition has you covered. The powder has 20 grams of protein per serving from pea protein, and the bars are 15 grams a piece.

What I Didn’t Like

The texture of the Fudge Brownie protein bar didn’t sit well with me at all: chalky and chewy. Interestingly, this didn’t translate to the other flavors.

Tip: don’t leave the caramel bar in a hot vehicle! I learned the hard way (insert sad face).

As with most protein powders, when you’re shaking it together with a liquid – as opposed to blending – a shaker ball is recommended. I do not have one of those so I had to make do with the coil from my tofu press. Bootleg but it worked; three cheers for ingenuity.

Final Thoughts

I would recommend the bars and powder to someone who is struggling with finding enough meals throughout the day or someone who isn’t a big meal planner (raises hand). Flavors were on point and with the advancements in non-soy plantbased protein sources, 22 Days Nutrition is right up there in delivering the goods for those with soy sensitivities/allergies or if you want to keep your soy intake low.

BONUS

22 Days Nutrition is giving one of my excellent readers a 4-pack box of protein bars in my favorite flavor, Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip. Enter below for your chance to receive yummy protein bars courtesy of the 22 Days Nutrition team.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Must reside within continental United States to qualify. Must be at least 18 years of age to enter. Winners will be selected and verified.

This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Instagram or Facebook.

Don’t want to wait on your chance to win? You can find 22 Days Nutrition products at your local Target! I know you already had your next #TargetRun planned, so be sure to put a box of protein bars or a canister of powder in your cart.

I’d love to hear from you about your experience with plantbased protein bars and powder. Have you had 22 Days Nutrition before? Talk to me in the comments!

Is Vegan Protein That Looks, Smells and Tastes Like Meat Unethical?

The other day, I watched a video from Wired about the Impossible Burger, the plantbased protein patty that looks, smells, cooks and “bleeds” like a beef burger. The science behind the creation of the Impossible Burger is fascinating by itself (you should read the article and watch the video), and we should know as much as possible about the provenance of our food. What got me thinking and raised an eyebrow for me was the intentionality of marketing the Impossible Burger as the “burger that bleeds” even though it’s not made with animal flesh.

To establish some background about my life’s journey to plantbased eating, I grew up eating most meats -beef, chicken, turkey, etc. – and to this day, I will freely admit that bacon is delicious and Popeye’s spicy two-piece would be my last meal if I was on death row. However, one of the reasons I no longer am able to eat meat (with some exceptions) is that I don’t like the look and mouthfeel of meat. I tend to find it greasy/oily and the texture of flesh bothers me. While not all people who eschew meat do so because of animal welfare concerns, I have mixed feelings about such true-to-life formulations of plantbased proteins. Sure, I’ll eat a “nugget” or a black bean patty, but I’ve yet to find a strip, steak or crumble made from plants that authentically presents itself like animal meat. And I prefer that!

Ethics in Vegetarianism

As the Impossible Burger has earned success, raising more than $250 million from investors, and distribution throughout the country at restaurants and grocery stores, questions have been raised both about the ingredients and the ethicality of life-like meat substitutes. Impossible Foods, the maker of the Impossible Burger, bases the meat-like nature of the Burger on heme, which gives ground beef its color and metallic iron taste. The ingredient soy leghemglobin, derived from the root of soybeans, does this for the Impossible Burger. However, the FDA has not approved the compounds as safe or unsafe for consumption, which concerns some food safety advocates.

In addition to the ingredient safety concern, some strict vegans question the need for plantbased protein that recreates the smell, taste and texture of the very animals they’re trying to save from slaughter. For advocates of the Impossible Burger, this is a ploy to get more carnivores to consider the products as an alternative to their usual beef or turkey burger. Others cite a need for a diversity of protein sources, which, with the advent of technology and genetic modification of plants, is becoming much easier than in years past.

My Experience with “Bleeding” Burgers

Over the Labor Day weekend, I got the chance to try another “bleeding” plantbased burger: The Beyond Burger from Beyond Meat. I missed the chance to have it straight off the grill at the cookout so I had to pan-sear it a skillet at home. To my surprise, the Beyond Burger was the single best veggie burger I’ve had, and I’ve tried a lot of cardboard, bean-filled veggie patties. Seriously, I am bringing these to every cookout I’m invited to from here on out.

Make room on the grill!

While the faux bleeding of the burger didn’t initially register with me – Beyond Burgers use beet juice to replicate the effect – it wasn’t until I listened to the description of the complex science behind the Impossible Burger that I began to question my desire to eat burgers that look like meat.

Verdict: Live and Let Live

I say if approximating meat brings more people into the concept of going from #MeatlessMonday to meat-free every day, I’m here for it. As long as we can keep the needle moving downward for the number of animals killed annually for our consumption, I’m here for it. You may never see me in a PETA advertisement, slathered in fake blood, but I will support “radical” methods if that’s how someone wants to characterize The Beyond Burger and Impossible Burger.

Next up for me: trying the Impossible Burger at Hopdoddy Burger Bar!

Share with Me!

What do you think? Are you comfortable with such lifelike veggie burgers, or do you think that plantbased diets should not include meat-like substitutes? Also, have you tried the Impossible Burger or the Beyond Burger? If so, tell me about your experience.