Archive for June, 2010
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Maintenance tips
Monday, June 28th, 2010Cory Everson Diet and Fitness Tips
Cut the Sugar
If you want to manage your weight you must get rid of sugars or simple carbohydrates. This category of food includes all refined sugars and syrups and food products that are known as simple carbohydrates (or sugars). Whether it is called crystallized cane juice, dextrose, evaporated cane juice, fructose, high-fructose corn syrup, or honey, sugar has no redeeming nutritional value. It provides only a concentrated source of calories. Furthermore, when consumed in excess, sugar is stored as fat, rather than used for energy. Commonly consumed sources of refined sugars and/or simple carbohydrates include soft drinks, hard candy, jelly beans, cakes, cookies, pies, jams and jellies, sugary cereals, desserts, muffins and snack crackers.
• Start fresh: Throw away any of these items that are in your pantry. These foods are not only high in sugar but sometimes fat as well. Furthermore, they have no nutritional value and will only make your weight loss efforts more difficult to realize. Instead, try a piece of fresh fruit with some nuts, which are both high in fiber and will keep you feeling full longer.
• Accept no substitutes: Limit fat-free pastry snacks and the so- called “diet foods”. Many are sweeter than full-fat versions because more sugar is used to make it taste good.
• Fruit is nature’s sweetener: Try a piece of fruit when you get a craving for sugar. At least you will be getting essential nutrients and fiber when you choose this sweet snack. Be aware that many fruit drinks contain refined sugars, like high fructose corn syrup, and very little fruit juice. Although whole fruit is preferred, 100% fruit juice is O.K. to add to your diet occasionally.
• Try a mix: Make your own trail mix or buy it in bulk at health food stores. To make your own, add some dried fruit, sunflower seeds or nuts, whole-wheat chex cereal, and sesame sticks. This is a great snack to satisfy a craving.
Bulk up on Fiber
Fibers are the structural parts of plants and, thus, occur in all plant derived foods–vegetables, fruits, grains, legumes (beans) and nuts and seeds. Nutritionists think of these foods as complex carbohydrates because they all contain simple carbohydrates (sugars) that are linked to one another to form a more complex molecule, a starch. The exception being fruit because it actually contains only the simple sugar, fructose, and is classified as a simple carbohydrate. However, fruit does contain a fibrous outer layer. Because fibers tend to occur in the same foods as complex carbohydrates, some people conveniently classify or group them together. Dietary fiber is also defined as the residue derived from the plant cell wall that is resistant to breakdown by human enzymes. However, bacteria in the intestine can partly hydrolyze or digest some dietary fibers.
Fiber encompasses a variety of substances with widely different properties. Its forms range from the rigid, insoluble cellulose that puts the snap in a stalk of celery to the gummy, soluble fibers of oat bran. It appears that its functions in the human body are also as diverse as its properties and a significant amount of research continues to support the importance of fiber in the diet. Fiber has long been known to help keep you “regular” and has usually been described as “roughage”. Researchers now believe that some fibers are thought to block cholesterol synthesis and may prevent colon cancer. Other fibers can act as sponges or magnets, absorbing and attracting fats, implicating them in the prevention of obesity.
Although the health benefits of fiber have been widely publicized, dietary fiber intake is at less than the recommended levels of 25-50 grams, in the US population, with usual intakes around 14 to 15 grams/day [Association, 1997 #15743]. Interestingly, obesity is rare in populations that consume high fiber diets (i.e greater than 30 grams/day), and more common in populations that consume low fiber diets (reference-calories don’t count).
Don’t forget to drink plenty of water as you switch to a high fiber diet. Fiber tends to retain water, which helps to lubricate waste matter as it passes through the intestine. The human body is more than 50 percent water, and metabolic processes require water for proper function. So, drink it every chance you get to replace water absorbed by fiber and to help your body maintain its normal functions.
Here are some tips for increasing your fiber intake.
• Crank up the volume: Health experts recommend getting somewhere in the range of 25-50 grams of fiber/day. Most vegetarians consume up to 40-50 grams of fiber daily without any ill effects. But, take at least a week to work up to 25 grams and then continually increase your consumption. Sources of fiber include fruits, vegetables, beans, and whole grains.
• Go with whole grain: Trade the white bread for whole grain bread. Be bread smart–don’t be deceived by labels that claim whole-wheat properties. Whole-wheat breads usually provide 2-3 grams of fiber per slice compared with less than 1 gram for white bread. Your best bet: buy bread with whole-wheat flour or cracked wheat listed as the first ingredient. Other great choices are the seven or twelve-grain breads that provide wonderful texture and flavor. These hearty breads will fill you up so you won’t be hungry for that snack in a few hours. Substitute brown rice for white rice and exchange corn flakes and puffed rice for high fiber cereals like shredded wheat, bran flakes and oatmeal. Try other whole grains like couscous, millet, quinoa, and bulgar.
Improve the Quality of Fat in Your Diet
Fat is the most concentrated source of calories in your diet. One gram of fat contains 9calories, compared to only 4 calories per gram of carbohydrate and protein. In addition, high fat foods tend to be more desirable, but do not give a sense of fullness, causing us to overeat. To top it all off, calories from fat are stored more efficiently than carbohydrate or protein calories, especially when the diet contains more calories than necessary for maintaining your weight or if you are already obese [Golay, 1997 #15890].
In a sense, fat has a dual personality. Eating too much fat has been linked to obesity, cardiovascular disease, stroke, and some types of cancers. On the other hand, fat is essential to life and severely restricting your fat intake is not healthy. Several official bodies in the U.S. recommend that no more than 30% of calories in the diet come from fat. Based on an estimated 1,600-1,800 calorie per day, this would equal about 50-60 grams per day or 450-540 calories.
Here are a few suggestions to help you improve the quality of fat in your diet.
• Decrease your intake of saturated fats and trans fatty acids, found in butter, margarine, red meat, and dairy products. Replace butter and regular margarines with Promise, Smart Beat or Brummel and Brown margarines that contain lower amounts of saturated and trans fatty acids that clog arteries and pack on the pounds. Eat leaner meat (see eat better meat section) and eat only low fat dairy products.
• Got milk? Try replacing whole fat milk or 2% milk with 1% or skim milk—you still get nutrients like protein, calcium and Vitamin D with less fat. If it’s a little harder to go from whole to skim, try mixing 2% and skim first, then gradually begin to drink only skim. Make eating other low fat or no fat dairy products a priority as well. Try low fat or nonfat yogurt and reduced fat cheeses.
• Increase your intake of monounsaturated fats. Good sources of monounsaturated fats include avocados, olives or olive oil, and nuts (almonds, cashews, pistachios, hazel nuts, etc).
• Increase your intake of essential fatty acids. These healthy fats can be found in soybeans or soybean oil, fish, flax seeds or flax oil and hemp seed oil. Other sources of good fats include safflower and sesame oil, wheat germ, and rice bran. All these fat sources are great to use on salads in place of your regular dressing. Mixing the oils with balsamic vinegar is also a tasty treat. Top off your salad with some nuts, flax seed, sesame seed, sunflower seeds or sesame oil for a different taste.
• Preparing your food: The preparation methods that you may be choosing for foods can significantly add more fat to your dishes. Fried foods should be eaten only on a very special occasion (i.e. a few times a year). Instead opt for grilling, baking, broiling, steaming, stir-frying, or boiling your foods. Be careful when cooking vegetables not to add too much butter or oils. One to two tablespoons, preferably olive oil and/or canola or sesame oil, is the most fat you should add during meal preparation or to your foods throughout the day. Add a little soy sauce, teriyaki, or water with a small amount of oil to lightly sautee your vegetables instead of breading and frying. Use vegetable sprays when stir-frying and save your 1-2 T allowance for a handful of nuts, a salad dressing at dinner or light mayonnaise for your sandwich.
• Beat the spread: Cut back on high fat spreads like butter, margarine, cream cheese and mayonnaise by cutting your usual portion in half, substituting with low fat varieties, or eliminating them completely from your diet. Try low fat cheeses and butter flavored sprinkles to flavor your foods.
• Spice it up: Try eating spicy foods-you won’t miss the fattening sauces. Add picante sauce, ginger, italian spice blends, chili powder and garlic and onions to your dishes.
• Don’t drive by: Drive-thrus may be convenient but they weren’t made for you. Even healthy choices can pack high fat sauces on their low-fat fare. And who can resist those french fries when the smell is wafting through the car. Best bet: avoid the fast food places
• Do the deli: Try delis and sandwich counters–you can select lower fat foods or custom order a low fat chicken or turkey sandwich with mustard instead of mayo. Pile on those fresh veggies for an even tastier treat.
• Eat out selectively: Split entrees and get half the fat and calories. Eat the other half for your lunch the next day. Get dressings and sauces on the side to add conservatively. Caution, approaching the salad and hot bar: Watch out for fatty side dishes at salad bars. Potato salad, macaroni salad and even coleslaw can provide high doses of fat to someone who is trimming down. At the hot bar ask your server for mashed potatoes, without gravy or butter, and beans and green vegetables without cheese sauce or ask for toppings on the side. Choose marinara or red sauce for your pasta dish instead of the cream based sauce. This can cut the fat content of your dish by more than half.
• You can’t eat just one: Choose lighter snacks. You don’t have to forsake your chips, ice cream or cookies for the rest of your life, just try lower fat options, or eat the regular variety only on a special occasion. But don’t eat the entire bag of chips or pint of ice cream. There are also other alternatives to crunchy snacks. Try preztels, cut up veggies, lite popcorn, or sucking on sunflower seeds. If you do choose low fat options for snacks don’t eat more than you would normally just because they’re lower in fat–these alternatives still have the same amount of calories. In fact, many low fat varieties have more calories than a similar serving size of the regular food. Start reading labels. Select foods with 0-3 grams of fat per 100 calories.
HIGH FAT (avoid):
fried foods
butter
fatty meats
french fries
muffin
potato chips
ice cream
cheddar, american, swiss cheese
LOWER FAT (eat instead):
baked or broiled foods
Promise or Smart Beat margarine
fish, skinless chicken or turkey
baked potato or baked sweet potato
whole grain bagel
pretzels
frozen yogurt, sorbet, low fat pudding
parmesan, feta, mozzarella, or low fat variety
Buy Fresh Foods
Here are a few good examples of how processing not only robs foods of their nutritional density, but adds more calories to make the foods taste better (data taken from the food composition tables of the United Stated Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Information Center). Applesauce contains only about half the phosphorus, potassium, vitamin A, riboflavin and niacin of fresh whole apples, and only 25 percent of the vitamin C. Yet some types of applesauce have nearly twice the calories than a whole apple. Bread made with whole wheat has nearly four times the magnesium, three times the phosphorus, more than twice the zinc and five times the vitamin B6 than “enriched” white bread. Many frozen dinners contain twice as many calories as a meal made from fresh whole foods. Start doing some comparing for yourself and you’ll see that processed foods just can’t compete with whole foods.
• Fresh is better: Buy the bulk of your food from the produce section of the supermarket. Or better yet from a farmer’s market where produce is the freshest. The time that it takes foods to be delivered from the grower and to the shelves can also reduce its nutrient density. When you can’t buy fresh, buy frozen produce. Although freezing does destroy some of the nutrients in produce, it is less than the effects of canning.
• Old favorites and a dab of the unusual: Stock up this week on all the yummy produce that you already love. Then each week add a new item that you’ve never tried before. Remember when your mom said listen to your elders, well she was right. The men of old in ancient China would recite a proverb to their children and grandchildren that stated each time you try a new food, your life would be prolonged seven days. Based on their lower rates of certain chronic diseases, I think they might be on to something! Be brave, try something new from your produce department.
• Fruits and vegetables are good sources of fiber and vitamins. People should aim to consume at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per day. Sufficient consumption of these foods also helps ensure you get enough phytochemicals. Found in small quantities in plants, phytochemicals protect plants from disease-causing microorganisms and pests, and are also believed to be an essential part of disease prevention in humans.
Eat Better Meat
Here are a few tips to help you cut down on your consumption of high-fat meats.
• Get the skinny: Cut out high fat meats, like bacon, sausage, hot dogs, and ham to help you cut back on your meat and fat intake. Instead choose leaner cuts of meat such as filet, tenderloin, flank, top round, top sirloin or ground round and make these items a small portion of your meal. Better yet opt for poultry, fish, and shellfish. If you do feel like you have to choose some red meat occasionally, trim all visible fat before cooking. And buy only extra-lean ground beef if you can’t resist a hamburger. A 3 1/2-ounce hamburger patty contains 20 grams of fat compared to the extra lean with 16.
• Give soy a try: Soybeans are a great whole food to add to your diet. Many people choose soy to add to their diets when they cut back on their meat intake to ensure that they get adequate amounts of protein. In fact, soybeans and soy products (tofu, miso, tempeh, soymilk, soycheese) are your best sources of plant protein. Soybeans are extremely nutrient dense and are a great substitute for meat. Marinate tofu and add it to stir frys. Buy baked tofu or tempeh, grill, and add to sandwiches, pasta or rice dishes, or salads. Soft tofu can also be used in fruit smoothies. Tofu basically takes on the flavor of the other foods you mix with it, so get creative with spices, herbs, and marinades and enjoy a new dish. Most supermarkets and all natural or health food stores carry soybeans and soy products, they even have soy dogs and lunch-meat made with soy protein.
Form Good Habits
• Drink six to eight glasses of water every day. This will help fill you up and keep your body functioning more efficiently.
• Minimize alcohol intake to avoid excess calories.
• Learn to eat slowly. Enjoy your meals: allow your body time to realize it has been fed.
• Avoid eating late at night, as the calories tend to be stored rather than burned for energy.
• Do grocery shopping from a list—and never when you’re hungry!
• Keep a food diary. This will help you to quickly see what you have been eating over the past few weeks. It’s harder to eat that candy bar or cookies every day if you have to write it down.
• Don’t skip meals or eat only one meal per day. This slows your metabolism. Frequent, small and healthy snacks or meals improve metabolism.
• Plan regular meals and snacks, and follow your plan!
• Get moving—make exercise, such as walking briskly for half an hour a day, a priority in your life.
Making Exercise a Habit
Physical activity has been recognized for many years by nutritionists, physicians, and other health professionals as an essential component of every weight management program. Bottom line, if you want to reach and maintain a healthy weight, you must exercise. In fact, the increased prevalence of overweight and obesity in our nation is attributed primarily to a decrease in physical activity, not just poor food choices.
Exercise is the best way to increase your resting metabolic rate. When exercise is included in your weight management program, the proportion of muscle to fat tissue improves. The more muscle you have the higher your metabolic rate. Remember muscles are the main consumers of fuel in the body, so the more they work, the more calories you burn. And better yet, when your lean body mass increases you burn calories all day long, even while you are sleeping. Exercise can also counteract the metabolic slow down that frequently occurs with age.
There is no right way to exercise. But, it is important to keep in mind that the amount of calories you burn during exercise depends on how long and intense it is and how many muscles are involved. The American College of Sports Medicine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, and the Surgeon General have each recommended that all Americans attempt to accumulate 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity on most, if not all, days. But this might not be possible from the beginning. Starting slowly is the key, and just increasing your physical activity, in combination with small changes in dietary intake, can promote weight loss.
Consider this: To lose one pound per week, you need to expend about 500 more calories than you consume. Walking 4 mph for 30 minutes will expend about 200 calories. If you walk upstairs for just 10 minutes you will expend about 150 calories. Domestic housework for 30 minutes will expend about 120 calories. As you can see, increasing your energy expenditure can be achieved with just very small steps.
Certain lifestyle activities may be just as effective at increasing your energy expenditure and managing your weight and health as planned exercise.
The concept of “lifestyle activity” encourages individuals to look for opportunities every day to increase energy expenditure. Here are some examples for increasing your daily energy expenditure:
• Garden, rake leaves, and mow the lawn
• Housework such as cleaning, vacuuming, dusting, and dishwashing
• Walk during your lunch break
• Park the car at the far end of the parking lot
• Take the stairs whenever possible
• Use fewer labor saving devices such as remote controls
• Play with nieces, nephews, or grandchildren. Offer to baby sit them occasionally.
• Walk your dog
Once you are ready to start a more vigorous exercise program, keep in mind the following tips:
• Exercise should be regular, at least thirty minutes on most, if not all, days of the week. Exercising only once a month will not help you to lose weight.
• Exercise should be enjoyable. Trying to do something you hate is the easiest way to fail. Pick an activity that you like. If you hate jogging or biking, play tennis, join a water aerobics class, rollerblade, or just walk.
• Remember that the goal of any exercise program is to lose body fat, as well as body weight. Exercise replaces fat tissue with muscle tissue. Because muscle weighs more than fat, the number you see on the scale may not change as rapidly as you would like. But, you’ll find that you are losing inches, and that your clothes fit better.
• Stretching and breathing exercises should also be a part of your exercise program. Stretching is essential before and after exercise so that muscles, tendons, and ligaments aren’t damaged. Focusing on your breathing during exercise will also help you to continue through the routine and make it a more efficient process.
• Slowly adding weight training to your workout regimen will build more lean body mass. An increase in lean body mass means an increase in the amount of calories you burn while resting or sleeping.
• Remember to consult your physcian before starting any strenuous physical activity.
Suggested meal options
Monday, June 28th, 2010|
The following menu suggestions are intended to help you get started in creating healthier eating habits. Use your imagination a little, too – you can switch foods of the same types around to suit your own tastes. And don’t be shy with the herbs and spices, as long as they are natural and not high in salt or added sugar. Enjoy! |
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Monday |
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Breakfast: Vegetable omelet with cheese and tomato slices. 1 slice of whole grain bread with margarine. Coffee, unsweetened hot herbal tea or water. Lunch: Tuna salad on 2 cups tossed salad vegetables and 1/2 cup whole grain pasta with italian or olive oil and vinegar dressing. Top off with sunflower seeds. Lemon water or herbal tea without sugar. Afternoon snack: Handful of nuts or trail mix. Dinner: Stuffed green pepper (stuffed with hamburger, onions, garlic, seasonings, and tomato) Topped off with mozzarella, feta or parmesan cheese or your favorite low fat variety. 1 small whole grain roll. Club soda or seltzer water with 1 sliced strawberry and lemon wedges. |
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Tuesday |
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Breakfast: 3/4 cup oatmeal with 1 1/2 T of natural peanut butter. Herbal tea, coffee or water. Mid morning snack: 1 hard boiled egg and water with lemon. Lunch: Open face roasted turkey sandwich. Roasted turkey slices on top of 1 slice of whole grain bread. Top off with avocado and tomato slices and shredded cheddar cheese. 2 cups of tossed salad with olive oil and vinegar. Water with lemon wedges. Afternoon snack: 1/2 cup fresh berries with cottage cheese and water with lemon. Dinner: Lo Carb Keto Powder mixed with 1/2 cup orange juice and 1 cup vanilla soy milk or regular 1% or 2% milk. |
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Wednesday |
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Breakfast: Open faced egg sandwich. Fried eggs over lean ham, cheese and 1 slice of whole grain english muffin. Coffee, hot herbal tea, or 1 cup 1% or 2% milk. Mid morning snack: 1 small sliced apple with the skin and 1/2 T natural peanut butter. Lunch: Grilled chicken breast on 2 cups of tossed salad vegetables with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, sesame seeds and avocado slices. Dinner: Roast beef slices on salad greens topped with creamy horseradish and tomatoes. Green tea, other herbal tea or water. |
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Thursday |
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Breakfast: Cottage cheese and one small fresh sliced peach. Turkey or vegetarian (soy) sausage on the side. Hot tea or coffee. Lunch: 2 cups of tossed spinach and mixed greens salad with boiled eggs, avocado and sunflower seeds. Topped with sesame oil, soy sauce and rice vinegar. 1/2 baked potato-regular or sweet with 1 small pat of margarine. Homeade lemonade with sugar substitute. Afternoon snack: Handful of trail mix Dinner: Grilled salmon topped with garlic and ginger soy sauce and sesame seeds. 1 cup cooked broccoli with almonds, balsamic vinegar and parmesan cheese. 1 toasted whole grain roll. Water with lemon wedges. |
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Friday |
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Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with onions, garlic and mushrooms, topped with feta cheese. 1 slice of whole grain bread with margarine. Hot herbal tea or coffee Mid morning snack: 1 cup chocolate or vanilla pudding with artificial sweetener (no sugar added). Lunch: Salad with a cup of tuna or chicken on top Afternoon snack: 1 hard boiled egg Dinner: Vegetable plate: 1 cup pinto beans, 1 cup fresh coleslaw, and 2 cups tossed salad greens with fresh onions and cucumbers in vinegar and olive oil. |
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Saturday |
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Breakfast: Smoked salmon with low fat cream cheese and 1/2 of one small whole grain bagel or english muffin. Coffee or green tea. Lunch: Chicken salad over 2 cups tossed salad vegetables with tomato and onion slices drizzled with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and lemon juice. Afternoon snack: 1 cup of vanilla yogurt (with no added sugar and artificial sweetener) topped with 1/4 cup granola/nut mixture. Dinner: Pan Fried (not deep-fried) catfish with drizzled creole sauce (cajun spiced low fat thousand island), 1 cup fresh coleslaw and 1/2 cup red new potatoes with onions. Water with lemon or green tea. |
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Sunday |
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Breakfast: 1 cup of soy or regular milk and 1/2 cup orange juice (juice is optional-add more milk in place of juice if preferred). Add 1/4 cup of frozen or fresh mixed berries and blend well in blender. Mid morning snack: Fresh carrots with 1 T natural peanut butter Lunch: Roasted chicken with 1cup string beans, 1/2 cup of mashed sweet potatoes and 1 small whole grain roll with margarine. Water with lemon wedges. Afternoon snack: Cottage cheese with tomato slices Dinner: Grilled shrimp over 2 cups tossed salad ingredients topped with walnuts and almonds sauteed in margarine or olive oil, and sprinkled with parmesan cheese. Toss with italian dressing if preferred. Green tea or water. |
Eating healthy doesn’t have to be difficult or unpleasant or boring. Often just a little planning and preparation are all you need to insure that you and your family are eating right – and enjoying it!Foods that contain carbohydrates and should be limited
Monday, June 28th, 2010(No more than 4 servings daily)
Complex carbohydrates: One serving includes: 1 slice of whole grain or several grain bread, 3/4 cup of whole grain cereal (wheat chex, granola, oatmeal), 1/2 of one small whole grain bagel, 1/3 cup of brown rice, couscous, bulgar, or quinoa, 1/2 cup of whole grain pasta, 1/2 cup of beans such as kidney, garbanzo, pinto, baked, blackeyed peas, black, navy, lima, soy, 1/2 baked potato or sweet potato.
Other carbohydrates: 1/2 cup 100% fruit juice, 1 cup 2% milk, 1 small piece of fruit (preferably those with the rind or with more fiber-berries, apples, pears–1 cup of berries, 1 small apple or pear, 1 small peach or plum, 1 cup of melon).
Foods to eliminate:
You should not choose any foods from this list. After you have successfully lost your desired amount of weight, these foods are meant to be only an occasional treat (once every month).
Sweets (cakes, pies, doughnuts, snack cakes, candy, candy bars, ice cream, pastries, etc)
Sweetened Beverages (colas, root beer, fruit juice drinks or punches, or any other drink sweetened with sugar)
Sugar added to coffee or tea, cereals, fruit, etc.
Foods to enjoy daily
Monday, June 28th, 2010Fish (Salmon, Halibut, Trout, Tuna, Sardines, Flounder, etc). Preferably baked, grilled, or broiled.
Lean Meat (Beef, Pork, Ham, Roast Beef, Venison, etc). Please see the section titled Eat Better Meat to learn more about good choices.
Poultry (Chicken, Turkey, Duck, Pheasant, Cornish Hen). Preferably grilled, baked or broiled.
Shellfish (Crab, Oysters, Clams, Mussels, Lobster, Shrimp). Preferably grilled, broiled, or canned.
Eggs (Scrambled, Fried, Omelets, Hard boiled, etc)
Nuts or seeds (any kind) Limit to two handfuls per day.
Cheese (Feta, Mozzarella, Parmesan, Cottage, Soy and low fat varieties) Limit to 2-3 oz per day.
Salad – Any kind of lettuce or greens (Red Leaf lettuce, Iceburg, Romaine, Spinach, Arugula, Endive, etc) Preferably include 4 cups per day or 2 cups salad vegetables and 1 cup of cooked vegetables (see below).
Other vegetables for a salad or as a raw snack - Alfalfa sprouts, cabbage, celery, cucumber, carrots, mushrooms, olives, parsley, green and red peppers, onions, tomatoes, zucchini)
Salad dressings – Olive oil and balsamic vinegar, lemon/lime juice or Italian. Other toppings can include nuts, seeds and cheese.
Cooked vegetables (Include 1 cup of cooked vegetables if you’ve eaten only 2 cups of salad vegetables.) Broccoli, cauliflower, squash, zucchini, cabbage, carrots, asparagus, avocado, brussel sprouts, collard greens, eggplant, kale, kohlrabi, Okra, Onion, Rhubarb, Spinach, Snow peas, Turnips, tomatoes, artichokes, beets.
Eleven easy ways to cut 100 calories
Monday, June 28th, 2010For a chewy snack, have 1/2 cup of dried fruit rather than 9 caramels.
Replace 3 slices of bacon with 3 slices of Light & Lean Canadian Bacon.
Replace 1 cup of caramel-coated popcorn with 21/2 cups of air-popped popcorn.
Make a burrito with 1/2 cup of fat-free refried beans and 1 oz. of nonfat cheese instead of the same amount of traditional refried beans and cheese.
Top your celery sticks with 2 Tbsp. of fat-free cream cheese instead of 3 Tbsp. of regular cream cheese
Replace 2 fried-chicken drumsticks with 2 roasted drumsticks and a cup of peas and carrots.
Instead of eating 5 chocolate-chip cookies, savor the taste of 2.
Replace a 12 oz. can of cola with a 12 oz. can of diet cola.
Order 2 slices of cheese pizza instead of 2 slices of pepperoni.
Complement your hamburger with 1 1/4 oz. of oven-baked tortilla chips instead of a side of fries.
At an Italian restaurant, snack on a large breadstick instead of a slice of garlic bread.
Are you putting yourself at risk?
Saturday, June 26th, 2010This rise in obesity should be taken as seriously as any infectious disease epidemic. Overweight and physical inactivity account for more than 300,000 premature deaths each year in the U.S., second only to tobacco related deaths. (more…)
Five easy ways to avoid junk foods
Saturday, June 26th, 2010Let’s not kid ourselves, when we are hungry we are more inclined to eat food that is easy. “Easy” food is usually pre-prepared & loaded with sodium, calories, etc. (more…)
Obesity is on the rise
Saturday, June 26th, 2010Over the past 100 years the United States has experienced a trend of gradually increasing obesity. Currently 55% of adult Americans are classified as overweight or obese, suggesting that weight problems are reaching epidemic proportions. Women tend to weigh more than their male counterparts and women aged 50-60 have the greatest prevalence of obesity, as compared to women aged 20 – 30 with the lowest rates, thus affirming the notion that we tend to gain weight as we age. Currently, it is estimated that obesity in children is as high as 25%. Thirty percent of Americans are technically obese, as compared to in England, where there is an average of 16% obesity. The Journal of the Medical Association recently reported that the prevalence of obesity has increased by 49% between 1991 and 1998. These statistics are alarming and indicate the need for a broad scale public effort to overcome deep-rooted structural and cultural impediments that are hindering individuals from leading healthy lives. Furthermore, major shifts in personal behavior are required to offset the potential health risks associated with this phenomenon.
For those of us in Western countries, at least, innovations in the past century, and particularly just in the past few decades, has provided a plentiful food supply and life changing technologies, ranging from cars to computers, that are the hallmark of our age. Yet, apart from their remarkable benefits, these advances enable or induce us to lead less physically active lives. As a result, we may be the first broad scale society in human history to routinely consume more calories in our daily diets than we spend in our daily activities.
The consequences of this imbalance are now becoming dramatically apparent. America is experiencing an obesity epidemic that puts the population at increasing risk for heart problems and other debilitating and life threatening diseases including diabetes, arthritis, and some cancers. Most interestingly, research suggests that most if not all of these diseases are largely preventable! Can you guess why? You got it, maintaining a healthy weight through diet and exercise, two of the greatest weapons in the fight against obesity and its associated diseases states, will help you to live a healthier and longer life.
Lifetime maintenance: now that you’ve lost the weight, keep it off!
Saturday, June 26th, 2010Managing your weight can be a balancing act. Learning to minimize old eating behaviors and incorporating new ones can be very challenging. The best way to get the nutrition that your body needs while at the same time managing your appetite, eating behaviors, and weight should be a step-by- step process. Adding more whole foods to your diet, (more…)
