Meatless Monday Misguided Move

I was listening to NPR today on my way to work and caught this article: Campaign Aims to Make Meatless Mondays Hip. I think the gentleman behind Meatless Monday is a bit misguided (one woman in the article applauds her healthy meatless meal of tempura—for my East Coast readers, tempura is a Japanese dish of battered and fried vegetables).

Even the sentiment behind the campaign is admirable, but foolishly simple: if we could just get people to make one small change, then somehow that will help make our diets healthier. However, the obesity epidemic in America isn’t the fault of one food or another. Plenty of diets have tried to completely remove fats, sugar, carbohydrate, or specific foods like meat. But, obviously, the elimination of one element of our diet has not proved to be a cure-all.

I think the first step to truly making change happen is to educate people about food: how food works in our bodies, how to combine foods to make them work better, how to make better choices of the foods that surround us.

The Dish on Fiber

There’s a whole lot of talk lately about fiber. Several times now, I’ll be preparing my lunch or a snack in the kitchen at work and someone will comment on the fiber in my food. I really haven’t put much thought into fiber previously since I mostly just make sure I’m getting enough veggies in my week. But fiber is all the rage right now.

To start, what is fiber? There are 2 types of fiber: soluble fiber and insoluble fiber. Insoluble fiber essentially greases your digestive tract (this is where that “regularity” comes from). Think of insoluble fiber like little scrub brushes that keep everything moving. Soluble fiber (meaning it dissolves in water) helps keep your cholesterol and blood sugar low.

It’s easy to find foods with both kinds of fiber. Wheat, nuts, and dark green leafy vegetables are all high in insoluble fiber. Oats, citrus fruits, carrots, peas and beans are high in soluble fiber.

In addition to fiber’s effect on your digestive tract and cholesterol, it has another benefit that seems to be the source for fiber’s popularity right now. Fiber takes longer for your body to digest (like protein) which, therefore, helps to reduce your hunger throughout the day.

If you’re having trouble with hunger mid-morning or mid-afternoon, try combining the powers of fiber and protein! Have a spinach and chicken salad for lunch, or a shredded wheat and cottage cheese for breakfast. Just make sure to not replace your protein with fiber. Fiber alone might help you fight hunger, but fiber is usually found in foods that are higher in carbohydrates. If you were just to have an orange for a snack, there are many more carbs than fiber and you’ll be hungry again in half an hour.

Be smart about how you get fiber in your diet, and fiber can be a small addition to make a big difference.

Make Eating Out a Good Choice

As healthy as it would be to eat every single meal handmade, it’s not super realistic with many of our busy lives. When you’re eating out, the best policy is simply to try to follow the same rules you would follow if you were making your meal yourself (a good amount of protein paired with balanced carbs and heart healthy fats).

But restaurants don’t exactly make it easy on us! Many chain restaurants offer the calorie count for their dishes, but usually no other nutritional information (if you’re wondering where most of the calories come from, it’s always fat). But even chain restaurants make this information difficult to find.

Here’s the rundown of a few restaurants I’ve found (and how I eat at them):

· Subway – For many of us, this is the first place we think of when we’re hungry but need to eat out. Here’s the trick: order double meat and rip the bottom half off your bread. Subway makes it easy to get the nutritional information for their sandwiches. If you actually look at it, holy carb overload Batman! You literally cut the calories of a sandwich in half (and significantly limit your carb intake) if you only eat half the bread.

· Applebees – With decent section of their menu approved by Weight Watchers, Applebees is a decent choice if you have to eat out. Here’s the trick: no butter, get the dressing on the side and easy on the cheese. These dishes are lower on the calories for a restaurant, but they can be off balance by the amount of fat in them (and we’re not talking heart healthy fats).

· Cheesecake Factory – Ok, after you pick your jaw up off the floor, the Cheesecake Factory only made it on my list because of ONE dish: the Thai Lettuce Wraps. I’m warning you—if you eat this entire dish, unmodified, you will be consuming over 1000 calories! Here’s the trick: skip the coconut curry noodles and ask for plain chicken breast. As long as you’re being smart with the side sauces, you can get away with a meal at the Cheesecake Factory for less than 500 calories. And you get the pleasure of watching your friends get fatter!

As long as you’re paying attention to your rules, you can often find a way to make bad options better. Get a salad with dressing on the side and no cheese. Get fajitas and ask for extra meat and veggies. Get chicken soup and order extra chicken breast. Get chicken teriyaki but only eat a very small bit of rice and all the salad (you know you usually don’t eat the salad!).

If you’re going to eat out, make it a good choice!

A Change in Perspective

I was recently featured in the ProClub’s ProPulse Magazine as their 20/20 LifeStyles success story, and I wanted to share with you:

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I remember sitting in my junior high health class and finding myself on the BMI (body mass index) chart. While it categorized me in the “obesity” range, I was active and without any health issues. So I decided that no matter what anyone told me, I was fine and my weight was just part of who I was.

While we ate a healthy diet at home, we kept a “clean your plate” philosophy. I’ve always struggle with portion control. As I became more independent and moved away from home, I began to stray away from the healthy diet and indulge in whatever food I felt like. Instant gratification tuned food into an addiction. On top of this, I worked in a completely sedentary job, enjoyed sedentary hobbies, and abhorred any kind of exercise. Before I knew it, I was 268 pounds and still telling myself I was fine.

When I began the 20/20 LifeStyles program, I convinced myself that I probably wouldn’t lose much weight. My real motivation for doing the program was to get healthy. However, I’m a competitive person. As I started losing weight and became more fit and toned, I was thrilled by what I was able to accomplish. I found so much joy in simply jogging. I was ecstatic when I did my first “manly” pushups. It was so motivating to realize that I could take the martial arts class I’d always dreamed of, or beat my little brother in a sprint.

While my blood pressure dropped 10 points, along with my bad cholesterol, the most impressive changes weren’t recorded. I could walk up the stairs in my house and not be out of breath. I could hold my friend’s baby for more than 10 minutes and not have a sore arm the next day. I could sit in a small armchair that I’d never been able to fit into before.

With the help of 20/20 LifeStyles, I changed the way I thought about food, exercise, and health. It changed my perspective as I began to see that the changes I was making during the program had become part of my “normal life.” My old lifestyle (and self image) had become an exception to my new self.

Recently, a friend asked me, “What do you think now when you look at people who are overweight?” It’s this – they have no idea what life could be like! Their dreams of running a marathon? They could do it! That dream of going rock climbing can happen. You can do anything you dream of, but you have to be realistic about how you get there. It’s not going to happen overnight and the journey won’t be easy. But once you start seeing those dreams as achievable, it’s worth all the work and sweat.

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Pump It Up!

In recovering from my previously mentioned surgery, I lost some serious muscle mass. I used to have thighs of steel (they were seriously dreamy), but my thighs and other cute body parts were getting pretty flabby by the time I made it back to the gym.

I'm normally a BODY ATTACK kind of girl, but I decided to try out BODY PUMP at Gold’s. It’s an hour long strength training class (and it’s my new addiction). I think some serious strength training has helped me get back into the game much faster than I might have with it. It only took me about a week or two to get back to my regular work out, and I think it’ll only be another week or so before I’m pushing myself as hard as I used to.

Strength training in general is pretty important to your regular workout. This nifty article from the Mayo Clinic goes into depth on the importance of strength training, but here are my favorite reasons:

· Fight Osteoporosis – Your bones are densest where your muscles attach to the bone. When you regularly stress your muscles (and therefore stress your bones), your body adds density to your bones where you need it most. What does this mean? Women with nice strong guns also have nice strong bones.

· Weight Control – This one everyone probably already knows (but doesn’t do anything about). The more muscle your body has, the more efficiently it burns calories.

Strength training reduces your risk to injuries, gives you stamina, produces a fantastic looking butt, as well as other benefits. So grab a 5-pounder and start pumping some iron today! Or, find a BODY PUMP class near you.

Back in the Saddle!

I recently had a bit of minor surgery (thus my short vacation from the blog) which prevented me from working out for four and a half weeks. A month of no exercise! Not even any walking! I have to say, going into surgery I was really worried that I would slid back into my old habits. I was afraid that all the exercise and eating right were just a temporary change in my life, that maybe I had fooled myself into thinking it was permanent change.

But, despite my fears, I planned to succeed! Before surgery, I met with my dietician to discuss the kind of foods I would need (apparently protein is very important when healing from surgery) and the kind of calorie range I should aim for while recovering. I went grocery shopping the day before my surgery and made sure I had plenty of fruits, veggies and protein options around the house.

Now, I’ll be truthful with you—much of my planning went out the window. I’m pretty sure I had pizza for dinner every night during my second week of recovery. I discovered that without my entire routine, many of my habits fell to the wayside. I found it weird that I was more motivated to go to the gym if I was eating right and motivated to eat right if I went to the gym (as well as more motivated to maintain the blog).

But around week three or four, I started having dreams that I was going for a run. I was miserable during my evenings just missing the gym. I began to feel more confident that the changes I’ve made in my life were going to be life-long!

I’m back to the gym full swing now! I have a couple pounds to get off (consequences from a few of my choices during recovery), but I’m not worried about them! I’ve done this before, and I can do it again. There’s nothing I can’t do.

Well, except for 10 manly push-ups in a row. But I’m working on that.

Kitchen Literacy

Would you consider yourself kitchen literate? Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of Kitchen Literacy before—I just made it up. But it’s a good metaphor! Just work with me here.

How many times a week do you cook your meals? More and more people not only don’t cook most of their meals themselves, but (I think) more and more people don’t know how to cook even if they wanted to make a majority of their own meals.

A team of researchers studied the food literacy of 16-26 year olds. That is, they studied the participants’ ability to make food choices, shop for their own food and cook their food. I don’t have to tell you that the results were abysmal, and researchers assume it’s because parents are “outsourcing” food preparation more than they used to (frozen foods, restaurants, etc.).

My mother forced me to take a year of piano lessons, but never forced me to help her prepare and make dinner. Even now, when I ask her for a recipe, I get a list of ingredients (rarely with measurements) without cooking directions! (Love you, mum!) I got a lot of home-cooked meals growing up, but I’m in a growing minority. And even I think some food education at home would have been way more helpful than the piano lessons. I now have a reputation for being a great cook in my home, but the first couple years I was married were pretty rough.

Challenge yourself this week! Commit to cooking/preparing every single meal yourself (breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks). Buy a cookbook and try 3 new recipes (you’ll never learn if you don’t try). Find a Whole Food grocery store and attend their weekly cooking classes.

If nothing else, you’ll at least find out what skills you have and the ones you need to work on.

A Balanced Day

On a daily basis, the most important nutritional change you could make is balance. Most of us, even if we’re eating the correct range of calories are not getting very nutritionally balanced calories. We get significantly more fat calories or carbohydrate calories than protein calories, which throws our bodies out of whack. Our blood sugar spikes and drops, we feel energized then sluggish, we’re hungry all morning and then eat too much at lunch.

For the most part, our diets should consist of about 30% of our calories coming from protein, 45% from carbohydrates, and 25% from fat.

For a weight loss diet, simply lower the carbohydrates (while increasing physical activity and decreasing overall calorie intake) to more of a balance: about a third of your calories coming each from protein, carbohydrates and fat. The greater protein helps get your body balanced quickly, and keeps you from being hungry.

What does a balanced day look like?

Breakfast – Make sure to get a small amount of protein (15-25 grams), healthy carbohydrates like fruit or whole grain bread, and no less than 10 grams of heart healthy fats. Getting enough fat in the morning is crucial to conquering hunger until lunch.

Lunch – A good amount of protein (40-60 grams) and balanced carbohydrates including plenty of veggies.

Snack – The most important part of a snack is a small amount of protein (15-25 grams). Try not to let carbohydrates greatly outnumber your protein (keeping to about 20-30 grams).

Dinner – A good amount of protein (40-60 grams), balanced carbohydrates, and 3 or more servings of non-starchy vegetables.

I tend to want an afternoon snack and an evening snack, but you may find you are hungrier at the beginning of the day. As your body gets back into balance, you can trust it more when it tells you you’re hungry. A balanced diet keeps you from yo-yoing between hunger and satisfaction.

The Dirty Dozen

I was speaking with my dietician today, and she informed me there is an updated 2010 Dirty Dozen list out now. And you think, “That wasn’t a very good movie the first time around. Why would they remake it?”

I’m talking about the Dirty Dozen in your produce section. These are the top worst foods which deliver pesticides into our bodies. As you roll your eyes and think to yourself, “I always wash or peel my veggies and fruit,” I interject with the fact that the pesticides measured in the Dirty Dozen are measured after the produce has been washed, rinsed or peeled (depending upon how the food is commonly eaten). This means the Environmental Working Group measures the pesticides in a peeled banana, or rinsed lettuce or a washed apple.

Get it now? You’re still getting pesticides in your body despite your current efforts. The Dirty Dozen are just the fruits and veggies that deliver the biggest doses.

Click here to print out a handy dandy wallet-sized version.

Now, if you’ve been reading my posts at all, you know I’m not “all aboard” the Organic Train. I think a lot of people spend ridiculous amounts of money on organic foods that are no better or worse than their conventional counterparts. However, in the case of the Dirty Dozen, money well spent, people. There are some pretty nasty chemicals found in pesticides. Even if you’re willing to put them in your own body, are you willing to put them in your kids?

Birthday Attack!

In February, I began thinking about what I would like to do for my birthday (I like lots of time to plan). I thought to myself, “The one thing I would love to do is my Body Attack class. And wouldn’t it be fun if all my friends were there!” I started working with Gold’s Gym and they very generously agreed to work with me. They offered a special time for the class on Saturday and I got to invite all of my friends!

Saturday was the big day and it was fantastic! Gold’s went above and beyond of what I had expected or asked! My favorite teachers did all the planning (pic to the right: Ryan, Jenna and Vicki), and they made my 29th birthday the best one I’ve had yet. And all my friends—who were very suspicious that I was making them exercise on my birthday—had fun and burnt some calories too!

Body Attack + My Birthday = Birthday Attack!

Then we were back at the house for some BBQ! It was the most guilt-free BBQ my friends will be at all year. We had burgers and chicken sausages, fresh veggies, soy crisps (for something a little munchy) and fruit salad. Of course there were cupcakes, but you didn’t have to feel guilty about having one since we had just burnt between 500-800 calories at class.

Best birthday ever!

Man, how am I going to have my 30th top this?