Q + A, Part 4

15 May, 2013 by Claire | Leave a comment

Today I’m answering another handful of the questions y’all have submitted. Be sure to readpart 1, part 2, and part 3 to see if I answered your question or just to check out the answer to something you probably wanted to know anyway. If you’re still feeling snubbed, please submit any question you’d like!

Will doing 100 ab crunches a day for thirty days give you evident results?
The most definitive answer I can give you to this question is no. Unfortunately, you can’t really target fat loss that way and, more often than not, the moves you make in the kitchen will deliver more results than the moves you make in the gym. Think about it this way: you can consume calories far faster than you can burn them. So, if you’re looking to get bikini-ready abs, I’d suggest a calorie-conscious diet full of whole foods, cardio, and strength training (including those crunches, if you’d like).

You mentioned that you did Weight Watchers when you were younger. What are your thoughts on it now?
I’ve had a couple stints with Weight Watchers and excluding my undergraduate nutrition education, it has probably provided me with the most knowledge about healthy eating. Recording your food as PointsPlus is a great way to exercise portion control and hold yourself accountable for what you put in your mouth.

My only qualm about their new system (assuming this is still how it works) is that fruit is zero points. For most people who don’t particularly enjoy fruit as a snack, this is probably an effective way to get them eating more. And while fruit is a nutrient-dense alternative to many snacks that are nutritionally empty, it still has calories. As someone who loves fruit, I was happy I could consume cups of it between meals to stifle my hunger without dipping into my daily PointsPlus for the day. That extra couple hundred calories or so, however, definitely stifled my weight loss, as well.

I have the BIGGEST sweet tooth ever, which has been a problem since I am trying to lose the 20 pounds I gained freshman year. What can I do to keep me away from the sweets?
I think your best bet will be to indulge in your cravings from time to time, but in a slender way. There are lots of lower calorie alternatives to satiate a sweet tooth, and totally avoiding the things you love is just going to set yourself up for failure. I like to have a 100-150 calorie “safety net” left over at the end of the night for sweets that satisfy my sweet tooth. This includes things like sweet slender nachos, single serving mug brownies, or chocolate Greek froyo.

Slender Sights: 2,000 Calories

2 May, 2013 by Claire | Leave a comment

Today’s Slender Sights clip was sent in from my friend Caroline, who knew I’d eat this up (no pun intended). This video from BuzzFeed provides some pretty stunning visual examples of what 2,000 calories worth of many foods looks like. My only wish is that there’d be more non-energy dense foods depicted for the sake of comparison, although I’m not sure 2,000 calories worth of spinach would fit on the screen.

Slender Double Chocolate Cake Balls

10 April, 2013 by Claire | 3 Comments

Cake balls are one of my favorite ways to give my normally healthy diet the finger. They’re what would happen if cake, brownies, and a chocolate bar had a baby… If three (inanimate) beings could procreate, I mean.

Sometimes, though, I want it all. I want the happiness I get from hybrid chocolate treats and I want to be slender. So on the 734,855th day, The Slender Student created slender double chocolate cake balls.

Of course, I’m not the first blogger who has tried to lessen the impact of the cake ball calorie bomb. But many of the other recipe makeovers use a cake pop pan (which eliminates the need to mash up the cake with frosting and, like, who wants that), or are fake balls made with ingredients like almond bark, or cashews, or dates (what?!).

I, on the other hand, am not fooling around. This is the real deal. Cheap cake mix that’s undoubtedly more delicious than any cake made from scratch, my slender cream cheese frosting, and chocolate chips. Ka-boom.

Slender Double Chocolate Cake Balls
Makes: 28 servings | Calories per serving: 108
Fat: 3.0 g (Sat Fat: 1.8 g) | Carbohydrate: 18.4 g | Fiber: 0.4 g| Protein: 2.1 g

ingredients:
1 box of chocolate cake mix (I used Betty Crocker Super Moist Triple Chocolate Fudge)
1 12 oz can of diet root beer
1 8 oz package of fat free cream cheese
1/2 C fat free plain Greek yogurt (I like Fage 0%)
1/4 C granulated Splenda
1/2 T vanilla extract
1 C chocolate chips

directions:
1. To prepare the cake, combine the dry cake mix with the can of diet root beer and whisk until smooth. Bake according to the directions on the box, but keep in mind that the cooking time might be slightly less. For example, I baked mine in a cupcake tin at 325° for 10-12 minutes.
2. While the cupcakes are baking, mix together the cream cheese, Greek yogurt, Splenda, and vanilla extract with a whisk or electric mixer until completely smooth. Refrigerate.
3. When the cake is done baking, cool completely. Then using your hands, crumble it into a large mixing bowl.
4. To the cake crumbles, add in your refrigerated cream cheese frosting and mix until the icing is incorporated throughout.
5. Using your hands or a cookie dough scoop, roll out 28 cake balls on to a cookie sheet lined with wax paper. Refrigerate or freeze for until the cake balls have firmed, about 30 minutes to an hour.
6. After the cake balls are done in the fridge, put the chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl and microwave until melted, stopping to stir the chocolate chips every 30 seconds. Be careful not to burn the chocolate.
7. Dip the bottom of each cake ball in the melted chocolate and place it back on to the cookie sheet covered with wax paper. Then using a spoon, drizzle the remaining melted chocolate over the cake balls. Refrigerate again until the chocolate has hardened.

The List

4 April, 2013 by Claire | 6 Comments

I often struggle with how personal I want The Slender Student to be. I hesitate to put it all out there for two reasons. Firstly, you could all be Craigslist Killers, or strangers with candy that want me to get in your van. Secondly, I’m just some random college girl whose blog you stumbled upon after clicking through some pretty food pictures on Pinterest. Admit it, you’re here for the healthy food porn, not to hear my life story.

Recently, however, I was telling an acquaintance something about a fast food venture fueled by libation, leaving her in complete disbelief that, “The Slender Student drunk eats?! At WHATABURGER?!” In that moment I realized that in sharing my healthy tips and recipes, I’ve (unintentionally) made myself out to be a nutritional saint. So today I’ve decided to share my list. My list consists of five things (though I’m sure there are more) I’m working on to improve my health. These are the things that I know I should be doing as a nutrition student, a health blogger, and a human, but that I don’t do because I’m well…a human.

I know from my own experience (and a buncha geeks’ research) that writing things down helps keep you accountable, so feel free to leave your own lists in the comments section. Immortalizing your goals on the interweb could make you that much more likely to achieve them, plus I’d just love to see them.

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

3 April, 2013 by Claire | 2 Comments

This recipe started off as a protein bar. I had pretty images in my head of hearty, homemade bars, drizzled imperfectly with vanilla icing, wrapped in parchment paper. Alas, things went wrong, as they often do with food experiments. The bars turned out somewhere in between cake and bread, and the icing tasted chemically sweet.

I was close to scrapping the whole thing when I realized that, with a few tweaks, the bars could easily become a sweet bread with none of the guilt associated with most recipes– low fat, low sugar, high protein, and whole grain.

Welcome to the world, slender cinnamon raisin bread. You’re going to be so loved.Cinnamon Raisin Bread
Makes: 12 servings | Calories per serving: 70
Fat: 0.7 g (Sat Fat: 0.2 g) | Carbohydrate: 12.2 g | Fiber: 0.9 g| Protein: 5.0 g

ingredients:
1 C instant oats
1 C granulated Splenda
1 scoop vanilla protein powder (I use Designer Whey)
1 t baking powder
2 t cinnamon
2/3 C liquid egg whites
1 C fat free Greek yogurt (I like Fage 0%)
2 t vanilla extract
1/2 C raisins
PAM Original nonstick spray

directions:
1. Preheat your oven to 325° and lightly grease a loaf pan with PAM.
2. In a medium size bowl, combine your oats, Splenda, protein powder, baking powder, and cinnamon. Stir until everything is evenly distributed.
3. To your dry ingredients, add your egg whites, Greek yogurt, and vanilla extract. Mix well.
4. Add in the raisins, mix, and then pour your batter into the loaf pan.
5. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.