The Newest Superfood: Broccoli Leaves

Your mother always told you to eat your broccoli. 

It’ll give you broccoli muscles, my dad said. I wasn’t sure if those were located next to my spinach biceps or my orange juice thighs, but I ate them anyway.

Five-year-old me had sweet spinach biceps and rosemary hair.

I’m lucky in that I crave vegetables. Always have, always will. Maybe it’s because my parents knew how to treat them. Rarely did we ever get a soggy, flavorless green masses plopped onto our plate. Instead, we had fresh broccoli roasted with garlic and olive oil. Buttered carrots cut so elegantly on a bias. Green beans, par boiled, shocked, and laid in bright green rows next to mashed potatoes and chicken thigh.

But I will say that broccoli leaves are new to me. I’ve only recently discovered the joy that is kale. Raw, mixed in a smoothie, the star of a chopped salad, baked into crisps. Kale is the ultimate superfood: low in calories, high in nutrition. All you have to do is get past that bitter, tough, “Why am I eating rabbit food?” taste.

Take a look at the nutritional comparison. 

Kale vs. Broccoli Leaves

We see that gram for gram, broccoli leaves have fewer calories, less fat (who knew kale had any fat at all?), less sodium, fewer carbs, and the same amount of protein. While it has a slight, probably insignificant amount more Vitamin A, broccoli leaves do lose in the Vitamin C, Calcium, and Iron competition, if only by a nose.

I find it interested that kale has 2g of fiber in 100g, while broccoli leaves have none. Usually green, leafy vegetables are full of fiber. So if you’re planning on switching from broccoli leaves, make sure you get your fiber in elsewhere.

Here’s the newest superfood in all its glory: 

Broccoli Leaves!

It kinda looks like kale, or collard greens. So no, it’s not the tiny leaves that come on the stem when you buy big bunches of broccoli. 

Whether this familiarity makes them easier or harder for you to incorporate into your daily food routine, here are a couple recipes you could try.

Sauteed Broccoli Leaves: http://www.cooks.com/recipe/k31uw6fx/broccoli-leaves.html

Broccoli Leaf Soup: http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/broccoli-leaf-tortellini-soup.aspx

Paleo Broccoli Leaves: http://www.primalpalate.com/paleo-recipe/sauteed-broccoli-greens/

Smoothie (plus tips on how to harvest your own leaves!): http://gardenmentors.com/garden-help/grow-your-own-food/how-to-harvest-eat-your-broccoli-leaves-recipe/

Experiment by substituting them in for other dark leafy greens in your recipes. Let me know how it goes!

Lift.Eat.Love.Sleep. 

The Very Unofficial Ranking of Fruits

Fruit is nature's candy, you know.

If you don't get this reference, you need to watch more 90's Nickelodeon. 

Literally. The amount of sugar in fruits is pretty darn high. That's why they're so delicious! So while it's good to include more fruits in your diet, especially if they are replacing white sugar or processed goodies, it's really better to include even more vegetables in your diet. 

Even the more starchy root vegetables, like carrots, have less sugar per gram than the supposed healthiest of all fruits, the apple. 

100 grams of carrots: 4.7g sugar

100 grams of apple: 10g sugar

Now, of course, even the super sugary fruits are better for you than, say, a Snickers bar, 100g of which contains nearly 50g of sugar. 

For reference, the American Heart Association suggests that men not consume more than 37.5g of added sugar a day; women's limit is 25g. However, in 2008 the national average of added sugar consumption per day was a whopping 76.7g! (Reference)

So even if fruit salads are your go-to breakfast, snack, and dessert, you're probably still doing better than the general population. Especially since fruits, even with their sugar counts, are inherently better than junk food because of their fiber, water, vitamin A and vitamin C. 

Plus, look at this handy dandy chart:

Fuzzy navel with extra iron, please.

My Ranking

Now, the words "very unofficial" are in the title for a reason. Mainly because I didn't feel like doing a bunch of actual research for this blog post (Sorry guys. I know how much you love verifying my sources). 

So the characteristics upon which I based this ranking are:

• Taste
• Sugar content
• Ease of eating
• Versatility
• My own whimsy

In other words, this is up for debate, and I would to get your opinions.

Without further ado, my very unofficial ranking of fruits, from worst to best. 

10. Durian

Durian. Um. Okay.

This is the worst fruit for so many reasons. It has spikes on it and looks super difficult to open. Also, it has the texture of wall insulation and reeks of cream cheese and onion, or, as food writer Richard Sterling says, "its odor is best described as pig-shit, turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock." It is one of the three foods Andrew Zimmern, the guy who literally eats disgusting foods for a living, won't even touch. Legend has it the flesh actually tastes good, but I'm not one to take risks.

9. Watermelon

Actual size when I attempt to grow it.

The name says it all. Watermelon is 93% water. It's hard to grow, hard to carry home from the supermarket, nearly impossible to open without losing a finger, and then once you do, it's full of seeds, and it tastes like lightly flavored crunchy water. Oh, and if you eat a whole watermelon in one sitting, it gives you the runs. No. Just, no.

8. Apples

Beautiful now. Painful later.

It's not that I don't like apples. I used to eat apples every single day. They're absolutely delicious. Then why so far down the line? Apples are chock-full of fructose. The only things with more fructose than raw apples are soda, honey, agave, and concentrated apples. 

What's so bad about fructose? Nothing, really, if you're not sensitive to it. But if you are, it can lead to  abdominal pain, diarrhea, bloating, and excessive gas. And it turns out I'm super sensitive to fructose. Bye-bye apples. You're just not worth it. 

7. Cherries

Cherries. Insert some immature joke here.

If someone can find me a bag of seedless cherries, I'll move these up a few numbers. Until then, these choking hazards sit at number 8. 

6. Bananas

You can have those bananas, buddy.

On the surface, bananas are great. They're versatile, able to be baked or blended into a smoothie to make it creamy without cream. They can be frozen into a faux ice cream. They come in their own neat little packages that can go with you anywhere. 

However. 

One banana contains 14g of sugar, and 27g of carbohydrates. Which is excellent if you're about to run a marathon or need to recover from a heavy strength training workout. But most people aren't doing that. They walked 3 miles on a treadmill and then grab a banana-kiwi smoothie "protein shake" like it's doing them good. It's actually just spiking their blood sugar for no good reason, making them more likely to become insulin resistant. 

Sorry if my opinion offends your love of bananas, but hey, if you want to read your own opinions, get your own blog.

5. Pineapple

Sweet tropical deliciousness!

Pineapples are known to boost your immune system, increase bone strength, protect your eyes, and aid in digestion. Plus, if you mix it with rum, it makes all your worries go away.

4. Pomegranate

Jewels and crowns. The food of royalty. 

Pomegranate probably doesn't really come to mind when you think of fruits. But it's a great one, perfect to top salads with or just munch on as a replacement for chips while you're watching the game. 

The only thing is: how the hell do you get those tiny seeds out without breaking them all?

Cut the pomegranate in half. Hold one half, cut side down, in your left hand, and the knife in your right. Using the wide side of the knife, whack the top and sides of the pomegranate gently, loosening the seeds, which will fall out through your fingers and into the bowl you placed underneath. Repeat with other half. You're welcome. 

3. Peaches

Peaches. Yumm...

The taste of peaches is so sweet, so summery, so utterly peach-y, that they are my favorite underrated fruit. The difficulty of them is finding them in season and when they're perfectly ripe, but when you do? Such heaven. 

I really have nothing else to say about peaches. I just really like them. 

2. Citrus Fruits

Limes, lemons, and oranges. Oh my!

These colorful fruits have packed in a lot of nutrients and fiber with such distinct and mouth-watering tastes. Flavanoids in tangerines might fight type 2 diabetes. All the citrus fruits have all or nearly all of your daily requirement of immune-boosting vitamin C. They're good on their own, or squeezed into water for a low-calorie, sugar-free, refreshing drinks, and their zests add flavor (and an element of fanciness) to any dish. They're cheap and they have a long shelf life. What's not to love?

1. Berries

Sweet, tart, and gosh darn good for you!

Did you guess it?

Berries are magical. They have a low glycemic index (meaning they won't spike your blood sugar even though they're sweet), they have tons of antioxidants, and studies have shown they can help you lose weight and even lower your blood pressure. 

You can cook them down into a warm pie-like filling, or blend them in smoothies, or eat them raw in a bowl! You can make healthy sugar-free jams at home with them, or include them in a chia seed, raw unsweetened coconut salad (delicious as dessert). 

What do you think of my list? What would your list include? Let me know in the comments below!

Lift.Eat.Love.Sleep.

Results of the Whole30

My second Whole30 is complete!

I did it! I completed another round of 30 days without alcohol, beans, grains, sugar, or dairy, and survived. Some might argue I even thrived on it (I would be one of those people). 

**For those of you who would like to read my account of my first Whole30, click here. 

The differences between this Whole30 and my first Whole30

• For my first Whole30, I was at the end of a 6 month cut.
• For my second Whole30, I was at the end of a 6 month bulk. 

Therefore, the fact that my results this round didn't bring me down to my lowest weight ever as my first one did it unsurprising. Instead of using the Whole30 as a final push to get a six pack for my wedding, I used it as a jump-start on my fat loss after eating way too much Ben & Jerry's for the sake of mad gains. 

• For my first Whole30, I was netting around 1300 calories a day.
• For my second Whole30, I was netting around 1500 calories a day. 

So again, it is reasonable that, though I lost 5-6 pounds on my first Whole30, I only lost 2-3 on this one. This also makes sense considering I likely gained muscle mass during my bulking period leading up to this Whole30. 

Still waiting for someone to buy me this shirt. 

A note for those concerned about counting calories: Calorie counting and macronutrient counting are not a mandatory part of the Whole30. In fact, the makers of the diet discourage it. However, their logic behind this is that those just beginning to step away from processed foods and into the "real" food arena need to learn to listen to their body and simply eat to fuel their bodies properly. 

I, on the other hand, am crazy, and honestly can't deal with thinking about not counting calories. Perhaps that's an experiment for another month. More on that later. 

Before Pictures

Alright, let's get to the part you've all been waiting for. Pictures. Does this diet really work? How can it, eating steak and eggs with fried potatoes for breakfast, chili for lunch, and chicken thighs for dinner?

Deliciously, that's how. 

Now, remember, these before pictures are from the tail end of a bulk, remember. And I'm in my underwear. So. Yeah. Reality. 

Sun's out, guns out.

Ah, the beautiful lack of muscles showing in my abs.

My diet at this time was netting around 2000 calories/day, with 45% carbs. I was lifting heavy for few reps. Oats and squats, you know how we do. 

But obviously, I had gained more than muscle here, and wanted to cut back down. My goal is to be a solid 117. Here, I was 125 with a 5'2" frame.

During Picture and Workout Routine

Glamorous. 

This is what I look like at the gym. Come at me, bro. 

Workout routines changed to low weight, high reps. Which, frankly, I hate. It just feels like too much work. 

I also added in a mile run as a warm up, and, when I had the energy, HIIT sessions after lifting. 

To be honest, my workouts were not as intense as they were during my bulking phase. Likely cause: caloric deficit, as well as a lack of ready-to-use carbohydrates. 

If I do another Whole30 (and you bet your butt I will), I intend to try it with moderate instead of low carbs and see if I feel better that way. 

Oh, and here's a picture of my favorite meal this month. 

Steak, pan-seared in olive oil and finished in the oven, with mustard and rosemary baked potatoes and steamed green beans, soaked in a date-sweetened sauced and topped with almond slices. Yum!

After Pictures

Drumroll please!

Sun's out, smaller guns out.

Abs coming back, definition in arms returning.

For side by side comparison...

Before and After Whole30 Part Two

Current weight: 122. I still have 5 pounds to go before my goal of 117, and I intend to reach it by the end of May. 

My Diet Plans Moving Forward

I think I like the idea of trying a different diet strategy every month and figuring out what works best for me. 

Experiments include:

Ketogenic Diet (Fewer than 20g carbs a day)

Whole30 without counting calories or macronutrients

Whole30 with 45% carbohydrates

Paleo

Vegetarian (though I really, really, REALLY don't think this will work for me)

Carb-cycling

Even smaller window of Intermittent Fasting (3-4 hours of eating)

Of these, I've already tried Keto and Carb-cycling, and both fit into my lifestyle decently well. 

If you have any questions on any of these diets, or about the Whole30 in general, 

please ask me! 

Want to try a Whole30? I really think you should! Go to www.Whole30.com for more information.

Lift.Eat.Love.Sleep.

SuperGirl J: Before and After

SuperGirl J Did It!

Our hero, SGJ, stuck with four long weeks of a typical bodybuilder's diet and came out the other end happier than ever!

Ripped abs and all!

P.S. If you need a reminder of what sort of diet she decided to follow, head on over to our first blog post about her. 

When we first met our heroine...

Day 1

Here's the before picture of SuperGirl J. Not bad, huh? But she really wanted to prepare for fun in the sun on her Spring Break beach vacation, so she decided to dive into a hardcore diet and exercise protocol. 

Namely, a low fat, high carb diet and a low weight, high rep workout routine. 

SuperGirl J now...

Day 28

Her abdominals and arms look much more sculpted! SGJ feels great, and had a wonderful time on her Spring Break vacation (which included eating hotdogs, as it should). 

Weight Loss Total: 5.5 pounds

Congratulations to SuperGirl J! Keep it up! 

Would you like to be featured on Lift.Eat.Love.Sleep? 

If so, contact me at Katy.Hajzer@gmail.com, and we'll get your story published! 

Coming Up: Katy's Before and After from the Whole30, round two. 

Lift.Eat.Love.Sleep.