That's Fit

I love this time of year. When my local produce stores start carrying fruits and vegetables that aren't labeled "product of some outlandishly far away country." Locally grown products are fresher, better for the environment, and even seem to taste better. Depending on where you live, many berries may be already in season. Strawberry season is just around the corner for me, and I can't wait! Berries pack a powerful nutritional punch (via FitSugar).

Berries such as blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, and blackberries are rich in vitamins and antioxidants. They can help ward off certain diseases and may even slow the aging process. You can mix things up by looking for different tastes such as currants, gooseberries, and lingonberries.

Try topping your morning cereal or oatmeal with berries, enjoying a bowl of berries with some skim milk, mixing them in your yogurt, topping a small slice of angel food cake, or just popping them as they are. Your health -- and taste buds -- will thank you.

Mmmmm ... watermelons. I was so glad to see them showing back up in stores this weekend. There's nothing like a juicy, sweet bowl of nutritious watermelon on a hot summer's day.

A West Virginia girl learned, though, that sometimes watermelons are not so good for your health -- not when they've got a hitchhiking scorpion on board. The girl was stung by the scorpion who apparently came into the store in a box of watermelons. Her dad didn't believe her until he saw it scuttling away. Shiver.

Luckily, most scorpions are not dangerous and the girl was unharmed. She said that the sting hurt a little worse than a bee sting. Still, Wal-Mart officials are looking into the matter.

An easy way to lose weight is to include more fruits and vegetables in your diet. Produce is famous for jamming massive amounts of vitamins, nutrients and fiber into very few calories. With most produce, you can consume lots of food for a very low caloric price. More bang for your buck that is!

I ask my personal training clients to try to include at least five meals per week consisting of pure produce. No meat. No grains. Most folks eat at least 21 meals per week, so this five meal plan doesn't deter anyone from getting enough protein. What it does do though, is get them to try new fruits and learn new ways to turn veggies into a meal.

Another benefit to this effort is that by keeping a few meals to just produce, you will more than likely be cutting quite a bit of calories out of the day. Over time, the more you rely on fruits and vegetables for snacks and meals, the more likely you'll be to achieve and maintain your ideal weight.

For weeks, my family drooled over the four, perfect, green Granny Smith apples in the fruit bowl.

"Don't touch them," I admonished, "I'm going to make apple burgers with them."

Now, my family had other apples to eat, so don't go feeling sorry for them. But they really wanted those tart, crisp apples in the fruit bowl.

Three weeks later, those apples ended up out under the pine tree -- squirrel food. I'd waited too long and they were brown and mushy on the bottom. I felt bad then that I didn't let them get eaten when they had the chance.

Do you waste produce? According this article, we all do. Food waste takes up a large chunk of landfill real estate and creates methane gas that leads to global warming.

Fruits and veggies are good for you, so it's tempting to buy a lot. But produce is highly perishable, so reduce waste by only buying what you need. Diet-Blog has a few tips for buying and preserving all the fruits and vegetables you can eat, without the waste.

Shape magazine ran an interesting piece in their most recent issue, taking a look at how to shop for organic foods without breaking the bank. Buying green without spending too much of it, I suppose you could say. The article itself was based on the new book The Organic Food Shopper's Guide, written by Jeff Cox. Here is one of the tips mentioned in both the book and the article. It is certainly worth considering the next time you're in the grocery store and want to go Green.

Find a local grower

You may be surprised to find that local farm stands are open for business in your neck of the woods, even if you're a city dweller. In addition to farm stands, another option is to join a community-supported agricultural cooperative, which allows you to pay for a weekly "membership" to receive fresh fruits and vegetables grown in close proximity to where you live.

If you're still unsure where a farm stand or market may be located in your town or city, you can track it down by visiting LocalHarvest.org (www.localharvest.org).

Did you know that Americans throw away an average of 25% of the produce they buy? A half a pound every day. That's a lot of money going down the drain, not to mention all the wasted nutrients, vitamins, antioxidants and the strain on the environment. Plus how are you supposed to motivate yourself to eat more fresh fruits and veggies when they're all smelly and sludgy in the bottom of your fridge?

The biggest reasons people toss so much produce are, thankfully, pretty easy to remedy: it happens because we're either storing it wrong or because we're buying too much at once and can't eat it fast enough. So make a better grocery list and only buy what you're going to be able to eat in the next few days, and learn how to keep it so it stays fresh as long as possible. For storage tips check out this article on Vegetarian Times -- it's chock full of awesome advice.

Shape magazine ran an interesting piece in their most recent issue, taking a look at how to shop for organic foods without breaking the bank. Buying green without spending too much of it, I suppose you could say. The article itself was based on the new book The Organic Food Shopper's Guide, written by Jeff Cox. Here is one of the tips mentioned in both the book and the article. It is certainly worth considering the next time you're in the grocery store and want to go Green.

Shop Smart

If you can't afford to go completely organic, be choosy with your fruits and vegetables. Because leafy green vegetables, strawberries, and most fruits with pits are the most susceptible to damage from bugs and mold, they are usually sprayed the heaviest with chemicals. Produce with skin that is removed before eating, though also sprayed with pesticides, is safer to eat as-is because chemicals can simply be scrubbed or peeled right off.

Therefore, to cut costs, spend the extra money on organic produce that falls into the first category mentioned. As for the second category, organic is probably still better, but buying the regular fruits and vegetables is not so bad (plus it will save you some coin).

Even if I wanted to buy 100% organic, I wouldn't be able to...at least not from my local grocery store. Though they have an increasing variety of offerings, it's a toss-up every week what will be available. So, I try to buy organic when I can and try to scrub really hard when I can't. And I wait patiently for our CSA to start up in June.

Reducing exposure to pesticides is a concern people often have. If you're like me -- part of a family living on a budget -- then it can be tricky trying to figure out what to splurge on. Canadian Living has a few suggestions to help you manage your food dollar while reducing your risk at the same time. For instance, you can:

• Buy the fruits and vegetables you eat most often from the organic section.
• Eat a variety of produce.
• Grow your own or join a CSA.
• Peel before you eat -- though you'll lose a lot of nutrition that way and it isn't always effective.

There are lots of good reasons to eat organic--your health and the health of your family being the most important one. But there are also a few good reasons to not eat organic--it's expensive, it can be difficult to find, and when you do find organic products, the choices are sometimes limited compared to the non-organic brands.

Myself, I eat organic about 65% of the time. I live in a big city and it's not difficult to find organic choices, but cost is sometimes a factor, so I stick to buying organic for the important items--the fruits and veggies, the meats and some of the dairy products.

But I'm curious -- what about you?

How can you eat well when you hate veggies? That's a question many wannabe health nuts are asking themselves. You see, eating well would be easy if healthy things tasted like French fries, but unfortunately, that's not how things work. But the good news is that you can learn to like healthy things. I know because I did -- now I prefer fresh veggies to junk food any day of the week.

eDiets recently revealed five ways you can learn to love the foods you're not crazy about:

• Try them again. Growing up, I hated tomatoes. Now I love. Go figure. Your tastes change so don't be afraid to give something another try.
  
• Broaden your horizons. There are more vegetables than brussel sprouts and cauliflower, so if you don't like certain ones, go on the hunt for others that you might enjoy.
  
• Compromise. You might like full-fat dairy, but it's better for your waistline if you opt for skim. If you can't stand skim, find a middle ground, like a smaller glass of 1%. The same goes with all fat-rich foods.
  
• Eat foods that soak up flavour. Tofu and mushrooms are two good-for-you foods that take on whatever flavour you're cooking them with, making them as yummy as you want them to be.
  
• Cover it up. Still can't stand veggies? Find a favourite salad dressing, and enjoy them in conjunction. Hey, veggies with dressing is better than no veggies at all.
  

How did you learn to like healthy foods?

In our house, we tend to keep food in our fridge for longer than most people. It's part laziness, part iron stomachs and part frugality, but whatever the cause, I'm often left scratching my head wondering if I should use a certain ingredient in my next meal. But I recently came across this handy timeline for storing common fruits and veggies:

• Carrot (peeled): 51 days
  
• Tomato: 36 days
  
• Garlic: 30 days
• Broccoli: 27 days
• Strawberry: 22 days
  
• Asparagus: 22 days
• Spinach: 19 days
• Grapes (black and green): 14 days
• Peppers (red and green): 14 days
• Cucumber: 8 days
• Lettuce: 8 days

Surprising, yes? I thought the times on many of these were much shorter. This is good news though, particularly for those month-old carrots in the back of my fridge.

When I was about 35 pounds heavier, I used to think about my body all the time. I was constantly fretting over the parts I didn't like, wondering how I was going to change, stressing over food and agonizing over clothes. I was all-consumed. I spent so much time thinking about my body, that I kind of lost track of the more important things in life. I certainly must have been far less productive and thoughtful to others than I am now as well.

Throughout my fitness journey, which truly began when I started teaching group fitness classes at 15 years old....I have had many great and not-so-great moments with my body. I even enjoyed a few great years in my teens as a bulimic. Whoopee! (That was really the low point.) Having said that. Along the way, I've learned to enjoy a variety of challenging exercises and balance my fitness. I also learned to appreciate and enjoy produce more than Cheetos. I got a grip on eating right and now I never fret at all over what I put in my mouth. I simply make great choices most of the time.

Buying organic foods at your local grocery store can get pretty pricey, because I know you're filling up a third of your cart with veggies. Right?

Noshtopia has seven ways to cut costs on your organic purchases, which could help your budget, your waistline, and your overall help. Below are the three I found most helpful, but feel free to check out all seven of their suggestions here!

• Hit the local farmers' market. You're buying direct, so it's generally cheaper.
  
• Check store brands in places like Whole Foods and Trader Joe's. These businesses often offer a store brand and organic version for similar prices to conventional brand names.
  
• Shop near closing time. Because of the lack of preservatives used in organics, they are often more prone to spoiling. Therefore, grocers might mark those items down near the end of the day to move them off the shelf.

Got a suggestion that's worked for you? Please share in the comments!

If you really stop and think about it, there are so many different food options out there. A casual stroll down a main street in even the smallest of towns will pass you by restaurants of all kinds, fast food chains, grocery stores, delis, convenience stores, vending machines, and food-selling department stores (i.e. Wal-Mart, Target, etc.). With so many options, it's amazing we are even able to make a choice!! Maybe that's why some of our selections aren't always what nutrition experts consider to be the healthiest.

WebMD recently put together a list of Dietitian's Top 10 Diet Tips, which offers some sound advice and a few pleasant surprises. Here is a breakdown of that list. Each item is click-able and will link you to a full description on the WebMD website.

Diet Tip #1: Enjoy Fast Food Weekly, but Make Smart Choices

Diet Tip #2: Drink No More Than One Diet Soda Per Day

Diet Tip #3: Pizza Night!

Diet Tip #4: Breakfast Cereals With Fewer Than 3 Grams of Fiber Need Not Apply

Diet Tip #5: Pump up the Protein

Diet Tip #6: Keep Score of Fruits and Vegetables

Diet Tip #7: Have Alcohol Only on Weekends

Diet Tip#8: Have an After-Dinner Drink

Diet Tip #9: Pre-Dinner Produce Munchies

Diet Tip #10: Count 4 Colors in Each Meal

What risks would you take to inspire your own weight loss? See yourself writing, producing, marketing, and selling skinny songs to help get your butt in gear? Venture capitalist Heidi Roizen, 49, may not have ever predicted she'd do such a thing. But it's exactly what she found herself doing when her weight hit an all-time high and she wanted more than anything to fit into the small clothing tucked away in her closet.

After her hunt for inspirational diet music was met with defeat, Roizen decided to write her own lyrics. Hiring two music producers came next and now her CD Skinny Songs is available for $14.99 on Amazon. Her songs -- I'm a Hottie Now, Skinny Jeans, and Thin are three of them -- can also be downloaded on iTunes.

Roizen, whose goal was to go from a size 14 to a size 8, can now fit into her skinny jeans. And she plans to keep it that way. She hopes to help others reach their own goals too.

"I've made a lifelong commitment to a lifelong change," says the mother of two. "I started writing the music to inspire myself, and now I hope it will inspire others."