Entries Tagged 'healthy eating' ↓
May 27th, 2008 — Meals, healthy eating
We all know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but sometimes the siren call of the snooze alarm is too hard to ignore. We wake up, way behind schedule and there’s simply no time to eat a healthy breakfast. Over time, this can lead to bad habits that can derail your healthy lifestyle. It’s just easier to grab a donut than it is to sit down and eat a healthy bowl of cereal. However, you don’t have to deny yourself a healthy breakfast, even if you are in a rush. Here are some tips to make sure that you don’t avoid eating breakfast.
1. Time yourself -
The next Saturday morning you have free, keep track of the amount of time that it takes you to eat a healthy breakfast. Chances are, it’s not as long as you think. It shouldn’t take the average person more than 2 to 3 minutes to eat a quick bowl of well balanced cereal. You can easily fit that into your morning routine, even if you are running behind schedule. Ask yourself which is more important - being 2 to 3 minutes late, or gaining 2 to 3 pounds after you gorge yourself at lunch all week?
2. Make prep time a breeze -
We can’t sit down to a three course breakfast every day and sometimes even pouring the milk takes too long. Set yourself up so that you don’t have to spend so much time preparing your morning meal. For example, put out a bowl of your favorite cereal and a spoon the night before. All you’ll have to do is splash a little milk in it. If you’re worried about mice, stick the bowl in the fridge. You can preload your toast in the toaster, or simply just get your breakfast tools all lined up to make it easier.
3. Find healthy alternatives -
There are times when you simply do not have time to eat a good breakfast. Look for a healthy breakfast bar that contains a good balance of proteins, fats and carbs and grab one on your way out the door. It’s fine to do this when you’re pressed for time, but try not to make a habit out of it. If breakfast bars aren’t your thing, look for small items, like yogurt, that are easy to carry and eat while you’re on your way.
4. Make time for break time -
If you normally get a coffee break around 10 or 11, you can use this for breakfast time if all else fails. Try to bring a brown bag breakfast with you to avoid falling into the temptation of eating out. You can still get the benefits of a healthy breakfast this way, even if it is a little late.
Studies have shown that people who eat breakfast regularly are thinner and have a much easier time avoiding weight gain. Take that step towards healthy eating and try to make time every day for your breakfast.
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May 26th, 2008 — blood sugar, carbohydrates, fats, healthy eating, metabolism, proteins
When it comes to losing weight, your metabolism is a very important component as to how quickly you will see results and how long they will last. Years of yo-yo diets and bad eating habits can have a negative impact on your metabolism. Simple genetics can also determine the state of your metabolism and it can be frustrating to try fix this type of problem. However, there are foods out there that can assist your metabolism and help you get on the path towards losing weight more efficiently. Let’s take a look at just a few of them.
Apples -
This is a little wonder fruit that does more than just keep the doctor away. By eating an apple you are helping your body regulate its own blood sugar. When you have the right balance of blood sugar, your metabolism is freed up to start burning calories, instead of being forced to horde them.
Oatmeal -
This food not only speeds up your metabolism but it can also reduce cholesterol and lower your blood pressure naturally. Try to have at least one serving of oatmeal a day. Cookies don’t count!
Lean Meats -
Your body needs the right balance of protein, carbs and fats to keep working correctly. Lean meats actually help your body balance itself and its metabolism. Again, when you’re not fighting blood sugar levels that are all over the charts, your metabolism has a chance to work.
Vegetables -
Non-starchy vegetables are the perfect food for your metabolism. They’re filling and balanced and help keep everything in good working order. Stay away from corn and potatoes, focusing instead on green, leafy vegetables.
Skim Milk -
Dairy should usually be avoided, but skim milk in small quantities can actually help speed up your weight loss. Dairy products help balance your blood sugar levels, when used in moderation. Skim milk cheeses can also be eaten in small amounts for this same purpose.
Whole Grains -
While many people try to eliminate all carbs from their diet, but if you must have your bread… Pick good whole grains in small amounts to find that right balance for your body. Rye bread is actually very effective at speeding up the metabolism since it once again helps balance your blood sugar.
There is a recurrent theme with all of these foods. Each one helps your body regulate blood sugar levels. This is the key to speeding up your metabolism properly. When you have the right balance, you can look at your metabolism as a smoothly functioning machine. When you put the wrong kind of fuel into the machine, it cannot function properly.
The best way to determine which balance of proteins, carbs and fats are right for you is to speak with your doctor. The standard recommendation is the 30/40/30 rule, but not everyone is the same. Speak with your doctor or a nutritionist to help find your correct balance. With Jumpstart medicine I have 14 protein, 6 carb, and 1 dairy (and it is suggested to get 2 additional dairies via a protein exchange such as non fat cottage cheese or non fat cheese.)
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May 24th, 2008 — about, exercise, healthy eating, motivation, weigh in
After 5 weeks on the medically assisted weightless program I have lost 39 pounds… This week I lost 5 pounds which is incredible (the results of this diet and program are remarkable and fast.) 5 pounds was 77% of my weekly goal of 6.5 pounds per week. This week even though I lost 5 pounds I had trouble with portion control at the evening meal… This is been slowly building over the 5 weeks, but this week I asked my doctor if we could increase the Phentermine dose. So for this week I am on 37.5 mg (instead of 30 mg) of Phentermine.
I attribute missing the goal for the same reason as missing last week’s goal… a later than normal and larger than normal (for a 1200 calorie diet) dinner last night and missing my regular movement this morning. I except that there are normal fluctuations in the weekly number as even on a daily basis I can fluctuate 5 pounds from morning through evening with the ups and downs of water loss and water consumption with the Ketosis and exercise.
Here is a graph of my weight loss (if you are reading this in the future this graph will have updated for future weigh ins as well)… Clicking the image will open to a larger image.
So if I am to believe my claim that 1.5 pounds is within a normal fluctuation and that I am still maintaining a 5 pound a week average weight loss (from missing my goal last weigh in.) Then I need to set my weekly goal for 5 pounds plus the pound and a half that the scale failed to recognize lost in previous weeks. So my goal for next week is to end the week at 345 or to have lost 6.5 pounds for the week.
I played 2 hours of basketball twice and 2 hours of volleyball twice and went of several walks and played 9 holes of golf at Harding Park Golf Club. I did not get a chance to swim… My plan is about the same for this week, only with more swimming.
I was able to drastically reduce my fat free cheese intake and plan to continue with more lean meats instead… I feel more satiated and frankly they taste better too. I ran out of sugar free Metamucil (non water soluble) and switched to benefiber (water soluble). If Metamucil is an orange cream shake, benefiber is like dirty water (in plain water) and noticeable but ignorable in crystal light. I plan on switching back as soon as my current container is used.
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May 22nd, 2008 — healthy eating, motivation, trigger food
Starting a diet can be a momentous event and most of us going into it with the best intentions. We want to lose weight and we want to look and feel better, at least for the first few days. Three days in however, and you may be ready to completely chuck your diet so that you can go back to eating real food again.
There are a few keys that will help you avoid cheating on your diet. You can employ any number of them to assist, but remember, even if you do end up cheating a little, it’s not the end of the world. Call it a day and start your diet again. It’s only a problem if you give up and lose focus. Let’s go over a few of these keys that will help you avoid cheating.
1. Don’t start a deprivation diet.
Strict diets usually get fast results initially, but these are usually wiped out if you cave to intense cravings. If you know that you have a hard time giving up your favorite foods, don’t doom yourself to failure by starting a deprivation diet. Instead, find ways to simply eat less of these foods. You won’t end up feeling as though your cravings are controlling your life.
2. Allow yourself a little wiggle room.
You’ll need to have pretty good discipline for this to work, but your diet will be much more successful if you allow yourself a little freedom here or there. If you simply must have ice cream, than allow yourself to have one small portion every few days. Just make sure you can keep it to that portion or you will have sabotaged yourself.
3. Set up rewards.
One of the best ways to avoid cheating on your diet is to set up a rewards system with your goals. Just make sure that the rewards are not food related. For example, once you reach your first five pounds lost, go get a manicure, or do something that you really enjoy. This helps keep you motivated, even when the going is tough. It gives you something else to focus on and makes it easier to stay focused.
4. Stop kicking yourself.
You can preprogram yourself to fail if you believe that you cannot do something. Instead of saying that you can never stick to a diet and always end up cheating, tell yourself that you can do this. When the going gets tough, keep repeating “I can do this.” If you do it often enough, you’ll start to believe it and you’ll be able to make it a reality.
5. Avoid known problem areas.
If you have a hard time sticking to your diet when you go out with friends, it’s time to evaluate your activities. Stay away from restaurants where you know it’s going to be tough to stay on your diet. Give up going to the bar every week. You’ll be able to see results in less time and you’ll be able to avoid the traps that always derail you.
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May 21st, 2008 — goals, healthy eating, motivation
One of the key components to eating right is getting motivated. While it’s easy enough at first to have grand plans, if you don’t have enough motivation to do the follow through, there’s just no point. In order to make sure that you’re successful with your diet, you’re going to need to make sure that your priorities are in order and that you have the right kind of motivation.
Before you even start your diet, we recommend making a list of all of the things that you hope to accomplish. Divide these into three columns: Physical Appearance, Body Health, Activities. Now, you’ll be able to see all of the things on one sheet of paper. This makes it a lot easier to keep your goals right in front of you. Once you have them all down, redo your list and prioritize the things that are the most important to you. For example, if lowering your blood pressure is a high priority, move that to the top of the health list.
Once you have all of your items prioritized in each column, make a master list that contains them in order of importance. You’ll be referring back to this as you start to meet your goals. By putting it on paper, you’re giving yourself that visualization that makes it a lot easier to see your goals and meet them. While it’s fine to keep it in your head, most people prefer having a hard copy. When you start to check those items off as goals attained, it really is a great feeling.
So, now that you have your list done, you’re ready to start on your diet. Make sure that you select one that will make it easy to keep your goals at first. Rome was not built in a day and a good diet takes time to work. Don’t doom yourself to failure by going on an extreme diet that you have no hope of keeping. Start small and work your way up. You’ll be a lot less likely to call it quits after a few days and you’ll be able to keep motivated.
One great way to start small is simply by cutting out a few of the foods you eat or drink every day that contain empty calories. Soda is the best place to start since you’ll usually see pretty quick results. Try cutting out one or two a day at first, and then increase the amount until you are no longer drinking it. The results you see will keep you motivated and you won’t be depriving yourself of it all at once.
Whenever you feel as though you want to quit with your diet, pull out that list and re-read it. See what you’ve crossed out and remind yourself that these are important goals that will change your life. It is easy to quit and walk away, but you will be paying the price for it for the rest of your life.
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May 20th, 2008 — carbohydrates, fats, healthy eating, proteins
One of the best ways to ensure healthy weight loss is to find the right balance for your meals. Proteins, fats and carbs are all essential, but you need to have the right amount of each to make sure that your diet will work. It can be a little difficult at first, but once you get started it will become easier.
First, you’ll need to discuss your options with your doctor or with a nutritionist. They can help you come up with a percentage of each type that will work for your own unique needs. Remember, we are not all the same when it comes to the type of fuel that we need for our bodies. Some people can get away with a diet consisting largely of protein, while others will not be able to do without carbs.
In order to avoid feeling deprived, you need to find this balance and the right percentage. Commonly, most dieters stick to the 40/30/30 percentage, but you may find that you need to tweak this a bit for your own needs. With the right balance you should not experience feelings of dissatisfaction or cravings.
One of the main reasons that we suffer from cravings and have a hard time handling a new diet is due to blood sugar. After years of indulging in sweets, our bodies become used to that influx of sugar. If you suddenly stop eating these foods, your blood sugar can get out of whack very quickly. The sudden lows can lead to dizziness or feeling light headed.
To avoid this, make sure that you are getting the right amount of good carbs in your diet to replace the bad ones. For example, instead of eating white bread, switch to whole wheat. Instead of a can of soda, have a piece of fruit. You’ll be giving your body the sugar it needs with much less calories.
Protein is a very important part of building lean muscle mass which in turn serves to ramp up your metabolism. Once again, the key to finding the right balance is substituting high risk protein with foods that are good for you. Instead of having a fatty piece of red meat, eat a chicken breast or a serving of tuna. Your body won’t feel deprived, because it is getting the right amount of protein, just in a lower calorie form.
Although you wouldn’t think it made sense, our bodies actually do need fat to function properly. If you try to aggressively cut all fat out of your diet, your body is definitely going to suffer. However, you need to make sure that you are eating the right kind of fat. Stay away from saturated fats, like butter, and use the “healthy” fats such as olive oil.
It may not be as tasty at first, but you’ll be providing your body with the fuel that it needs to survive and retraining your cravings with much healthier foods.
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May 19th, 2008 — about, healthy eating, moderation, motivation, nutrition, rewards, weight loss, wellness
I have been tagged by Fat Man Unleashed to write a 6 word memoir. His was Be About It!
My 5 word memoir is Healthy, Happy, Wealthy, and Wise.
At the end of the day, this is how I will remember my life.
- Healthy — this one is pretty self explanatory, but it does require work to get there from here. I am currently perfectly healthy, however I know that without choosing to lose weight and exercise regularly NOW that will not always be the case. It will be the case and I am committed to losing the weight and maintaining the healthy lifestyle. I have had a wonderful first 30 some odd years and I intend to have another healthy 100 or so in front of me.
- Happy — I have met the woman of my dreams, I have a wonderful child, I played basketball in college, I am good at and enjoy my job, enjoying every minute, doing what I enjoy, experiencing the best things in life, fulfilled.
- Wealthy — In spirit and eventually monetarily. Content. Wanting for nothing.
- Wise — At least in my own mind.
And now it is my turn to tag a few people to write their own 6 word memior
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May 18th, 2008 — exercise, healthy eating, wellness
Thank you Weight Master for including Weight Ladder in the weight management and fitness forum.
Best posts from the Fitness Health Network blogs for the week:
- Most of us have been there; down to those last few pounds to reach our goal weight. Sometimes when we’re there it’s frustrating because we can’t seem to lose them. Well stress no more over at Get Fit Slowly we learn just how to accomplish Losing Those Last Few Pounds. For instance, eating grapefruit will help you regulate your insulin levels.
- What Are Probiotics? Journal of Healthy Living explains that one probiotics is Lactid Acid Bacteria used to keep food from spoiling and to help out our digestive tract. So eat more yogurt!
- This week at Lazy Man and Health we learn how to Keep Walking Programs Interesting simply by changing our scenery. So take a walk while you run an errand.
- Weight Ladder this week talks about the risk factors, warning signs, and treatment of sudden cardiac arrest in I am at Risk, Are You? Know the Facts on Heart Attacks.
- Many people love to golf, myself included. No Calories Needed talks about golf stretches in Going To Play Golf this week. Try them and see if they improve your game.
- Healthy Weight and Fitness Blog says Health Magazines Sorta Suck. In this video blog learn how to weed the true articles from the advertisements that look like articles.
Best posts from other wellness blogs that I read throughout the week:
- What are the Three Steps You Need to Achieve Your Goals? Nutrition Fitness Life responds with: desire, commitment, and knowledge.
- Watch Out For Ghrelin! Starling Fitness warns us that it can it make you eat more than you would otherwise by instilling more hunger in you. Protect yourself.
- Weight Master presents Wedding Exercise this week at his blog. Who knew dancing at wedding receptions could keep you in shape?
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May 16th, 2008 — about, exercise, goals, gym, healthy eating, weigh in, weight loss
After 1 month on the Jumpstart Medicine medically assisted weightless program I have lost 34 pounds… This week I lost 3.5 pounds with was 70% of my weekly goal of 5 pounds per week. I attribute missing the goal to a later than normal and larger than normal (for a 1200 calorie diet) dinner last night and missing my regular movement this morning. I except that there are normal fluctuations in the weekly number as even on a daily basis I can fluctuate 5 pounds from morning through evening with the ups and downs of water loss and water consumption with the Ketosis and exercise.
Here is a graph of my weight loss (if you are reading this in the future this graph will have updated for future weigh ins as well)… Clicking the image will open to a larger image.
So if I am to believe my claim that 1.5 pounds is within a normal fluctuation and that I am still maintaining a 5 pound a week average weight loss. Then I need to set my weekly goal for 5 pounds plus the pound and a half that the scale failed to recognize lost in the weigh in. So my goal for next week is to end the week at 350 or to have lost 6.5 pounds for the week.
My plan to accomplish the goal is to stick to the diet, reduce my fat free cheese intake and replace those proteins with more lean meat. My plan to address the lack of a normal movement is to continue to consume a 2 regular servings of sugar free Metamucil.
I had a good week for an exercise perspective… I played almost 2 hours of basketball twice and almost 2 hours of volleyball twice. I went for a short swim and several walks. My plan is about the same for this week, only with more swimming.
In talking with the doctor about my long term goal, he was hesitant to talk about a final weight number. Instead he focused on Body Fat percentage. At this week’s weigh in we did the electroanalysis again and my body fat percentage was 36% (down from 39% when I started). He thought he first goal is to get the BFP below 25% and ideally below 20%. At that point my actual weight is irrelevant. So, even though I have a number in mind for my final weight (230-260), I am now officially making it my goal to get to under a 20% body fat percentage. If I can continue to lose 5 pounds a week I should be able to reach my goal by the end of the year.
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May 16th, 2008 — blood pressure, calories, fats, food labels, healthy eating, nutrition, sodium
If you’ve ever tried reading a food label, chances are it’s tough to get through all of the different amounts, crazy names and percentages. However, there is an easy way to read those labels to get exactly the information that you need to know in a lot less time. By targeting those labels you’ll know right off the bat if it’s something that will be beneficial for your diet, or might sabotage it.
The calorie count is probably the first thing that you should look at, since it is the most important. You’ll need to keep track of how many calories you’re eating every day to stay under your required amount. If the calories are too high, see if there is something you can replace that will keep you under your limit. Just remember to write everything down so that you can keep track.
The second most important piece of information on the label is the amount of fat contained in it. Most Americans eat more than 60 grams of fat a day, and that is usually considered to be too much. While on a diet, it’s a good idea to keep your fat grams to around 30 per day. Log this information and if the fat content seems too high, find an alternative.
Next up is sodium, and this is an area that many people don’t pay enough attention to. The average requirement for daily sodium intake is around 2400 mg. Unfortunately, most people eat way more than that. Always look at the sodium content to make sure that you’re staying under your required amount. The foods to look out for in this area are ramen noodles, canned soups and vegetables as well as prepackaged lunch meat. Too much sodium can lead to high blood pressure as well as water retention.
You’ll also want to look at the amount of carbs in a serving. Once again, most of eat far too many carbs. Think of carbs as sugar - one teaspoon of sugar usually equals about 4 carbs. That means one can of soda can have more than 8 teaspoons of sugar in it. If that seems like a lot (it is) this will give you a better appreciation of how much sugar you are really eating.
The last thing to look at on a label are the ingredients. One common ingredient contained in canned foods is monosodium glutamate. Many people believe that this is responsible for excess weight gain and if you are sensitive to it, you can end up with a migraine headache. While the studies are still out about the harm that monosodium glutamate or MSG as it is commonly known, it is best to avoid it. Yeast extract and autolyzed yeast also contain MSG, so watch out for those names as well.
Reading labels doesn’t have to be hard. With this system, you can tell with a simple glimpse whether or not you should be eating that food. With practice, you’ll be zipping along.
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