Environmentally Challenged

It seems like right now everyone’s buying organic. Produce. Cotton t-shirts. Tote bags. I’m sure there’s even some organic furniture out there. For those of you who don’t already know, something that is certified “organic” has been produced without any pesticides, hormones, or genetic modification. Within the United States Department of Agriculture guidelines for organic certification and labeling, however, there are varying degrees of organic produce and products can fall under. To find out how foods and products end up with “100% Organic” labels, “Organic” labels, “Made with organic ingredients,” etc. go to the DOA’s National Organic Program.

This post, rather than being about the technical aspects of organic labeling, production, and sales, is about the debate that’s been brewing amongst environmentalists for a very long time: Is organic farming really better for the environment? A whole lot of people agree that it is and a whole lot of people don’t. I fall under the latter category, but I welcome anyone to discuss the issues with me. Just as soon as you read my:
Top 10 Reasons NOT to Switch to Organic

10. Labeling Disparities - As I touched on above, the DOA’s distinction for labeling products “organic” has big loopholes that allow those labels to be put on products not necessarily grown using strictly organic practices/principles.

9. Higher Cost - Over the course of a year, choosing organic produce and products costs significantly more than the conventionally grown alternatives because of the greater expense at which they’re grown and produced. Also, because organic farmers produce far less than those working with conventional methods, they charge more for their gross product, though it’s likely that their profit margins are far narrower than conventional farmers (don’t hold this against them, everyone needs a livelihood, I’m just explaining why it’s more expensive).

8. Lack of Health Benefits - So far, there hasn’t been much (if any) definitive evidence that there are any health benefits to choosing organic. After all, the FDA has approved the use of growth hormones and antibiotics in dairy production and other areas after rigorous testing and studies. If you want to avoid these “additives,” it’s more a matter of choice than a matter of scientific proof.

7. No Difference in Taste - I’m on the fence about the taste of organics versus “the other stuff.” In 2006, Washington State University did some blind taste tests of food grown organically and conventionally. The organic food actually came up consistently as the better tasting choice. However, WSU was using strawberries for the test, which contain significantly more pesticides than practically any other produce at the grocery store so I’m wary of assigning much legitimacy to their study.

6. “Organic” Doesn’t Mean “Local” - While you may think going organic guarantees you’re making a socially conscious or environmentally friendly decision, please remember that the term “organic” is not synonymous with: locally grown; ripened on the vine; grown by independent non-conglomerate-corporation farmers; harvested by workers paid a living wage, etc. Your best bet for good tasting, socially conscious produce and other food products is still your local farmers market.

5. Rapid Spoilage - Organic produce spoils sooner than conventionally grown produce because it’s not chemically treated to stay fresh longer. Even if the produce is on sale (though I know it’s a rarity), please only stock up if you will definitely eat it all (the same goes for farmers market perishables).

4. Smaller Harvest Yield - Because they don’t use fertilizers on organic farms, farmers produce far less on the same plot of land than if conventional farming methods were employed. If the entire world switched to organics, we’d need to use upwards of 10x more land to yield the same amount of food.

3. Wildlife Encroachment - Some organics proponents argue that organic farming is a method of reforestation in itself. However, organic farmers still need to clear a lot of acreage to produce enough food to turn a profit margin so at least some wildlife will inevitably be displaced.

2. Avoiding the Organic Blanket - You may be okay with antibiotics in your milk, but have a problem with pesticides on your produce. Maybe you feel enough of the pesticides wash off that you’re not worried, but you want to stay away from rBST (recombinant bovine growth hormone). There are many factors in play when you choose which products you want to consume and which you want to avoid. Making a choice based on whether a product has an “Organic” sticker on it may not be the most favorable choice for you personally. Think hard about what you’re really trying to avoid in your diet before shelling out the extra dough.

1. We Need a Large-Scale Solution - As I said with #4, organic farms have less of a yield. The whole world would not be able to switch to organic produce. There isn’t enough land, time, or energy to produce food on a large enough scale to sustain the human race. While overpopulation is another issue entirely, it still comes into play. Choosing organic may convince you that you’re doing the environmentally friendly thing by buying produce that wasn’t grown using chemicals that seep into the soil. You’re right to believe that. Ask yourself, though, how that really solves anything. People still need food. Organic farms still can’t produce enough. Organic farming takes the focus off of developing environmentally friendly fertilizers and consumption-safe pesticides. Large corporations already get away with enough that we shouldn’t be letting them off the hook for finding safer, eco-friendly ways to produce the harvest yield the world requires. Let’s keep the pressure on them.

You might disagree with some or all of those points. That’s okay. The point is to get you thinking about what’s best for you, what’s best for the environment, and what’s best for the world. Maybe my list has convinced you to switch to organic produce. As long as it’s because you’re more informed of the options available to you, I’m happy. And if you want to check out the Top 10 list of some pro-organics writers to see what the other side is saying, check out Organic.org’s Top 10 Reasons to Support Organic in the 21st Century here.

Until next time, have a good weekend and remember to tread lightly.

The point of this blog is to help people understand the simple environmental changes they can make to live healthier, longer, happier lives. Unfortunately, I haven’t been contributing my share of wisdom to the community of health fans lately and for that I apologize. With the desire to live as healthy a life as I’d like to encourage in mind, I’d like to thank you for reading and ask that you please check back over the next few days. A good night’s sleep is extremely important to your mental, emotional, and physical health, and I’m dying to crawl into bed right now. However, I urge you to return for my next slew of posts, which will cover:

- my opinion on organics

- my reaction to the film Supersize Me

- recent and forthcoming dietary changes of mine

- where and why to buy eco friendly toothbrush and travel box kits

- my latest stress relief endeavor

It should be a busy week, but an enlightening one as well. Until next time, good night!

I just returned from SoCal (like, literally, a few minutes ago got back to town). I’ve been to Santa Barbara once before, but this was my first time going to Ventura. I went to visit one of my oldest friends and (finally!) meet her boyfriend of 4 years with whom she moved to SoCal in the first place. I’d only seen her once in the last 3 years and it was only for an hour at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix. Not exactly what I’d call quality time. Between the two of us, there have been some major changes going on in our lives that we just weren’t around for.

We’ve each made lots of little changes in our lives the other wasn’t around to witness. I gained weight, lost weight, gained weight, took up swimming regularly, moved to Arizona, stopped eating red meat, stopped swimming regularly, dropped the boyfriend, started eating more vegetables, started skating everyday, stopped skating everyday, took up pilates and on and on. Always as mutable a force as myself, my friend lost weight, gained weight, lost her car, started walking everywhere, became vegetarian, lost weight, became vegan, went back to vegetarian, moved to Cali, etc. etc. And here we are today.

Long story short, I hadn’t spent much time around her since both of us totally reevaluated our late night (yes, munchies) diets of fast food cheeseburgers, grease pit cheese fries, and endless amounts of snack cakes. Needless to say, it was a really great experience spending the weekend with a couple (her boyfriend’s a vegetarian as well) that actually enjoys veggies and health food. Other than the beach, I think the restaurants were the best part of the trip.

We started out at a cafe/sandwich shoppe that featured all organic (though I’m not pro-organics; I’ll address that later) fruits & veggies, free range hormone & antibiotic free meats, and no preservatives whatsoever. I had the rosemary chicken with roasted red peppers on sun-dried tomato focaccia with a side of “natural salad” (which was basically just organic red leaf lettuce tossed with balsamic vinaigrette). It was delicious.

For dinner we had organic pizza with a whole wheat dough (good for you guys, not that great for my gluten-sensitive system, but when in Rome…) sprinkled with real Parmesan cheese, marinated grilled mushrooms and roasted red peppers. It couldn’t hold a candle to Chicago-style pizza (no one does it like Gullivers), but it was a nice alternative to Pizza Hut.

The next morning, the couple made avocado breakfast burritos stuffed with chopped avocado (of course), scrambled eggs, sauteed red & green bell peppers, onions, and pepper jack cheese, all topped with a healthy dollop of sour cream. I’ve never gotten in the burrito craze, certainly not the breakfast burrito craze, but I’m pretty sure I could’ve eaten 30 of those things.

The late lunch/early dinner that I had yesterday, though, certainly took the cake as the best meal of my vacation. After walking (what seemed to my broken toe to be miles and miles) a ways along the beach at Ventura Harbor and subsequently getting soaked by waves when we ventured into the water to rinse the shells we’d collected, I asked my friend if she’d talk me to her favorite restaurant for dinner. A short, wet drive, a steaming hot shower, and a warm dry change of clothes later, we arrived at Nature’s Grill.

My amateur explanation for how fabulous their food is wouldn’t do the place justice so if you’re in the mood to drool, or maybe need some kitchen inspiration, check out their menu at www.naturesgrillventura.com. For my meal, I chose the grilled eggplant sandwich (though there were around 12 runners-up). It was pretty awesome. Eggplant, roasted red peppers, feta cheese. Hard to go wrong there. The real treat, though, was dessert. I’m not huge on sweets and I rarely have (or save) room for dessert, but when I saw that they make a carrot shake, I had to have it.

My boyfriend can attest to the fact that I’ve recently become obsessed with drinking carrot juice. I’ve had at least 2 bottles at the ready in my fridge every time he’s come over. What can I say? It’s delicious, it’s actually unsweetened (though carrots are so blissfully, subtly, naturally sweet), it’s great for hangovers, it’s loaded with beta-carotene. Carrot juice does for me what spinach did for Popeye. Anyway, back to the milkshake. Carrots ground before my eyes, honey vanilla ice cream, cinnamon & nutmeg churned together and topped with whipped cream. Absolutely to die for. It was a virtual carrot cake shake without the heaviness, the butter, and the excessive amount of added sugar. After I’d finished it (and I really did enjoy it to the very last drop), I joked to my friend that I’d have to visit her again just to have another carrot shake. Well, acted like I was joking

So how has your Memorial Day weekend been? Make any wonderful diet discoveries?

I love Fridays. All of a sudden, I’m having a run of great Fridays. Apparently, Date Night is back in fashion. Yay!

As if it’s really a science.

I’ve been having a lot of discussions with a friend of mine lately about whether it’s easier to deny yourself something for long periods of time and then heavily indulge or allow yourself whatever you want in moderation. She argues that it’s just really difficult to moderate her intake of indulgent foods (and not just food; we argue the point with parties, alcohol, driving, etc.). My problem is that I don’t want to deny myself anything. What’s the solution? Well, both of us agreed that it’s easier to deny something if it’s not right in front of us and with snacks, we can take this to the bank. Here’s how it works:

Buy a snack you like even though it isn’t the healthiest indulgence. Cookies, cakes, crackers, etc. are fine. Whatever you like. When you get home, look at the serving size information and divide the entire product into half-servings and put away. Every time you want an indulgent snack, limit yourself to just one “serving.” This way, you’ll be able to satisfy your craving without completely ruining your diet.

“Diet” is as simple as that. You don’t have to completely cut off your guilty pleasures. You just need to cut down. To get you started, I figured I’d give you a really indulgent, sweet, satisfying snack that, surprisingly, is totally good for you and ridiculously simple. Here’s the recipe:

Single serving of Yoplait Light Fat Free Very Vanilla yogurt

Chopped fresh ripe strawberries (make sure to clean them, even if they say pre-washed. You don’t want a nasty case of E. coli and strawberries tend to have higher concentrations of pesticide than other fruits)

Mix in a bowl and enjoy.

So simple it’s stupid, right? But I’m telling you, this totally simple snack will make you think you’ve never uttered the word “diet” in your life.

Enjoy!

First Watch: The perfect restaurant for the Environmentally Challenged fan. Introduced to me by a colleague, this place offers eco-friendly mannerisms paired with healthy-diet friendly meals. It’s a cute little building, with happy, friendly servers, an extensive selection of menu items, great prices, and many more positive attributes. Unfortunately, it’s my bed time and a good night’s sleep leads to a great morning so I’ll simply leave you with the top 5 favorite aspects of First Watch:

5. They distribute valuable coupons, making it even easier to incorporate this health-conscious restaurant into your healthy-yet-on-a-budget lifestyle.

4. They’re right around the corner from The Yard House’s new location and they’ve got plenty of large tables and booths, making it a great place for group, i.e. car pool, lunches.

3. Nothing on their menu is fried so there’s nothing greasy and fatty to tempt you away from your dietary goals.

2. Their menu offers high-fiber, low-fat, low-cholesterol, and high-protein options as well as fresh fruit as an included side on many of the meals.

1. As soon as we were seated, I noticed a small placard on the table that simply explained that to contribute to the water conservation efforts in Arizona, rather than pitchers of water customarily being brought to the tables sans request, water would only be provided if desired by the patrons.

Bravo, First Watch, for providing a healthy alternative to oil-, fat- and salt-laden breakfast diners while being conscious of and participatory in environmentally friendly efforts.

Thank you to ASU’s University Center and all of downtown Phoenix for partaking in Earth Hour. On Saturday (March 29th) from 8-9pm, while I was on the dark patio of Bubble’s house, the entire downtown Phoenix area shut off all non-essential lighting. I was proud to learn that my hometown of Chicago, as one of the Earth Hour’s four U.S. flagship cities (Phoenix is one too), also shut down all of downtown’s lighting to inspire positive environmental change.

When this annual event was first hosted last year in Sydney Australia, more than 2000 businesses participated and more than 2 million people joined in in letting the lights go down. The World Wildlife Fund estimates that if those participants took the same energy hiatus every night, the amount of greenhouse gases reduced each year would be equal to taking 50k cars off the roads. And to think, it’d only be an hour a day.

Did you participate? I wish I could’ve gotten an aerial view of it going on. Think about what it would look like if hundreds, thousands, millions decided that even if they don’t live the most eco-friendly lives, they could still contribute to the energy-saving effort by turning out their lights for just an hour. Pop pop pop pop pop lights being extinguished everywhere, a flood of darkness as nature overwhelms the 21st century, drowning modernity in healing and forgiveness. It’s beautiful what people can do when they collaborate and cooperate.

I myself spent the hour sitting on the patio of my friend Bubble’s house, basking in the glow of the moonlight reflected on the pool as a group of us discussed the purpose of Earth Hour and the meaning of accountability. Humanity somehow proffers excuses for absolutely everything, but environmental degradation cannot be excused or ignored. At this point, our only option is to react. We can either react by defaming the studies showing pollution is damaging the environment for making unfounded claims or we can change our behaviors to limit our negative impact on the earth. It may be expensive to transition away from all of our bad habits and it will certainly take some time, but when you get right down to it, if your choices are to either hope that nothing is wrong or make a change because the world’s most educated and respected scientists say we desperately need to, is it really worth the risk?

Okay, so the title’s a reference to a musical and not particularly relevant to this gripe. Oh well. Anyway, the Yard House just took up residence at a new (swankier) location and while the phone ports are being rerouted to the new building and our receptionist is on vacation, all calls have been redirected to my line. I’m not sure the phone company redirected the lines properly, though. No one can get through if they dial an extension. They can only reach us through the main line, which, for some reason, most of our clients must not have. It’s still fun being phone queen, though, at least temporarily.

This organization’s next big event is coming up on March 29th and YOU should join in. All you have to do is turn off all the lights in your home for one hour from 8-9pm. This event highlights how much of an impact a very simple action can have when perpetrated by a very large segment of the population.

Save energy and have a positive impact on the earth and people around you without spending a dime or even leaving your house. Trust me, there’s no easier way to tread lightly.

For more info on the purpose and history of the event, check out EarthHour.org.

The Yard House just moved locations. Now we’re in a nicer looking part of town, but I can’t find any of the lunch places I’m fond of. No Sprouts sandwiches. No Hiro Sushi. I had Jack in the Box for lunch. Yuck! Okay, not exactly yuck, but I’m trying to eat healthier and I know for a fact that the sandwich I like most on their menu is one of the most unhealthy fast food sandwiches in America. Ohh, the guilt.

At the ripe old age of 23, I’m already feeling pretty guilty for not taking better care of myself growing up. I’ve been hard on my joints, and everyone knows it. They know because they never see me in the gym anymore, they notice how slowly I walk down the hallway, they haven’t seen me in a pair of heels in months, and they see me wincing when I stand after sitting for too long. A hundred years ago, I’d have no choice but to deal with the pain. Fortunately for me, technology has provided an escape from debilitating joint pain.

There are companies that create artificial knee components that can be customized to fit your own unique anatomy, sparing you the invasiveness and pain of total knee replacement surgery. The thought of having my life back, being able to go for walks in the park, and carry groceries up the stairs without tears in my eyes, well, brings tears to my eyes. Thank goodness for technology.

I’m talking about the water waster again. My neighbor is obsessed with doing laundry. Who really even wears that many outfits in a day to fill the washer 5 times a week? Either he’s just neurotic or has really messy habits. Either way, though, it has to stop. Thinking about all that wasted water and energy, in addition to the excessive amounts of detergent he’s washing down the drain (I’m assuming not eco-friendly detergent since his habits indicate he prefers to destroy the environment at a quicker pace than most of us), really gets me down. Maybe I’ll anonymously pamphlet his house with informational material on the possibility of running out of water in Arizona in 100 years (printed on recycled paper, of course) until he eases up on the laundry. Hmm…that sounds like a good plan.

I am dying for a break from my life. On top of the stress I’m under at work, it’s just been a really long time since I took an actual vacation. Sure, I went to Chicago for a week over Christmas, but that’s my hometown. There’s nothing new or unusual about going there. Short road trips to Tucson or Flagstaff are no different. The allure of a completely new experience that catapults me from my mundane life to an entirely unrecognizable atmosphere is gone. That’s why I’ve decided to start planning my next big vacation now.

I was thinking about going to Athens or Budapest with a group of friends, but then I came across this place called the Isle of Wight. It’s on the south coast of England. I’m thinking of getting a room at this hotel called St. Maur. In addition to being a quiant, family run hotel, it’s surrounding by gorgeous gardens and landscaping. I’ll also be able to choose between an all-inclusive (aka pampered) vacation or just bed and breakfast. This place sounds like the perfect place to relax for a week or two. Now I’ve just got to convince my friends this is the ultimate destination!

I’ve often heard it said that people living in Hawaii get “island fever” because after a while, they feel so isolated and trapped. I don’t think most people would say that about the United States as a whole, but as someone who grew up going out of the country every year, it’s hard to not feel a little “feverish” myself.

My first big purchase was the car I bought after moving to Arizona and discovering that life in the valley is impossible without a vehicle. My second big purchase was…the loan I needed to pay for it. Third? The interest rate. I had no credit history, no down payment, no collateral, and no co-signer. You don’t have to be a mathematician to know that equaled a sky high interest rate. I had one thing going for me: I’d done my research and I knew that even though I didn’t qualify upfront for a great interest rate, if I took out the loan and paid on time for several months, I’d earn enough credit to refinance my car at a lower rate. Turns out, I was right. After making 12 timely payments of 1 ½ times the amount due on a loan with an interest rate of 9.39% I qualified to refinance my auto loan at a credit union and my interest rate plummeted to 6.25%. That’s the stuff dreams are made of.

Now I’ve moved on to dreaming about owning a house. Right now, it looks like I still don’t have enough credit to get a great interest rate on a mortgage loan, but I think my credit union has me convinced that that doesn’t really matter because I can always refinance. They’ve been pushing me to consider buying a house, and they swear up and down that on my salary, I could easily afford one. Maybe I should tell them what my credit card bills look like each month? That’d probably change their minds. :o)

 Anyway, I’m pretty sure I won’t be spending the rest of my life in Arizona and a house is such a long term investment; I really don’t think I’ll be making that kind of decision any time soon.

I don’t. Most nights I yank the covers to the side, throwing them off of me because I’m sick of overheating and getting tangled in the blanket. That’s usually after it has taken me a couple hours of lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, cursing my insomnia and begging no one in particular to let my mind stop racing. I’ve always loved movies, but not when they’re playing on the reel in my head at 2 in the morning when I’m leaving for work at 7am the next day. I honestly have no idea how I managed to get up in the morning at all.

It’s the stress. The stress. Always the stress. I can bounce around easily, happily, all day long, but as soon as my head hits the pillow, I’m consumed with replaying the events of the day over and over in my head until I feel like another hour of it and I’ll undoubtedly be forced to call in sick the next morning. Suffice it to say after several months of this, I finally started seeking outside help.

First it was exercise. Everyday after work, I’d make the trek to the gym to run, lift weights, hop on the elliptical machine, and pedal my way to an exhausted evening. The burst of endorphins always afforded me an energetic evening during which I felt happy and hopeful. I was so sure I’d collapse into bed at night. It didn’t happen, though. The exhaustion, sure, but as I’d crawl into bed, my eyes aching to close, it was like the weight of the comforter depressed an “on” switch that I wore stretched across the surface of my skin. The nights were endless.

Next I tried sleeping pills. That was a big disappointment. Somehow they managed to be too weak to get me to sleep when I wanted to (even though I’d take them a full hour before bedtime) and too strong to let me hear my alarm clock in the morning. Since there’s nothing worse than getting to work late because you “slept in,” I dropped the pills like a–bad pun alert–bad habit.

Since the most typical sleep aides seemed to be let-downs, I turned to something slightly unorthodox for me: aromatherapy. I’d heard about how certain smells could evoke specific moods, emotions, memories, etc. but in my mental filing cabinet, it was right next to “ghosts,” “Santa Claus,” and “chiropracty.” Who knew I could be so wrong?

It just happened that I stumbled on a $5.00 stress relief kit at Kohl’s on Black Friday. Five bucks and it promised I’d be out like a light? At that point, I would’ve tried anything…and at least it smelled good. The kit came with a gel face mask, a small bottle of “headache lotion” meant to be applied to the temples during migraines, and a before-bedtime chamomile lavender spritz. “Spray pillow before bed; inhale deeply; sleep well.” That can’t be it…or can it?

I tried it the first night I brought it home. I sprayed my pillows (and the stuffed bunny I hold in a death grip every night), laid down, did some deep in-through-the-nose-out-through-the-mouth breaths. That was it! The spritz was, in a word, a Godsend. Each night I followed that routine and slept like a baby. Now it’s months later and I’m still singing its praises and sniffing its fragrance.

Turns out, sleep was just a huff, sniff, and a plunk away. Sweet dreams!

I really wish money wasn’t such an encompassing force in life. They say that no matter what, your life will pretty much always revolve around money because if you don’t have any, you’re always trying to make some, and if you’ve got money, you’re obsessed with hanging onto it. In keeping with my theme of stress management, I’ve been working on budgeting my money for the last few months so I don’t become obsessed either way. It’s worked out well so far. I don’t go to the bars quite so much (for health reasons, I shouldn’t go anyway) and I’ve been working on making better choices at the grocery store so I’m not constantly buying take-out. Unfortunately, the twice-a-year bane to my existence is just about to come around: my car insurance bill. What is it that makes it so out of the question for me to have enough money in the bank to pay it off? Whatever it is, it doesn’t seem to be going away any time soon.

I’m kind of ashamed to admit it, but I asked my dad to pay it six months ago. I know, I know, I’m a college graduate! I shouldn’t still be asking my parents to bail me out of financial binds, but…I need car insurance.

Have you tried the Special K diet yet? I kept thinking I was going to, but now it seems like there is no “Special K diet” anymore. You’ve got to know what I’m talking about. In case you haven’t seen the commercials, here’s one of them: A a woman’s having breakfast at a restaurant with two female friends and she orders coffee, juice, fruit, a bowl of Special K cereal, and a slice of toast. Her friends, in astonishment, gasp “You’re going to eat all that?!” In response (I can’t quite remember which), the narrator or the first woman says “Studies have shown that women who eat the Special K diet weigh less than women who don’t.” Kellogg (maker of Special K) put this all over the cereal boxes, along with a picture of jeans and a headline that boasted “Go down x number of jean sizes in x number of weeks” and “Lose up to x number of pounds in x number of weeks.”

You can understand my surprise when I picked up a couple boxes of Special K this week and those statements were nowhere to be found. Could it be that this statement has recently been debunked? The dairy industry was recently reprimanded for making similar claims about the weight loss potential of consuming dairy products. Apparently, studies have not been able to prove that consuming low-fat dairy products can help people lose weight; they have only shown that regular dairy consumption can help people maintain their current weight. This revelation sparked the “3-A-Day. Burn More Fat, Lose Weight” commercials to be ripped from television. With the sudden disappearance of the Special K advertisements, I’m wondering if they, too, have been forced to reconsider their assertions.

Could it be that our dietary standards are so skewed that we cannot even rely on a breakfast of fruit, cereal, juice, and toast to contribute to a healthy weight? If so, what’s for breakfast now?

If you can’t live without pizza, but it’s killing you to consume so much fat and so many calories, there are a few tasty options that’ll satisfy your craving without splitting your seams. On nights when you’ve got the energy to cook, make pizza pitas, the healthier alternative to pizza bagels. Substitute the bagel (a whopping 5 servings worth of carbohydrates!) for a whole wheat pita (for a gluten-free meal, use a corn tortilla). Use low-fat shredded mozzarella cheese and low-sodium tomato paste. Throw on some sliced red onion, canned mushrooms, fresh spinach, basil, or any other (or combination of) vegetable or lean meat you like on delivered pizza. Slide the pita into the (toaster) oven and bake at 350 degrees until the cheese melts. Slice and serve with green salad.

If frozen or delivered pizza is your go-to meal when you’re too exhausted to prepare a meal, take a stroll through the frozen foods section next time you’re at the grocer. Lean Cuisine and Healthy Choice both make T.V. dinner-style pizzas. My new favorite, though, is the Safeway Select Self-Rising Frozen Pizza. They’re available in a bunch of varieties like Roasted Vegetable, BBQ Chicken and Roasted Mushroom & Garlic, all of which contain only 250 calories per serving. The serving size is hefty on its own, but with a bag of prepared salad, you’ve got a well-balanced, healthy meal that satisfies one of your most calorically challenged cravings. Best of all, they’re delicious!

Try one of these low-calorie alternatives to delivered pizza next time you’re feeling the undeniable call of melted cheese and dough. I guarantee you’ll enjoy them way more when you don’t have to feel guilty after cleaning your plate.