How to Improve Your Diet (And Your Relationship with Food)

We are what we eat, which is a simple way of saying that the food we eat directly impacts our health, our mood, and our physical shape. Having a healthy relationship with food means that we can get all the vitamins and nutrients that we need, in portion sizes that our bodies can process. Without this balance, our health and wellbeing can fall out of tandem, and we suffer as a result.

If you don’t naturally have a good relationship with your food, then it can feel like a challenge to reconfigure what you eat and how you feel about your meals, but with this guide, you can start your journey on the right track.

Apr202020

7 Tips to Boost Your Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 illness is taking the world by storm. Particularly in large countries, like Italy and the US, the number of reported cases continues to go up. As we face this pandemic, we are looking for ways on how to protect ourselves from the new coronavirus. One important way is to boost our immune system.

Source: Freepik

Is it really that important?

Let’s put it this way – if your body is a house, then your immune system is the entire wall that protects it from the outside world. So, yes, it is essential to have a healthy immune system when battling aggressive illnesses, such as the COVID-19.

So, here are ways how you can keep yourself healthy:

Apr092020

5 Fat-Burning Foods Great for a Weight Loss Regimen

Your weight loss journey is only as good as the diet and workout regime you use. Try these five foods that burn fat fast and achieve better results.

Diet and exercise are the cornerstones to keeping your weight in check. When you’re looking to continue an effective weight-loss journey, what you do in the kitchen matters just as much, if not more, than what you do in the gym.

Eating deliciously is an important facet to consider as you plan your meals through the days and weeks. There are lots of foods you should consider to keep your metabolism revving and burning.

When you’re ready to eat, make sure you have something healthy to reach for.

Here are five foods that burn fat fast.

Apr062020

First Grocery Trip of the Quarantine Kitchen Challenge

Last Thursday, we announced a challenge that we were going to take part of during quarantine, where we’d push ourselves to use the food we already have at home. To summarize, we allowed ourselves two meals out (delivery or take-out a week, Monday through Sunday) and SIX grocery items for each of us, once every two weeks. Today was our first trip to the grocery in two weeks, and based on what we had at home and what we were craving, this is what we each decided to buy.

Apr052020

New YouTube Video Alert!

Once upon a time, we posted a decent amount of content to YouTube. I think it was probably within the first year of us living in Los Angeles, while we lived in our apartment in Koreatown. Years later and it is one form of social media that we really stopped using as an outlet for content, which is unfortunate because it is one of my favorites as a user, or subscriber. Well, we’re trying to change that now!

Apr022020

Corona Quarantine Kitchen Cupboard Challenge

What a mouthful! As we move into our fourth week of self-isolation, we can count the number of times we’ve left the house on one hand. Alana left once, to take Noke for a hike at a local trail that isn’t very heavily used. I’ve made a few trips to the grocery store to replenish our food supplies, although looking back at it, we were still living a little too luxuriously. I wouldn’t say that we were being careless, but we definitely didn’t need the groceries that I bought. While milk and yogurt certainly aren’t that much of a stretch, we think we could make it through this with less. Thus, the Corona Quarantine Kitchen Cupboard Challenge was born.

Mar162020

Coronavirus Announcement

You’ve probably received an email from every company or group that you’ve ever given your email address to at this point. From utility companies to your local gym, everyone is feeling the impact of this novel coronavirus. We’ve know about it since November and have chosen to ignore it for far too long. Now, at this point, the most pressing issues are the economic repercussions of allowing it to spread while trying to cover it with a curtain. As a result all of this mistake, businesses are closed across the board and we are nearly all losing money. Whether you’re out of work, or paying for services that you cannot receive, we need to be more thoughtful in our daily life to make it through this.

First, for quality updates and information on the topic, I recommend keeping an eye on Dr. Mike’s YouTube channel. Here is his latest video. He is a practicing doctor in the hospitals of New York City and has a way of making complicated information about the coronavirus very digestible.

Second, you need to make sure that you’re isolating yourself as much as possible to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. As Dr. Mike explains, the germs can possibly hang inside of the air within a room for three hours if someone sneezes and the atmospheric conditions are met. If you enter that room within the time frame that those germs make contact with your eyes, nose or mouth, you’re at great risk of contracting the virus and at the very least, being a carrier. We are much safer outside, where the sun’s UV rays are one of the most efficient ways at destroy the virus. Also, the germs can survive for 2-3 days on non-porous surfaces such as metals and plastics. That means you need to clean those surfaces often. Do not take any chances at increasing the overall rate of infection for our population.

Third, you need to take care of yourself both physically and mentally. With gyms and restaurants closed, we’re going to need to figure out ways to exercise and eat properly at home. We’re going to help you with that, providing more workouts and recipes that will fit this situation. We’re going to go over ideas for stocking your pantry with non-perishables that are healthy and delicious, as well as provide you with workouts that don’t require equipment. Stay tuned for more content, especially since I’m out of the gym for a month due to closures in the city. With that being said, more slots are also open for remote clients. Email ct@hungryandfit.com if you’re interested in that service.

Be well informed and make thoughtful decisions. Take care of yourself and those in your community. Stay strong. Stay hungry and fit.

To start, HERE IS ONE of our favorite at home workouts that you can do without equipment. It scales for beginners and the most advanced athletes. (I apologize for the broken photo links… it is an OLD article.)

Feb242020

The Ultimate On-The-Go Protein Drink

It is time to talk about protein again. If you’ve been following the blog since 2012, you’ve seen us talk about many different products in the realm of food science/nutrition/diet, etc. We’ve tested and reviewed dozens and dozens of supplements. While we don’t write about all of those items, we’ve focused a lot on one brand: Optimum Nutrition. Since 2007, I’ve used ON’s products for a variety of goals. They helped me as a high-level athlete and more importantly, they helped me as a person with a normal lifestyle. Why do I enjoy their products?

They taste good.
They’re reasonably priced.
I trust the brand.

Feb182020

Bring Back the Morning Star Riblet!

As most of our longtime readers know, just like everyone else in the world, we have eating preferences. These aren’t just rooted in what tastes good or what will help us achieve our fitness related goals. These decisions are heavily rooted in what we feel comfortable eating from an ethical standpoint. For example, many of the large chocolate companies were found to use child/slave labor in Western Africa. We don’t eat Hershey’s as a result. (You can find out more about this via The Dark Side of Chocolate.) While Hershey’s acknowledged their wrongdoing, after Whole Foods put pressure on them, and vowed to change their practices, we’re skeptical until we see results.

Another one of our issues is with the agriculture industry, specifically with the treatment of livestock. We only buy cage free eggs from the store. I try to consume free range meat. Also, we try to limit the amount of meat in the house, especially since Alana doesn’t eat any. We’ve taken a liking to using alternatives over the years and while we’ve enjoyed many brands, our go-to has always been Morningstar Farms. We enjoy their wide variety of products, which include both vegetarian and vegan options. They try to provide you with non-meat versions of meat favorites such as chicken nuggets and bacon.

And riblets.

Feb152020

5 Awesome Health Benefits of Kratom Leaves

There are several health benefits of kratom leaves that you should know about. Check out our list here to learn about these benefits.

It seems like every convenience store lately has a sign advertising kratom. You’ve heard about it, but you’ve always been a little nervous—You don’t know much, so you figure it’s best to stay away.

Still, questions linger: What are the benefits of kratom? Is it safe? Why do people take it? Could it be good for you, personally? Well, it’s finally time to get some answers.