“Heavy,” a poem by Hieu Minh Nguyen
This poem was chosen and sent out as part of the Academy of American Poets’ poem-a-day program today, January 27th, 2017. As soon as I read it I knew I wanted to give it to you. Not because I think you are heavy – I know you are each different – but because I think this poem can bring a ray of sunlight to the mind, no matter where the body is at, and can help heal any warring crevasse between the two.
This poem is copyright 2017 by Hieu Minh Nguyen and published on https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/heavy.
The narrow clearing down to the river
I walk alone, out of breath
my body catching on each branch.
Small children maneuver around me.
Often, I want to return to my old body
a body I also hated, but hate less
given knowledge.
Sometimes my friends—my friends
who are always beautiful & heartbroken
look at me like they know
I will die before them.
I think the life I want
is the life I have, but how can I be sure?
There are days when I give up on my body
but not the world. I am alive.
I know this. Alive now
to see the world, to see the river
rupture everything with its light.
Above is Hieu Minh Nguyen’s image from his bio on poets.org.
Image of a heron at top of page is credited to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southeast Region – Great Blue Heron Uploaded by AlbertHerring, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29815482
The Healthy Truth
Hi world!
I know I have been worse than negligent about posting on this blog for the past two-plus years. But it’s never too late to take a deep breath, turn the key in the ignition and get moving again, is it?
Times have changed, and now this blog needs a more sustainable fuel. Just like with the post-industrial era: Gasoline was once adequate, but now we know that relying on a fuel made up of dinosaur corpses can only lead to our own desperate asphyxiation as the last drips run out. Similarly (though less tragically for the world), my food creations have been running dry as I’ve started college and become more interested in writing, ocean conservation, and other activities. Therefore, WordPress-gods willing, I’m hoping to reinvigorate this blog with posts of a different nature, focused primarily on growing an actively positive relationship with the self and the world.
To be honest, I have had a hard time figuring out how to be an adult human. To be totally, brutally honest, I never really figured out how to be a teenage human either. Even during the three years or so of high school when I was frequently blogging on “True Healthy Me,” I sometimes felt hypocritical. I feared I was writing as a fake, 2-dimensional impostor, trying to shield the Internet’s eyes from the unsightly grease that slimed up the hidden corners of my brain’s back-room machinery. I know I am far from the only 21st century human to experience dissonance between my Internet self, real self, and the “ideal” self somewhere in between.
That’s not to say I was fantasizing myself entirely from thin air. I did make a lot of progress in my first year of recovery from my eating disorder – I stopped starving myself and then worked to stabilize some body systems which had been thrown somewhat off track. But when I reached a comfortable threshold, I stagnated.
I was living an okay life through Sophomore, Junior, and early Senior year, calculating my calories every day – several times a day – nine to seventeen permutations per calculating session, plus the background murmurs numbering my mind throughout the day… I was not losing or gaining weight, so I looked and felt “cured.” But there was (and is) still some work to be done. I was not yet comfortable with eating in various social situations. My need to calculate – and yes, it was a need in my brain – suffocated my lifestyle flexibility. You can imagine it might be inconvenient to have to bring a measuring cup to a friend’s house for dinner, and how some hosts might take it the wrong way when you “didn’t want any” pizza or cake at a birthday party.
But in order to feel safe, I needed to close the doors between myself and many opportunities that might have enriched my life. I avoided many restaurants and didn’t dare dream of dating guys; domestic and foreign travel was basically ruled out, as was hosting my own parties or even saying yes to most invitations from others. My careful homeostasis kept me (apparently) sane, but this effect only worked when the world around me was standing still. The world usually doesn’t stay still, so in practice I refused to participate in its moving parts. I did try to get more flexible with food and counting – at least, my conscious mind intended to try at the beginning of each new dietician or therapy assignment – but it was like asking a hermit crab to come out of its shell and dance naked on a table. Not even with a lampshade over my head was I about to take up that challenge.
I always knew I wanted to go to college, or at least I had always preferred it to the alternatives, or my parents convinced me that I did. To orchestrate this major transition, towards the end of Senior year, I finally said yes to the proposition that had been nipping at my heels all along: prescription medication. Prescribed to me, of course (I’m not a drug abuser, thankfully!) The last summer before college was a quest against the clock for a pill that would make me relatively normal. Happily, by the end of August, I had found one: the antidepressant enabled me to take in some fresh air, throw the post-its and calculators into a corner (sort of) and take off in that plane from Los Angeles to Portland to meet my roommate (shudder) and see if I could do this college thing like I was supposed to.
I adjusted quickly. But I was not ready to give up on the negativity that had kept me safe from an inner enemy for years. As a result, I eventually found my outlook on life slipping. Mild depression that had been lurking unaddressed in the recesses of my skull for who knows how long, now roared up like traffic at rush hour. Progress – or my perception of it – trickled to a frustrating red crawl. In these days, I had trouble staying awake; I refused to sit with anyone at meals or go to very many social events; I obsessed over a jerk who would never like me back, a traumatic experience that eventually left me doubting that any human connection was worth my energy. By the end of Freshman year in college, I was so afraid of other people that I would cringe when I walked past tall jocks who could crush me with their lacrosse biceps; I would start crying at the smallest provocation. Then for a while I didn’t really cry at all, just kind of glared out at the world from my colorless inner space while inside I still secretly, paradoxically, dreamed of participating in it.
After transporting my heavy corpse home for the summer, I went and got my diagnosis for moderate to severe depression and for social anxiety. I also got some new pills that were supposed to help me stay awake. Part of my constant fatigue, I was told, could be a result of the antidepressant that was calming the awakening neurons in my brain which had also triggered much of my anxiety. So I took a new pill on top of the original pill, in order to counteract the fatiguing effect, but the newer pill threatened to add anxiety back into my daily regimen. This perilous system has sort of been working for a while, but it still has its flaws.
A certain amount of stress and searching is normal for a young adult, or for anyone going through a transition in their life (so old wise folks have told me.) My journey was no different from that of billions of other people throughout history. It’s just that at a certain point I decided not to put up with this elevated level of stress that was making it impossible for me to grow. This decision is not unusual either, but it could and should be even more usual. If we are all facing the same direction we should not see ourselves as standing alone.
I started this blog during my first year of recovery from a disorder that resembled anorexia nervosa. My initial goal here was to communicate a healthy mindset to readers anywhere and everywhere: It is possible to be happy with yourself, you can stop trying to destroy yourself to fit some useless standard constructed by other sick girls, and it is possible to feel good about yourself while eating enough to fuel your brain and your body. I ended up transmitting that message (very, very subtly!) through the recipes that were my main posting content. Starting now, I plan to center back onto the blog’s original intention, focusing more on the mindset aspect than the physical aspect. (There will still be some recipes, just probably a larger proportion of short inspirational quotes and real-life talk.)
Furthermore, I want to articulate a new layer of that original mission: the intention to rehabilitate my own brain, possibly inspiring outside observers along the way. I am slowly (re)learning to be and practice love, of myself and my surroundings and the world I live in, complete with all flaws. I am learning to move past my old unsustainable belief that the only way to be special was to make myself sick. I am done thinking the only way for a girl to find love was to fall distressingly into the arms of a knight in shining armor, asking for nothing but weeping for external validation and a ring.
I believe in women, men, and everything outside or in between those gender constructions. I believe that all beings are people and that we humans have a lot to learn from members of other phylogenetic families that love themselves and others without question and live their lives without waste. I believe that no individual can take all of the world’s problems onto their shoulders alone, which is why people have to unite in search of mutual compassion, freedom, and honesty. We need to forge a path forward to an older style of existence in harmony with the planet, to heal it and our lives which can only exist inside its unique atmosphere.
To facilitate all of the preceding beliefs, I believe that love starts within oneself. It is not accorded to us by some outside authority. It is not rationed out based on our physical attractiveness, our talents, our birthrights, or our psychological disorders. Love comes from trying the best we can to light the intention for happiness within ourselves first. Then we will be able to light the way for others. Finally, in the distant future, when people do reach the end of the path to a healthy relationship with Earth – there will be more path still ahead. Always there should be something for the human being to do; we would have to evolve into a different species to lose our need to create and discover and belong in our environment. Hmm… Perhaps we will get gills or grow extra legs at some point… For now, however, that’s way beyond the scope of this blog. Maybe check back in some hundred million years?
In the meantime, I hope you stay tuned. Look out for regular snippets of encouragement to search for our truest lights and extinguish the false fluorescence of chronic unhappiness.
Good Morning Smoothie Featuring Post Honey Bunches of Oats with Almonds
I come from a cereal breakfast family. Every morning when I was in elementary school, I took for granted that cereal with milk would be breakfast. It wasn’t until high school that I began to branch out with toast, eggs, and other more interesting creations. But I can’t say I’ve never looked back.
Over the years, various brands and flavors of cereal have taken on certain characters for me based on the memories I associate with them.
For instance, one of the Spiderman movies came out when my brother and I were both in a Froot-Loops phase. The cereal began advertising Spiderman trinket bobbleheads inside each box, so every time we opened a new box we’d discover a new plastic treasure to end up forgotten on the floor a few minutes later. Now every time I see a picture of Spiderman I smell the sugar and food coloring of Froot-Loops.
Image copyright Marvel Comics, found on https://craytoncomicblog.wordpress.com/2010/11/07/review-157-carnage-1-oktober-2010-marvel-comics/
When I was around twelve, in that awkward stage between unhealthy child muncher and unhealthy dieting tween, my family was on vacation in some So-Cal town. Because everyone was picky about breakfast, Dad took us kids to the local grocery store to get whatever we were willing to eat. I actually wanted to try something different, so I picked out Cinnabon cereal: basically tiny stale cinnamon buns in milk.
Image found on http://forthemommas.com/store-deals/weis-markets/weis-kelloggs-cereal-low-87
I was disappointed that the cereal wasn’t as amazing as a real cinnamon bun. My mom also noted that it was lower in nutritional value than the cereals I would usually eat at home (Special K, Honey Bunches of Oats, Post Selects, etc.) I renounced the cereal, teary-eyed and embarrassed.
The lowest calorie cereal I could find in the grocery store back home was Fiber One 80 calorie cardboard squares. My first year of high school, I would pour a few squares into a bowl that had once overflowed with Froot-Loops, add a few drops of skim milk, and slice up two strawberries to match the picture on the box.
Image found on http://www.mrbreakfast.com/cereal_detail.asp?id=1462
One time my mom was trying to convince me I wasn’t eating enough and insisted upon measuring my cereal. I was terrified I would discover I had poured more than a serving size into the bowl, but actually it was less than the stated 3/4 cup. My mom and I looked each other in the eye, both knowing I had a problem, both unsure whether to laugh or cry. I’ll always remember that moment as one of the painful sunbeams that has illuminated my long and ongoing path to healing.
This past summer, my mother, 14-year-old brother and I were on snack break at the Natural History Museum. I chose to grab a single-serving convenience cup of Honey Bunches of Oats with Almonds, an old favorite, and some Greek yogurt to mix into it.
Image credit: “NaturalHistoryMuseumOfLosAngelesCounty” by David Leigh Ellis – Self-photographed. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NaturalHistoryMuseumOfLosAngelesCounty.jpg#/media/File:NaturalHistoryMuseumOfLosAngelesCounty.jpg
My brother eyed my purchase suspiciously and remarked, “You know those cereal cups are for college students, right?” Since I was shipping off to my first year of college at the end of the month, I felt entitled to eat college convenience food. My brother just shook his head as I mixed the yogurt into the sweet granola clusters and flakes. Clearly I was a precocious one.
I haven’t seen any convenience cups of Honey Bunches of Oats at the 7-11 near my college. I’ve missed them, and I feel like I’m not getting the real college experience my brother promised. So now while home for winter break, I decided recently to pick up a full box at the grocery store, a better value than those individual cups anyway. As soon as I brought it home, my mind was whirring with ideas of recipes to use it in.
This one is pretty simple: a fueling, invigorating blueberry orange smoothie with a full serving of Post Honey Bunches of Oats with Almonds for added crunch and a spoonful of crunchy peanut butter for added energy. Feel free to use almond butter or any other nut butter of your choosing.
Blueberry Orange Peanut Butter Crunch Smoothie
serves 1-2
Ingredients:
- one single-serving container Greek blueberry yogurt (I used Yoplait Greek 100)
- 1/2 cup plain almond milk
- 1 whole large navel orange
- 1 frozen banana (or use a fresh banana and add more ice)
- a couple ice cubes
- 3/4 cup Post Honey Bunches of Oats with Almonds cereal
- 1 tbs crunchy peanut butter
Directions:
Peel orange and separate segments for easier blending. Place most of the orange segments in the blender, but reserve one or two for garnish.
Pour almond milk into blender. Add yogurt, frozen banana, and ice cubes.
Blend until smooth
Add cereal and blend for about five seconds, just to mix it in.
Pour smoothie into serving glass. Garnish with reserved orange slice(s) and a scoop of your favorite nut butter. Enjoy cold.
Up and at ’em!
Ten Things Your Daughter in Eating Disorder Recovery Won’t Tell You
I used to flip through The Reader’s Digest every once in a while in an idle moment at my grandparents’ house. The articles I often found most digestible were the collections of ten things some type of professional or other wouldn’t tell you (“Ten Things Your Knee Surgeon Won’t Tell You;” Ten Things Your Canoe Insurance Agent Won’t Tell You,” etcetera.) Basically, these lists would consist of a number of alleged facts about the industry or service in question that anonymous professionals disclosed to the article writer, but that they don’t typically let their clients know: secrets that may change the way the public views knee surgery or interprets clauses of a canoe insurance policy. Supposedly, knowing these insider secrets could help consumers save money and get the better of the bureaucratic institutions that run their lives.
In this post, I have compiled a list of the most important things your daughter who is recovering from an eating disorder may not have the courage or willingness to tell you. Rather than taking advantage of this information for personal gain, its intended use is to spark awareness, compassion, maybe some communication within families.
The ten confessions are based on my own experience throughout my recovery and observations of peers in similar situations, as well as discussions with professionals. They may apply in varying degrees depending on how long an individual has been on the path to wellness. Of course, individual cases and the personality of a particular person vary a great deal as well, and I can’t pretend to know the inner workings of every brain wracked by an eating disorder. (I’m not even beginning to guess how eating-disordered guys think, though that is also a serious issue.) Loved ones and professionals should take the uniqueness of every individual girl into account when establishing care tactics and family boundaries.
Keeping these considerations in mind, here is my list of ten things I can reasonably assert, based on personal experience as well as interactions with peers and professionals, that many teenage eating disorder patients would like their parents to know.
1. Please be patient. I may appear “all cured,” I may be eating and socializing and laughing like everyone else, but the truth is that this is an ongoing process. There will still be roadblocks, and I may even take a few steps back as I press forward in the direction of health. Keep a close eye on me (without being a “helicopter parent,” of course) and recognize that recovery takes time.
2. With that said, sometimes I need to be allowed the independence to make the decision to eat or not. There might be one night a year when I’m at a stressful family celebration and there’s no food I feel comfortable eating and I just kind of opt out of dinner that night. Rather than being on my case all night until I break down and force a few bites of pasta into my mouth, just let go and let me choose either health or hunger, whatever it may be. Over time, with professional support and your encouragement, I will decide that choosing health is more comfortable, and there will be fewer and fewer nights when I choose the old, outdated comfort of starvation instead.
3. There are many faces of the eating disorder. Once one has been all but abolished from my behavior, another is likely to sneak up and rear its head. For instance, once I have been convinced to stop starving myself, I may develop an unhealthy obsession for control over my food. Yes, I’m eating now, but it also takes me twenty minutes to make a perfectly portioned lunch for school, and I sit in math class calculating my daily calories instead of the square root of a polynomial. Both are unhealthy and need to be addressed.
4. I want to be “normal” as much as you want me to be “normal” – I want to fit in with the other girls, have a social life and go to parties, and be able to think about other things than food, body image, exercise… the problem is, as much as I want to fit in, I also want to be “special” and stand out from the crowd, and currently my self-esteem is such that I feel the only achievable way for me to be special is to be skinnier than everyone else, even if it means going to extreme lengths and relinquishing some of my chances to be special in other ways, such as excelling in school or pursuing hobbies, since I have so little energy or mental space for anything else in my life. It’s an obsession, and once I can get involved in other engaging activities it’s likely I’ll start to open my mind to the possibility of being special in a non-numerical manner. The fight between my desire to be normal and to be special is why I am struggling through this recovery process. Once “special’s” definition expands, my eating is likely to expand (though it may take longer for my jeans size to expand.)
5. Please don’t make detailed, emotional remarks about my body (i.e.: “You look so healthy! Not too fat, not too skinny, just right. Such a beautiful girl.”) Even though these words sound like a compliment to your ears, my ears may not be at that point yet, and to me words like “healthy,” or even just bringing up my figure at all, are triggers. The best compliment may be one that avoids anything from the chest to the ankles (i.e.: “I love the way you did your toenails” or “you have such lovely long eyelashes.” That way, you can help me as I build up esteem for my physical appearance without broaching the extra-sensitive areas until I have indicated that I’m ready to deal with them.
6. Don’t point out other ultra-skinny girls you see in the street, or on t.v. or magazine covers. I’m already hyper-aware of these ghostly figures: they swirl around in my brain as I go about my day, enticing me like sirens to plunge back into the waves of starvation so I can compete with them. Please just be happy that I am strong enough to ignore them, and let’s have a conversation about something else.
7. It’s already likely very hard for me to follow the directions of my doctors and dieticians telling me what to eat and when. I have a lot of internal deliberation at each mealtime: do I eat? Or not? Recognizing this, it would help me a lot if you would be supportive or in the least not create unnecessary obstacles between me and my prescribed food. For instance, take me to the grocery store if I need to replenish. Ask me if I need to eat lunch before whisking me off to spend the hours between 11:00 AM and 3:00 PM on errands with you. You don’t need to bug me to eat constantly, but sometimes a little reminder that you are watching, and/or a little logistical assistance in getting what I need, is a big help.
8. I can’t expect you to understand what I’m going through. Some of the conversations in my head that rule my body’s actions must sound to you like an alien tongue; to you the intense emotion that may be triggered in me from some event as mundane as walking through the frozen aisle at the grocery store or sitting down to a Thanksgiving meal with relatives may seem uncalled-for. But even if you can’t comprehend every aspect of my world, when I want to talk to you about it, please listen attentively. If you listen with your eyes, your ears, and your compassion, chances are you’ll understand more than you give yourself credit for. And even if you don’t get it, sometimes just verbalizing the taunts and arguments ringing in my head, getting them out in the open air, can show me how ridiculous and nonsensical they are.
9. Just like you can’t understand everything I tell you about my relationship with my body, I can’t always relate to things you might tell me regarding eating/food/exercise/body image. I might laugh at jokes about food cravings or the difficulty of rousing oneself from bed on the weekend to go to the gym, but to me they aren’t really funny. I wonder what it must be like to lose control over one’s willpower and eat an extra treat, or not to be overtaken by a burning urge to hop out of bed at 7 AM Saturday morning and go for a jog. Though I used to live in this world, some of its commonalities are now alien to me. I will gradually learn to re-assimilate, but who knows whether I really remembered how to crave pretzels or if I just pretended so well I began to believe my own façade?
10. I’m working very hard, even if you can’t see it. Just the fact that I’ve chosen to follow this path with my support group, nourishing meal plans and therapy rather than continue on the path to hospitalization or worse, that decision took some nerve, and sticking to it can be a battle, especially at the beginning. Achievements that some people take for granted, like my eating lunch without having to be coaxed to do so, or adding bananas back into my diet, for me take work. While I don’t need you to cheer for me every time I eat a banana, I also don’t appreciate your yearning for me to “be normal” or to “just eat like everyone else.” I know you want me to fit in, to be successful, to be happy, and I want those things too, but in my own time, in my own way. In the meantime, please take the time to recognize my efforts in this and other areas of my life: not only am I working hard to recover healthy behaviors, I’m also a brilliant student/a talented flute player/a committed gymnast. No one’s perfect – that’s what this whole disease is about, isn’t it?
Image sources (in order of appearance):
http://www.aphotoeditor.com/2008/09/18/bill-black-director-of-photography-at-readers-digest/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Everest
http://monstersandbeasts.blogspot.com/2011/03/hydra-mythology.html
Skinny Strawman
We are currently learning about logical fallacies in my English class: arguments a writer or speaker makes to obscure the truth, to create a somewhat inaccurate understanding of an issue in the eyes of the audience. This can lead to audience action that may not be warranted. Influential people, such as politicians, will sometimes use these fallacies to their advantage. This is why experienced readers must be aware of all different types of logical fallacies, so they can be recognized and the writer will not be able to manipulate the reader.
Eating disorders are like fraudulent politicians. They enter the brain and attempt to gain control by rallying emotions that are stronger than rational thinking. This is why a person taken over by an eating disorder loses some of their ability to think rationally, and becomes a sort of slave to the eating disorder, robotically performing commanded tasks that don’t really make sense. Why would a reasonable person push themselves past the limit of health or comfort, exercising rather than hanging out with friends, eating meals meant for rabbits rather than enjoying a balanced meal diverse in food groups? Why would that person insist upon being the skinniest person in the room, even when this goal is certain to lead to hospitalization? Why would anyone with the ability to think rationally let a dictatorial power invade the brain, imposing a cage that closes in around the victim on all sides, growing tighter and tighter and shutting out all light?
I have never studied psychology, but I do know that in order for such things to happen, very persuasive thoughts must enter the brain. They must build in strength and numbers, until their voice is louder than the voice of common reason. The perverse thoughts do this through riveting emotional appeals that, when examined closely, can be characterized as logical fallacies. While the brain is under the control of these thoughts, they seem very real and forceful. They make us feel as if our only choice is to follow them and do unhealthy things to our bodies in pursuit of their goals. I want to recognize and acknowledge that it is extremely difficult to rise above these thoughts. When they are very real and imminent, it can be very helpful if one seeks the aid of a psychiatrist. I am no psychiatrist myself, but I do know these thoughts are tough to conquer. In order to rise above illogical thoughts, we must first recognize that they are illogical.
Here are some common types of logical fallacies I have been learning about in school. I feel each of these has a parallel in the brain when it comes to eating-disordered thoughts. They should be treated in the same way: recognized as unreasonable and then disregarded. In this blog post, I will discuss three particular logical fallacies that closely parallel eating-disordered thinking.
The Bandwagon Appeal
One logical fallacy we see every day is the “Bandwagon” Appeal. “Everybody’s doing it!” As an adolescent in the midst of today’s media jungle, pressures are constantly being applied from various sources to look and act a certain way. Teens of both genders feel the need to look cool like the airbrushed, plastic-surgery-ed celebrities in every magazine, on every billboard. And if looking like an anorexic model means eating like one, many teens will make that decision, thinking they aren’t cool if they do not. Many teens think being popular depends on being thin.
The error in this reasoning is that one won’t be popular if one is a brainless (skinny) jellyfish, floating aimlessly through life, lacking the energy to entertain others, let alone ask that cute boy for his number. The truth is that starving oneself is not normal, and in fact those who do starve themselves are whispered about and ostracized, often by that very same popular crew who created the bandwagon in the first place.
A good way to avoid jumping on this fatal bandwagon is to have a role model. One who stands out from the homogenous mass of skeletal celebrities, as a unique and powerful person who isn’t afraid of his or her own body. My role model, at least in this respect, is Kate Upton: she has a great feminine body and embraces it. By thinking of Kate Upton, I can feel like there is at least one like-minded celebrity out there. I belong to a group, just not the group on that bandwagon that’s driving to no good place.
Slippery Slope
A cute example of the “Slippery Slope” is Laura Joeffe Numeroff’s beloved If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, in which, as we probably all know, one action leads to another and another until ultimately the consequences of one cookie are quite enormous. (Spoiler alert for those who haven’t read it!) The reason a “slippery slope” is a fallacy is because it is usually designed to frighten the audience into desperate avoidance of an action that, in truth, may not produce such dire consequences as the writer or speaker would like the audience to believe.
Eating-disordered thoughts can work this way as well. For example: “don’t touch that cookie! If you eat one cookie you’ll eat another, and another, and soon you’ll eat the whole bag! Then you’ll be fat, you’ll never get a boyfriend and everyone will make fun of you.” The slippery slope lubricates itself with help from its sister the bandwagon appeal, combining to show you the treacherous path ahead if you eat one cookie.
When thoughts start to get out of control, it’s essential to first recognize this. Realize that there are many paths ahead, not just the one that leads down a steep cliff into the dreaded abyss. It is completely possible for a health-conscious person to determine to take the path of eating just one or two cookies, then stopping right there. Moderate eating includes the occasional indulgence, and it is perfectly safe and acceptable to eat a cookie every once in a while. So let yourself feel safe, and take the right path to earn your own trust.
The Strawman
When politicians can’t address a daunting issue, they will often set up a fake issue to tackle so the public believes the politician is taking action. The “strawman” is the imaginary, wicked opposition to the good of the people. The politician creates a strawman in his/her speeches just to knock it down.
Teenagers live in a world of angst. Our lives are fraught with insurmountable expectations, social pressures, and stressful situations over which we have little or no control. But I think sometimes we tell ourselves, “I do have total control over my life! I can make everything rosy if I just get skinny.” Losing weight can be hard, but it’s not as hard as ensuring one’s success at being accepted into Harvard, or getting the most popular guy in school to ask one out. Losing weight is a mathematical function based on scientific principles: you put in one number, and another comes out. No mind-reading or charisma necessary. It’s a relatively easy strawman to knock down. I think this is why we often tell ourselves all our problems will disappear if we lose weight: we are putting off dealing with an ambiguous reality.
But losing weight isn’t really the solution to all the problems of a stressed teen. In fact, if eating-disordered thoughts take over, it is difficult to accomplish much else. While the teen is slaving for hours at the gym, her crush will take out some other girl for ice cream. While the teen is in the hospital being force-fed, the other kids will be busy building up their resumés and applying to college. So none of the original problems have been solved. In addition, more problems are created, what with everyone gossiping about the mysterious absence, and the huge hospital bill that just might have to come out of the Harvard fund.
No, it isn’t possible to control every aspect of life. But if one sets up the weight-loss strawman, one’s life may just spin even more out of control. Personally, I try to put stressors such as college or social issues in perspective, so they don’t seem so big and scary. I accept that I will not be able to control everything. But at least I can control everything in my power. I apply myself at school and do my personal best at every endeavor I choose to take on, realizing that all I can do is all that can be done. When something is out of my hands I often have to remind myself that there is no point in agonizing over it; life goes on and the flow of things will take me where I am headed, with the compass of my best work pointing the way.
I could go on forever. Every logical fallacy in the book is employed by the irrationality of eating-disordered thoughts. Frankly, eating-disordered thoughts are consummate liars. The logic behind them is thinner than spider silk, and they take over the mind through manipulation like the most rotten politicians in history. As thinkers, we need to be savvy about which thoughts deserve any of our precious time, and which need to be disregarded at once. If your mind is being overrun by forceful, irrational thoughts, do yourself a favor and think twice. Stay strong, be unique and be you! You don’t need to be the skinniest person on the planet to be a good, successful and happy individual.
In Distress? Time To De-Stress!
It’s currently what I call the most stressful time of the year. Forget the Christmas shopping stampede, back-to-school season is truly the season of the most headaches (and backaches!) every year. If you are a high school student like me, you know the sudden, unwelcome flood of work, expectations, unfamiliar teachers and obligations filling up your schedule that arrives the moment the first bell rings. And stays like an unwanted guest, hours past the time you get home and drop your 50-lb backpack on the floor. It hangs over your shoulder while you power through that stack of homework, and breathes down your neck as you try to relax and get to sleep at a reasonable hour (yeah, right!)
In this post, I will share some de-stress methods that I use throughout the day and find effective at lowering my anxiety. I’m not saying I’m the queen of zen by any stretch of the imagination. But I do have school-proof methods that work for me to reduce my anxiety, morning, noon and night. In this post, I have divided my strategies into a Dawn-To-Dusk De-Stress Plan. I hope you give a few of my ideas a try, and maybe customize them to be optimal for you. Everyone has unique methods to cope with stress. If you have a great relaxation technique that isn’t here, feel free to mention it in the comments!
The Fall 2013 True Healthy Me Dawn-To-Dusk De-stress Plan
Mornings:
1. Have a schedule during the week. Set your alarm so you wake up early enough to get ready and sit down to a healthy, satisfying breakfast before heading out the door. This way, there’s no morning drama or fear of lateness (is anyone else deathly afraid of walking in late to a silent classroom? Or is that just my personal weirdness?). The more time I leave myself to dress, eat, etcetera, the less likely I am to rush out the door and forget something, saving me from more stress later on. (“Everyone take out the 500-page essay that none of you left on your desks at home because you can’t turn it in late.” Oops.)
2. Speaking of breakfast: very important. Fuels your brain and helps you wake up. I don’t drink coffee, but I often find myself more awake than other students early in the day because I take the time to plan and eat a good breakfast.
During the School Day:
3. Don’t think too far into the future. I learned from my mom to just think about what I’m doing at the moment: right now I’m walking to science class. Not: when I get to science class I need to do a group activity and after that I have to go to music and we have a playing test and I might get a bad grade and my GPA will drop and I’ll never get into college. Sometimes I find myself thinking like this, but then I remember that it’s more effective to take things one step at a time. Just like if I’m playing music, I can’t try to play all the notes at once (that would get me an F for sure!) It’s important to think ahead a little, but don’t worry ahead.
4. Find things to smile/laugh about. Some studies show that laughter not only helps one relax and feel good, it can be beneficial for blood flow and it just makes people happy overall. So hang out with people who make you laugh!
5. Be organized. Write down all your homework so you don’t have to frantically scour your friends and the rarely-updated teacher websites when you get home. And keep all your classwork in a binder or folder, in some sort of order that makes things easy to find. In elementary school, my desk was the messiest area in the classroom. One day the teacher made me clean it up while the other kids did a fun activity. But once the horrid mess was removed, everything I needed was easier to find! That lesson stuck with me forever, and now I keep all my papers reasonably organized. As for my desk at home…that’s another story. But I do find that the neater I can get it, the higher my quality of life is while doing homework.
After School:
6. Take a shower. If I’ve just arrived home from a hard day at school, I like to take a little break before starting my homework to just feel the warm water rushing over me. It feels like I’m washing off the dusty drudgery of the day. When I come out, I feel rejuvenated and ready to work!
7. Don’t procrastinate. Do your homework as soon as possible, after maybe a quick shower and/or snack. Break projects up into little pieces as soon as they are assigned, and plan when you will do each step.
8. Have something to look forward to. I know how trying it is to sit down to a pile of homework after a whole day of tedious classwork. What I often do is take a fun little quiz on Blogthings (most take less than 5 minutes) and don’t let myself see the result until I’ve done a set amount of homework. I will also wait to look at emails from friends until I’ve done some homework. Keeping that little reward just out of reach motivates me to do my homework faster.
Evenings:
9. Get to bed at a reasonable time. I try to make sure I get at least 8 hours. Even if I’m still working on something, unless it’s the most important thing in the world and due tomorrow, I will quit at 10:00 or 10:30 to make sure I get enough sleep. This way, I’ll be refreshed enough to make more progress on my work the next day. I avoid having to work all night because I start working on projects the day I receive them.
10. When I’m lying in bed, just before I fall asleep, I think of eleven positive things that happened to me during the day. I’ve been doing this since seventh grade, when my English teacher told us research suggested this procedure could turn a pessimist into an optimist. It hasn’t quite done that for me, but what it has done is helped me reflect on my day. I always find myself remembering little funny or exciting things that happened that I’d forgotten about. The positive things can include achievements, new opportunities, laugh out loud moments, a compliment someone gave you…anything you find good. And you don’t have to limit yourself to eleven.
In General:
11. Plan your schedule for the year in a realistic way. I know people who are taking 4 or 5 AP classes, plus are involved in high-level orchestra, athletics, and/or honors societies. Unless you want to get into the University of Over-Achievers, where your life will be even more stressful what with 100-page dissertations due every day, please be realistic with yourself. In my view, it’s more important to focus on a few areas of study that are genuinely important to you. Then push yourself to do more in these areas, and take harder classes that directly relate to your interests and passions. This will help you truly excel in these areas, which is also a plus on that college resumé you’re so worried about. 🙂 For instance, I am only taking one AP class, which is English, something I am interested in and fairly good at.
12. Exercise. Just like laughing, exercise can release good chemicals in your body. Sometimes when I’m really angry or stressed, I go for a short run to burn off my bad feelings. I also enjoy yoga, though I haven’t taken a formal class in some time. Just before getting into bed I sometimes do a few poses, or at least child’s pose (my favorite!) I also occasionally do a bit in the morning. I feel like it helps release tension building in my body.
13. Pursue hobbies. I find baking to be a great stress-reliever. Painting, drawing, writing, and reading help get my mind off anxiety-provoking topics. Blogging is not only a hobby but also a way to express my feelings. Letting out feelings helps them seem less upsetting and frightening, so it’s important to have an outlet.
14. Keep everything in perspective. There will be times when you forget something or are running late or just feel like the end of the world is upon you. I myself tend to blow issues out of proportion. Then I tell myself in my head, no one’s going to execute you. And I realize it’s true, and stop worrying so much about a little slip-up I’ve made. I’ve also taught this strategy to my mom, who says it helps her as well.
15. Have a rest day. I am Jewish and don’t do schoolwork on the Sabbath, which is Saturday. Even if you are not religious, it is nice to take a day off at some point during the week. Having that rest day helps me have something to look forward to during the busy week. It also refreshes my attitude, so I am ready to work when the Sabbath is over.
I hope these tips are helpful to you in your quest to find peace in today’s anxious world. Have as good a back-to-school season as possible!
Sources: http://www.webmd.com/balance/features/give-your-body-boost-with-laughter
Mexican Style Brown Rice Bowl
I made this as a lunch dish for just me, but the recipe can certainly be multiplied by any quantity to feed more people. I found it to be the perfect combination of healthy and delicious: brown rice is the healthiest type of rice, since it has not been processed as much as white rice and retains most of its vitamins, minerals, fiber, and fatty acids. Brown rice is a great source of manganese, among other things, which helps the body manufacture proper enzymes to digest proteins. And this rice is high in protein, with the yummy, melty cheese and even some protein in the avocado. I wished I could have cooked some beans to add to the rice, but as it was the whole process of cooking it as well as roasting the peppers took nearly an hour. However, if you want to get ambitious I recommend adding a sprinkling of black beans to this rice bowl, for even more healthy goodness.
The cooking process, as I mentioned, takes some time, but if you can multitask that will come in handy. I was roasting some mini peppers in the oven while cooking the rice and assembling the ingredients. If you have the coordination to multitask, and the patience to wait around while rice is cooking, you will be rewarded with a scrumptious rice bowl in the end.
Mexican Style Brown Rice Bowl
Serves one
roasted pepper directions based on Food Network
Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup dry brown rice
- 3/4 cup cold water
- 1 tsp plain coconut milk
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 3 sweet mini peppers
- 1/4 avocado, sliced
- 1/4 cup shredded cheese (Mexican cheese would have been good; I used Sargento Cheese Pizzeria cheese and it worked okay as well)
- 2 tbls tomato salsa (I used Salsa Lisa brand)
Directions: Begin by roasting the mini peppers. First, preheat the oven to 360 Fahrenheit. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil. Spray generously with nonstick cooking spray. Place the whole peppers on the cookie sheet. When the oven is at the desired temperature, place the peppers in the oven to roast for 8-10 minutes. Turn peppers over and roast for another 8-10 minutes or until they are tender and skin is wrinkled. Remove from oven and wrap in foil immediately.
While peppers are in the oven, cook the rice. First, rinse the brown rice in water to remove excess starch. Allow mixture to rest for 15 minutes. Place rice and water into deep pan. Heat to high until water boils. Stir rice occasionally. After a few minutes, turn heat to medium. Cover with a tight lid and continue to cook until rice soaks up all the water (about 10-15 minutes for 1/4 cup of rice.)
When rice is done cooking, remove from heat and place in desired bowl. Unwrap the peppers from the foil and cut off the stems. Quarter the peppers and place them in the rice bowl. Add cheese and avocado. Microwave for 15 seconds or until cheese is melted. Top with salsa and serve.
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Pita Pizza with Cheese, Avocado, and Mango
Sources: http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=128, http://www.manganese-health.org/about_us/healtheffects
Mediterranean-Inspired Salad
Finally! The school year dragged itself out as long as possible, but it is FINALLY OVER. Today was my first day of vacation. Even though it was kind of gloomy and practically drizzling, we braved the June gloom to visit the pier.
We saw some cute little ground squirrels on the walk there. They were just minding their own business, nibbling at the grass and skittering away from anyone who came too close. They didn’t take too kindly to paparazzi, but I was able to snap a few good shots:
Did I ever mention that I finally got a new camera? I got it about a month ago, and it takes really nice, clear pictures. Like this one:
The squirrel on the left seems shocked at my rudeness: “Why are you taking my picture while I’m eating? What if I have grass blades stuck between my teeth?”
Then we got to the pier, enjoyed the rides and the gloomy view of the sea, looked at the really overpriced souvenirs but didn’t buy anything, etcetera. I won’t bore you by blogging about that.
What I noticed about the food situation at the pier was that it didn’t really cater to people who want to eat healthy. I saw several churro stands, popcorn stands, and ice cream vendors, a store selling greasy burgers and fries, another selling greasy pizza, and a funnel cake store. Those ground squirrels would have been shocked at the level of junk food offered. “Why don’t they sell any grass salads?”, They would have asked. I myself was puzzled. I mean, maybe no one wants to eat grass, but I’m sure some pier-goers would appreciate a light meal option such as a salad.
When I got home, I made myself a little salad. It was sort of Mediterranean-style, except the only cheese I had was cheddar, so I didn’t quite keep to the Mediterranean theme. But the cheddar cheese mingled wonderfully with the other ingredients, and I actually recommend using it.
For those looking for a light summer lunch that doesn’t include grease or funnel cake, here is a delicious, single-portion-size salad. Make like a ground squirrel and eat your vegetables!
Mediterranean-Inspired Salad
makes one serving
Ingredients:
- 1 cup baby spinach leaves
- 6-8 cherry tomatoes
- 3 artichoke hearts (I used Cara Mia brand)
- 4 pimiento stuffed manzanilla olives
- 1/4 of an avocado, cut into smallish pieces
- 2 tbls Sargento brand 4-State Cheddar shredded cheese
- 2 tbls roasted red pepper hummus
Directions:
Make sure spinach and tomatoes are washed. Place spinach, tomatoes, artichoke hearts, olives, avocado, and cheese in a medium salad bowl. Add hummus and toss. Enjoy!
Ground squirrel level:
getting better…
human level…
awesome level!!! Yay!
The hummus really makes the salad.
What is your favorite ingredient in a salad?
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Weekday Breakfasts, Updated! Friday: Medit-American Breakfast Pita
The Truth About Carbs, Glycemic Index, and Glycemic Load
I do hate those alarmist websites and blogs all over the internet, constantly fretting about new health “discoveries” that freak people out and scare them into trying radical diet plans, cutting out specific foods from their diet, consuming truckloads of other presumably healthy foods that have now been found to lower cholesterol or promote digestion or whatnot… this radical diet usually lasts a few weeks at most before it is abandoned for a new one, based on a new internet fad. Will acai berries solve all your problems? No, that was last month. Now it’s all about green tea. No wait, green coffee beans! High carb! Low carb! The whole big online mess of conflicting and ever-changing proclamations of what’s healthy can get to be overwhelming. After all, you don’t want to become afraid of every single food on the planet.
With that said, here I am adding yet another unprofessional piece of health advice to the already gigantic mass of health rants on the internet. But I will do my best to make this one accurate, and furthermore reasonable and realistic. I promise I won’t tell you your only chance at remaining healthy is to drink nothing but green coffee!
The subject of today’s post is a health issue I myself didn’t know much about until recently. But now that I’ve found out about it, I couldn’t resist sharing it with you. This much-discussed topic is that of carbohydrates. Some people say they’re horrible, some people say they’re vital. What’s the answer?
First off, let’s get this straight: You need carbohydrates. They aren’t evil. Carbs are necessary for your daily energy because they are converted by the body into glucose. Glucose is used by all of your cells for energy to carry out their cell processes. If you didn’t consume any carbohydrates to get that needed glucose, you wouldn’t be able to function properly. So yes, you do need carbs. But some types of carbs are healthier than others.
When choosing your carbohydrates, it’s more complex than simple and complex. You have probably heard of the old system of categorizing carbohydrates into two groups: simple and complex. Simple carbs have only one or two sugar molecules, while complex carbs have three or more. Up until recently it was thought that simple carbs were unhealthy and complex carbs were healthy. But now it is known that things aren’t that definite. Some super-unhealthy foods, such as French fries and white bread, are classified as complex carbs. And fruits are considered to be simple carbs. Does this mean we should all load up on French fries and Wonderbread and give up eating fruit? NO! What it means is that we should look at carbs in a different way. A better way of choosing healthy carbs is the glycemic index system.
The Glycemic Index System compares how quickly and how high blood sugar spikes from eating a particular food in comparison to pure glucose. The higher the glycemic index of a food is, the higher and more rapid the resulting blood sugar spike will be. Since white bread causes a rapid blood sugar spike, it has a high glycemic index. Whole oats cause a lower and slower blood sugar spike, so they have a lower glycemic index. The longer a food takes to be digested, the lower the glycemic index of that food is. Slow digestion is considered better because it means the starches in the food take longer to be converted into blood sugar. Therefore, they don’t cause the unwanted sugar lows and crashes once all that sugar has been used up by the body. Here’s some perspective on how to interpret a food’s glycemic index: A glycemic index of 55- is low, and a score of 70+ is high.
Several factors affect a food’s glycemic index. I have listed some of them below:
- One is processing: if a grain is not “whole,” it’s literally because the bran and the germ (two different parts of the grain) have been removed, making it easier for the body to break down those sugars.
- The physical form of a grain: finely milled flour is quicker to break down than coarsely milled flour or other grains that are not ground.
- Another factor is the amount of fiber a food contains. The higher in fiber a food is, the harder it is for the body to break down the sugars, so the longer it takes to digest. This is also why fiber helps you feel fuller longer.
- On a chemical level, the type of starch a food contains is important. Starches come in different chemical configurations, and some are easier than others for the body to break down.
(For a more complete list of the factors that affect a food’s glycemic index, please see this site: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/carbohydrates-full-story/ . It does a much better explaining job than I ever could.)
The thing about the glycemic index system is that it’s so new, researchers haven’t been able to indisputably prove its value. Some studies show that a low GI diet helps avoid type two diabetes and control weight, but others reveal no link between a low GI diet and such benefits. Still, many of the foods that have a low glycemic index are also healthy anyway, so we might as well keep eating whole grains and fruits and such regardless of the inconclusive GI research.
There is another system to classify foods called the glycemic load system. It is similar to the glycemic index system, but more complete of a classification of foods. Unlike the GI system, which only rates foods based on their affect on blood sugar levels, the glycemic load system is based on both the blood sugar level and the carbohydrates delivered by each food. The glycemic load of a food is found by multiplying the glycemic index of a food by how much carbohydrate it contains. For some perspective on glycemic load: a score of 10- is low, 11-19 is a moderate glycemic load, and a score of 20+ is high.
Here are some examples of foods with low, medium, and high glycemic loads per serving:
LOW: (10 or under)
beans such as black beans, pinto beans, chick peas, lentils, soybeans
high fiber bran cereal
many whole wheat breads
plain yogurt
eggs/egg substitutes
cottage cheese, and several other types of cheese such as cheddar, mozzarella, and ricotta
soy milk or dairy milk (any amount of fat)
peanuts
hummus
popcorn
high fiber fruits and vegetables (excluding potatoes)
agave nectar
dark chocolate, peanut m ‘n’ ms
ice cream
MEDIUM: (11-19)
brown rice, couscous, quinoa
corn tortilla
a white, plain baguette
Grape-Nuts brand cereal, most muesli cereals
Kellog’s brand Special K cereal
your average oven-baked pretzels or potato chips
Graham Crackers
banana, grapes, dried dates
unsweetened orange juice
honey
Snicker’s bar
HIGH: (20 or above)
pretty much any baked potato
white rice
instant oatmeal, instant cream of wheat
Kraft brand macaroni and cheese
raisins
unsweetened apple juice
most cakes
(See this list for more.)
In summary, carbohydrates are not all bad, but some of them are healthier than others. To help reduce blood sugar spikes and crashes, as well as possibly prevent obesity and type 2 diabetes, it’s best to choose whole grains and high fiber foods as often as possible. The glycemic index system and glycemic load system can both help aid us to make healthy choices in this area. The glycemic load system is more accurate because it takes into account not only blood sugar but also carbohydrates and fiber.
So don’t get terrified of carbs and purge them from your diet altogether. But do try to make healthy choices in the carb department. For example, eating a whole bag of potato chips would be considered unhealthy. And eating the actual bag is even worse! So stop it, Artemis!
Since this is just a blog post and not the advice of a professional doctor, you don’t need to believe me. Go ahead and check out the sites below, which helped me get the facts for this blog post. Even better, talk to a registered dietician or nutritionist about it!
Sources: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/carbohydrates-full-story/ http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/nutrition/carbs/simple-vs-complex-carbohydrates.html#b; http://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/everyone/basics/carbs.html; http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/healthy-skin/AN01863 ; http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/edible-innovations/food2.htm; http://childrenshospital.org/clinicalservices/Site3080/Documents/LowGlycemicShoppingList.pdf; http://www.livestrong.com/article/92919-foods-low-glycemic-load/; http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsweek/Glycemic_index_and_glycemic_load_for_100_foods.htm
Blueberry Cinnamon Swirl Steel Cut Oatmeal
When I was little I liked to watch videos after school. (Ah, the days when I had that much extra time!) One of my favorites in elementary school was “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory“. Not to be confused with the Tim Burton’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, this is the older movie based on Road Dahl’s classic book (which I also read several times.) I just remember loving the movie for all its fantastical elements and outrageous characters: Veruca Salt,the quintessential brat, the unnamed little orange Oompa-Loompas who also happened to be talented singers, and last but not least, the obnoxious gum-chewing Violet Beauregarde. It was always fascinating to watch the old-school special effects transform the gum-chewing girl into a blueberry when she sampled Willy Wonka’s prototype gum. That’ll teach her not to chew gum anymore! Though the scene strangely always made me think of eating some blueberries.
What was your favorite childhood movie? Fave scene?
Now, for the health lecture: blueberries. Extremely low in calories, packed with antioxidants. Antioxidants are important because they prevent the oxidization of other cells. Cell oxidization is needed to a certain degree, but if it occurs in excess it may cause certain diseases. Studies are currently under way to see if antioxidants could even be used in medicine to prevent problems such as heart disease and cancer. Blueberries just happen to be an excellent source of antioxidants, containing 5562 TE per 100 grams. (For more information on this, see this article.) Blueberries also contain many vitamins such as vitamin B-6, niacin, riboflavin, pantothenic acid, and folic acid. These are nutrients that help the body metabolize food. Pretty amazing, that all this good stuff can be packed into such a tiny little fruit. But wait, there’s more! Blueberries are a good source of fiber, and contain chlorogenic acid that may help lower blood sugar levels and control glucose levels in type-II diabetes patients.
Are you ready to eat some blueberries? Me too. Let’s have some delicious steel-cut oatmeal with the healthful stuff. To make it even better, this oatmeal has a cinnamon swirl in it, reminiscent almost of a cinnamon roll. But of course much healthier. This tasted awesome, of course. How could one go wrong with oatmeal and cinnamon?
Blueberry Cinnamon Swirl Steel-Cut Oatmeal
makes one serving
Ingredients:
for cinnamon swirl
- 1 tsp Earth Balance Original Buttery Spread
- 1 tsp brown sugar
- sprinkling of cinnamon
for oatmeal
- 1/4 cup steel-cut oats
- 1/2 cup warm water
- 1/4 cup vanilla almondmilk
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- about 1/4 cup of fresh blueberries, for topping
Directions:
To make the cinnamon swirl: Blend the Earth Balance with the brown sugar and cinnamon until the mixture is homogenous. (I guess I’ve got chemistry finals on the brain!) Set this aside.
To make the oatmeal: In a medium pot, combine the warm water and almondmilk. Heat on high until it boils. Then turn the heat down to medium-low. Add the steel-cut oats and the vanilla. Cook oats for 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
When oats are done cooking, remove from heat. Pour oats into serving bowl. Top with the cinnamon swirl mixture and allow that to melt a little as you ad the blueberries. Swirl the cinnamon mixture into the oatmeal with a spoon.
Allow oatmeal to cool for a couple of minutes, then enjoy!
Please note: 1/4 cup of blueberries is not a full serving of fruit. So go ahead and enjoy more yummy blueberries alone as healthy snacks, as well as accompaniments to yogurt and such throughout the day!
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Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen_radical_absorbance_capacity, http://www.nutrition-and-you.com/blueberries.html, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antioxidant
True Healthy Me 