A word about diet

Despite what the name of my blog suggests, I do like to follow a healthy diet. Of course, there are always going to be exceptions since I loooove to bake and a life without cookies is no life at all. But in general, I try to follow a modified core diet (explains the "Core" label for the recipes). This means that you can't eat any processed foods and therefore your diet is based around lean & hormone free meats, fruits, vegetables, nuts, specific yogurts, cottage cheese & healthy oils (yup, no bread). The idea is that you are eating foods with a high nutrition density, therefore keeping you full longer and at the end of the day you've consumed less calories. It also keeps your blood sugar stable and doesn't cause you to crash mid afternoon post lunch (and yes, the difference in energy is noticeable). However, you have a window before and after workouts that it is OK to eat carbs, because you need some sugar to burn off. This window is an hour before a workout, and the window after a workout should be as long as the workout was. So, if I run for 90 minutes, I can eat my turkey sandwich any time within 90 minutes after my run. This doesn't mean if you "at" the gym for an hour, you have an hour afterward to go bonkers. Be smart with it! Again, I follow this diet loosely. If I really want a sandwich (can you tell I like sandwiches?), I'll have a sandwich because hey - I work out enough and I'm no professional triathlete/runner. But I try to make healthy substitutions when I can in cooking. I'll always highlight these substitutions in my recipes.