Don't Be Afraid to Go Nuts!

Does the idea of snacking on a baggie full of celery stalks for your afternoon snack leave you feeling more than slightly uninterested?

Getting through the stretch of time between light lunch and healthy dinner can be the downfall of anyone's weight loss program. Unless you plan in advance for a snack that you will like and that will satisfy you, you'll probably toss the celery and head for the vending machine.

That's where nuts - a food that combines protein, fiber and healthy fat into one small package- can come to your rescue.

A handful, depending on the size of the hand, can be the ideal snack portion: a quarter cup. You can keep roasted, unsalted mixed nuts on hand or choose any variation of nuts. Almonds, walnuts, peanuts, pistachios, pecans, and macadamias make great snack choices - alone or in combination. One of my favorites is the new Planter's Heart Healthy mix:

Canned nut mixes are convenient and tasty, but you can save yourself money, salt, and often calories and fat grams by buying plain unsalted walnuts, almonds, pecans, and even peanuts in bags in the grocery store produce or baking sections.

An average serving of nuts  (1/4 cup roasted almonds, for example) contains: 6.7 grams carbohydrate, 4 grams fiber, 205 calories, 9.5 grams protein, 18 grams fat, 1.4 grams saturated fat. And that's the one thing we have to pay attention to: serving size: a palm-full is not very much, so eat them slowly. The fat and fiber will fill you up faster than you think, but still remember you are just having a snack, not  a meal!

WebMD includes other low-calorie, celery-free snacks in their List of Top Ten Low-Carb Snacks.

 

An added benefit to making a small quantity of nuts part of your daily food intake can be improved cholesterol levels, making nuts a key to a heart-healthy diet, according to a new study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

The study revealed that people they followed who consumed 2.4 ounces of nuts per day had better cholesterol levels than people who consumed the same amount of saturated fat, but no nuts. Read more here to learn about these heart-friendly benefits!

Eat This, Not That!

A diet only works when you have control over what, where, and when you are eating, and we don't always have that control. Because it's a fact of life that most of us don't prepare every meal from scratch - at home- with fresh, natural ingredients- we need all the help we can get in making the best choices when eating out or buying packaged foods at the grocery store.

Having access to nutritional labels is one of the ways we've talked about to compare the calories, carbohydrate and fat content of meals that are pre-packaged or sold to us at chain restaurants. But I want to share with you a great little book that is just packed with this information - in other words, the authors have already done the research for you!

Eat This, Not That is written by David Zinczenko with the editor-in-chief of Men's Health Magazine.  It's not a traditional "read-only" diet book; it's really a guidebook to take along to grocery stores and restaurants as a tool to help you make the absolute healthiest choices you can when you are in a place where you can't control the ingredients of your meal.

Different sections highlight common, brand-name foods and meals with the EAT THIS recommendations on one page and the NOT THAT options on the facing page. It's fascinating, entertaining and educational!

By following the recommendations in the book, you can save hundreds of calories and dozens of fat grams at every meal - without doing the math yourself!  For example, I found out why Chick-Fil-A is actually the healthiest fast food place to get a grilled chicken sandwich; that Triscuit reduced-fat crackers are a better choice than Wheat Thins even though both list "whole wheat" as the main ingredient, and how to save 540 calories at Thanksgiving dinner (have mashed potatoes instead of sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole instead of stuffing, and pumpkin pie instead of pecan pie).

Eat This,Not That has been such a success that there is also a version just for the supermarket shopping and one devoted to kids' meals!  I found my copy at Wal-Mart, but I have seen it in Krogers, Sam's Club, Amazon.com and stand-alone bookstores too - highly recommended!



Lighter in 100 Days?

The 100 days of Summer 2010 have come to an end - which means it's been 100 days since I started making blog posts about ways to change your eating plans in order to lose weight and live lighter.

I've heard from many of you who have let me know that you have indeed lost weight and become more active. That is real encouragement! I am really proud of you who have altered your buying, cooking and fast food habits - it is not easy! And I have not run out of topics and ideas to help you on your Lighten Up journey.

So - you may have already noticed - we have changed the title of the blog from "Lighten Up in 100 Days" ,which was designed to complement our 100 Miles in 100 Days activity program, to "Lighten Up DHS" and from now on the blog will be updated every Wednesday.

If you are a new reader, you can scan through the archived posts to find some helpful guidance; if you are a regular reader or would like to be, you might like to know that you can sign up as a "follower" with your yahoo or gmail email address - and receive the blogpost notice in your in-box each week.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned! Next week's post is titled:
Eat This, Not That!

Is Your Salad Sabotaging You?

Maybe it's not your salad that is sabotaging your careful weight management plan, but what you are putting on your salad as "dressing"!

If you are building a salad of lettuce and greens only, your plate or bowlful will only account for about 50 - 70 calories. Leafy greens are mostly water. Aside for the vitamins we get - especially from the dark leafy greens like spinach - a plateful of salad greens keeps us busy chewing and eating for quite awhile -- without a high calorie gain. That's one of our goals ( remember the blog on "Volumetrics"?) in eating to lose.

Once we have our base of greens, what we add to it begins to make a difference, but as long as we add lots of colorful vegetables - green peppers, cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes, broccoli, onions, mushrooms- we are still adding vitamins, minerals and fiber, rather than a lot of calories.

When we get to the top of the salad, however, we can sometimes add enough calories to equal what we would have had if we had gone to McDonald's and ordered a Big Mac.

How can that be?

Well, a basic garden salad of about 2 cups of vegetables alone and one ounce of a "lite" dressing has about 145 calories.

If we start with the same basic salad and add fattening toppings often found on the salad bar, here's what happens:

Adding 1/2 cup cheddar cheese adds 100 more calories and 10 grams of fat
Adding 1/4 cup bacon bits adds 100 calories and 5 grams of fat
Adding 2 tablespoons sunflower seeds adds 100 calories and 9 grams of fat
Adding  a handful of croutons adds 100 calories and 4 grams of fat.

But the worst offender is what has practically become a separate food group unto itself, the salad dressing - and  specifically Ranch Dressing. Why? Because it is by far the most popular salad dressing on the market. America just loves it. In fact, it isn't even limit to dressing salads anymore. Many of us use it as a dip for chicken and french fries and maybe worst of all, we use it as a lure to get our kids to eat vegetables. Our grocery stores even package it right into the veggie trays they sell.

Now the first basic salad I described had 1 ounce - about 2 tablespoons - of "lite" ranch dressing on it - for an additional 70 calories.

But most people don't like "lite" Ranch, so they choose full-fat ranch which weighs in at 70 calories per tablespoon - making the serving size 140 calories...and 14 grams of fat.

And most people use 4 - 8 tablespoons of ranch dressing on their 50 calorie salad, which means the dressing alone adds from 280 to 560 calories.

Now you can see how the "fully-dressed" salad can be as deadly to your diet as a Big Mac and fries.

What to do?

Best bet is to find a fat-free, low-calorie salad dressing that you like and stick to the recommended 2 tablespoons. Opt for lots of veggies and very little or no added high-calorie toppings. But what if you absolutely, positively have to have the original, full-fat ranch dressing? Two tips: get the small serving in a cup on the side and dip your greens into it...you will see you need far less than you think.  A second option that I use myself is: put a very small amount ( about 1 tablespoon - on your basic salad and top (thin) with vinegar....you will be surprised how good your salad will taste and how much healthier you will be!

Fabulous, Filling FIBER!

So much emphasis is placed on what NOT to eat when we want to lose weight - no sweets, no pop, low-sugar, no-fat - that we can forget there are foods we absolutely should eat every day! Good, filling, nutritious foods that do good things for our waistlines outside and our digestive tract inside!

Those foods are the ones that are high in Fiber!

Fiber is the part of plant foods that that your body doesn't digest and absorb.

There are two basic types of fiber: soluble and insoluble. Both are good, so you really don't have to "memorize" which is which; however, insoluble fiber adds bulk to your stool and can help prevent constipation - a great reason to be sure your daily diet is fiber-rich! Vegetables, some fruits, wheat bran, barley, brown rice and other whole grains are good sources of insoluble fiber. 

Soluble fiber may help improve your cholesterol and blood sugar levels. Whole oats, dried beans, and some fruits like apples and oranges, are good sources of soluble fiber. So yes, there is some truth to "an apple (unpeeled) a day keeps the doctor away!

By now you've probably noticed that these are carbohydrate foods! And you're right! These are the "good carbs" that you want to fill 3/4 of your plate with!

In fact, the only problem with fiber is that most of us don't get enough!  Man or woman, make 25 grams or more of all fiber your daily goal. Starting the day with a whole grain cereal will help. The Uncle Sam's brand has almost 10 grams of fiber per serving; that's about as high as you can get in boxed cereals. Then making sure you have vegetables, beans, seeds and whole grains during the rest of the day should help you meet your goal.  You really need to label-read to see if you are getting 25 grams of fiber in your usual day.

Fiber is the friend of anyone who is curbing calories to lose weight because most of the high-fiber foods are not only low in calories, but really help you feel full and satisfied so you don't get hungry so quickly and won't tend to want a "sugar fix".   That's because these high-fiber foods are digested slowly and don't cause a spike and fall in your blood sugar level.

And for those who need more fiber in order to fight a tendency towards constipation, most people can safely take over-the-counter store-brand fiber capsules as a supplement. In fact, fiber supplements can aid in our digestive issues like gas, bloating and diarrhea (that is not illness-based). The usual dosage is up to 6 capsules to start with a full glass of water when you get up in the morning. You can start with 3 and build up to six if you want. Sounds like a lot, but most people find they adapt to the schedule pretty quickly - and appreciate the benefits.

To read more about the benefits of  living the high-fiber life, click here.

Help! I'm Not Hungry; But I'm Eating!

Ever feel like saying that?

Mindless eating is different from boredom or emotional eating....when we snack because we are bored, upset, lonely, stressed or depressed, we usually know why we are moved to move toward the refrigerator. That kind of eating can be tackled with specific behavior techniques.

We know that food is our sustenance  - it keeps the wondrous machines that are our bodies going and functioning. And believe me, I believe in eating 3 meals a day and snacking twice a day...and I want that food to be healthy, nutritious and delicious. We want to eat just enough to satisfy us both physically and emotionally and to fulfill our nutritional needs.  Sounds so simple, doesn't it?

But we all are subject to triggers or cues to eat even when we are not hungry or even thinking about eating.


Time of Day : Our bodies become trained to expect food at certain times. So hormones are secreted that tell our brains we are hungry and ready to eat.

Sight:  Even if you have just eaten a full lunch, if  you walk into a meeting or store or even see a billboard or tv commercial that has food you like on display, your body may respond automatically in mouth-watering anticipation.

Smell: I'll admit it, when I drive past Burger King and smell the "char-broiling", I want a hamburger! And I don't even eat fast food hamburgers! Scent is one way we cue our bodies that food is near. Once triggered, it induces insulin secretion that makes us think we are hungry.

Temperature: The colder then temperature gets, the more people tend to eat - your metabolism drops when it's time to eat and eating warms you up. Heat is a signal of being satisfied. Now you know why restaurants keep their thermostats set so low!

Alcohol:   Just as too much alcohol can impair judgement about many things, it also alters our perception of appetite and can make it harder to push ourselves away form the table.

And finally, just the variety of food and flavors, can make us eat when we are not hungry.  One reason to steer clear of buffets when you are watching your calories --- especially breakfast bars! Notice how even after a large meal, we still want to and DO make room for dessert? Nutritionists say that's because our desire for sweets has not been satisfied during the meal, so try having some fruit during dinner to see if it will curb this natural sugar craving.

There you have it - six eating triggers that you may not have realized work against your efforts to eat right and light! Always remember, ask yourself "Am I hungry?" before taking that first bite!

Do Cars Make Us Fat?

According to a study published in the Journal of Physical Activity & Health, there is a lower rate of overweight and obesity in countries where most people walk, cycle or use public transportation to get around on a daily basis instead of driving their own cars. This makes sense, but it certainly doesn't mean that cars, themselves, make us fat.

Physical activity is the other side of the weight management balance scale. Weight - for most of us - is a matter of the simple calories in = calories out energy equation. We do use a certain number of calories every day just to maintain our metabolism, our breathing, our body's movement and  processes, and to fuel our brains. But if we take in more calories than we burn off, they get stored as fat.

It's sadly - alarmingly - true that just as we have increased the amount and kinds of fattening foods we eat on a regular basis since 1980, we have also decreased the amount and kinds of regular physical activity we used to get - both as children and adults.

We DO tend to drive places that we once would have walked to. Our children are no longer scheduled into daily physical education classes for the entire school year, every year. Many more jobs are non-active and sedentary than ever before. Modern conveniences like remote controls and cell phones even diminish the time we walk around our own homes.

And then there is screen time.

The average American child spends nearly five hours per day in front of  a tv screen, says the Kaiser Family Foundation, and that doesn't count time in front of a computer monitor. The average home has 4 television sets, and it's not just the kids who are watching them. On average, adults watch four hours of television and then spend another four hours a day with computers, video games, iPods and cell phones. We are "wired" to watch  - and our waistlines are suffering for it.

Alternatives to passive screen use like DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) and the Wi Fit game systems make time in front of a tv screen active, fun and calorie-burning, but of course, have an expense.  Good old-fashioned outside play, walking, running and biking, on the other hand, are virtually free.
Click on the Kidnetics link to read about more ways to limit screen time and promote physical activity in your family

So a simple prescription for weight loss is one of the first sentences I wrote in one of the very first blog posts: Eat less ~ Move more!