I have been hearing so much about the Paleo Diet lately.
Here is a great blog that discusses it at length:
http://paleoworks.wordpress.com/home/about-paleo-works/
Just meat and veggies/fruit; no grains, no sugars, etc. Do you think you could eat this way?
Give me your thoughts!
Do you find yourself on the couch after dinner or the kids are in bed, settled in with a bowl of chips, or some other high fat food?
Is this a regular occurence? Are you hungry, or are you just excited about crunching on something while you shut off your brain to enjoy your show?
Nothing wrong with vegetating, it can be great once in a while. But if you are doing this all the time, you may be a mindless eater, or emotional eater. Let’s delve more into that here:
Can you tell me the ways to tell if you’re emotional eating?:
-You eat because you’re bored, not because you’re hungry
-You plan food around tv shows or other activities, not for nutritional purposes
-Certain foods make you feel happy when you’ve had a hard day, are stressed, etc so you seek those things out
What are the dangers of emotional eating? :
-Extra calories consumed mindlessly are usually from fat and sugar; foods that make you feel good
-Not paying attention to the volume of what you eat can cause you to eat way more calories than you should; causing weight gain
-There is a vicious cycle between feeling sad or depressed because you don’t like the way you look, eating high fat/calorie foods to make you feel better, then feeling guilty and sad about eating the bad food mindlessly, then punishing yourself by continuing the cycle again.
And how do we keep ourselves from emotional eating?:
-Keep a food journal and document everything you eat. Having to write it down makes you more aware of the foods you are eating.
-Don’t buy empty calorie foods, just simply don’t have them in your house. Mindless eating carrots or celery is probably not going to happen, but if it did you would be homefree!
-Try to find the root problem; why are you eating this food? Are you hungry or are you just bored? If you get to the real issues, you will stop emotional or what I call “mindless” eating.
If you recognize yourself doing any of these things, try to take a step back and reassess your eating habits. You may not even realize that you are mindlessly eating!
Give it a few days and let me know how you are doing with your newfound knowledge.
Nicole
Your scale gives you a number, you feel a certain way.
A lower number? You probably feel pretty good. Your mood just changed for the better; it’s going to be a good day!
A higher number? You may feel disheartened, you wasted your time dieting/exercising, you feel discouraged.
Your number on the scale does not tell the whole story, however.
What is your body fat percentage? Do you have a lot of muscle? Are you tightening up and toning more than you were two months ago?
You need to look at the big picture when it comes to your weight and body composition. The way your clothes look tell the tale better than a generic number on the scale.
I found this photo on line and it really speaks to this:
Diet; it can be a bad word in some circles. If you’ve ever been on one, you know how it feels to be without your favourite treats and foods. So why go crazy depriving yourself of all the foods you love…just cheat!
Cheating on a diet is crucial if you want to stay focussed and stop pining over the chocolate bar in your cupboard, or the ice cream in your freezer. So how can you cheat without feeling guilty and going overboard?
Make a plan
If you have a plan in place, it’s harder to fail. Give yourself a set menu for the day, including your fruits and veggies, healthy whole grains and lean proteins. At the end of each day, give yourself something that you really enjoy, but that you know is bad for your diet. For example, one square of chocolate, or two tablespoons of rich ice cream.
Buy Less
If you have less of the bad things in your fridge or cupboards, you are much less likely to eat them! If you don’t have chocolate bars or ice cream pops in your freezer readily available, it’s much harder to go grab some when you’re watching your favourite show on the couch. If it’s not in the house, it’s a lot harder to indulge.
Best Splurges
If you’re going to cheat, but only want to cheat a little, what are the best choices you can make?
• 100 calorie pre-packaged treats. You know you’re getting the same taste as the treats you love, but in a much smaller package. Easier to cheat when you only have one; bigger sizes make it easier to eat more.
• Make Your Own- buy in bulk things like chocolate covered raisins or pretzels and figure out how many make up 100 calories. Make your own cheating snack-packs. Freeze the rest for later.
• Low calorie pudding- you can get your favourite flavours like chocolate or butterscotch in single servings of 60-100 calories.
• Fresh fruit- might not seem like a splurge, but it’s so sweet and tasty! Buy what’s in season and enjoy a variety like strawberries, watermelon, or cantaloupe.
Cheat Day
If you aren’t interested in doing the 100 calorie cheat every day, then why not take a day off from your diet once a week? That way you can enjoy the things you really love in their full capacity. For example, Saturday is your day off from dieting. Enjoy three meals that you really want and craved all week. Get those craving out of your system and get right back on track the next day.
Surprisingly, after you’ve been eating clean for a while, you may stop craving those treats and not even enjoy them anymore!
Depriving yourself of the foods you love for long periods of time can make you feel very unsatisfied. Keep your diet going by allowing yourself that little cheat every now and then. You will be better off in the long run; your diet will last longer and you won’t have so many cravings.
What do you know about HcG besides that you need it to get a positive pregnancy test?
I have had clients asking me about this hormone, and if it can, indeed, help them lose fat a little easier.
Here is a study that shows hcg does help, but it was done on participants who ate a Very Low Calorie Diet (500 calories) http://www.indexmedico.com/english/obesity/hcg.htm
The Mayo Clinic talks about the hcg program, but does not seem to think that it works on it’s own, it’s the low calorie diet that is doing the trick.
WebMD doesn’t much like the hcg program either. Really, eating so few calories per day can lead to weight loss, but on what terms?
A quick fix would be great, right? However, it will take time, focus, determination and motivation to get you to your goals.
Yes, that’s right, I’m encouraging you to cheat on your diet!
Diets, in a nutshell, are not really the best way to lose weight. Sure, you may see the pounds come off initially when you cut back on all the foods you love to eat, but over the long run, it’s impossible to live your life and be on a constant diet.
Cheating, however, enables you to eat well MOST of the time ( 6 days per week), and gives you that one day to enjoy the “bad” foods that are usually forbidden (cake, icecream, whatever…)
Here’s the deal; every day of the week, eat your well rounded and regular meals including all the basic fruits/veg, lean protein and whole grains. Pick one day (usually a weekend day) to cheat. You can indulge in whatever you’d like and not feel guilty, because tomorrow you’re back to your “diet”.
Eventually you may find that your cheat day is getting more and more healthy; as you eat cleanly throughout the week, your body will crave less and less of the “bad” foods that contain high sugar, fat and salt content. You will be able to enjoy those foods on your cheat day, but you may not even want to!
So I urge you to give it a try. Post your healthy foods up on the fridge for the week; make a plan! Then, give yourself the cheat day to eat as you please.
You will have less cravings during the week because you’ve already indulged, and your body will desire those unhealthy foods less and less.
Let me know how it goes!
If you’re thirsty this summer, which I’m pretty sure you will be… think twice about what you choose to drink.
Some of your choices could add up to between 300 and 600 calories if you’re not careful, competing with an entire meal!
Check out this link for more info on choosing the best bang for your calorie buck: http://health.yahoo.net/experts/eatthis/7-worst-summer-drinks
Enjoy the heat!
Too much sitting is hazardous to your health. Not a real huge surprise, but it is shown here in this ASCM research.
Get up and moving on a regular basis to stay healthy and enjoy a long life.
If you enjoy avocados as much as I do, you really like them!
Squish them up to make homemade guacamole, add them to salads, spread them on toast…they are a great healthy addition to many recipes.
Avocados do have a high fat content, but it is of the healthy fat denomination. 30 gms per medium avocado.
Calories? Yup, they have a lot of those too; about 230 per cup.
Don’t be scared to include this fruit in your diet, as the health benefits are outstanding. Just remember to keep your portion sizes small, around two tablespoons per serving.
Enjoy these articles below for more info:
http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/avocado-advantage
http://oss.mcgill.ca/everyday/avocados.pdf
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=5
I have had clients ask me about eating potatoes versus sweet potatoes, and what the difference was health wise.
I always say that you can never go wrong with eating your veggies, but all veggies are not created equally.
Potatoes are enjoyable as roasted, mashed, fried, and baked; skin on, skin off…they are great and tasty in many forms. However, they have a GI (glycemic index) value of between 56-111 (depending on the potato), which is at the top of the chart. For more info on the Glycemic Index: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycemic_index
Potatoes
Sweet potatoes, on the other hand are in the medium category on the GI, and have a host of other benefits such as antioxidants and high fiber content. For more info on sweet potatoes, check out this site: http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=george&dbid=69
As with all carbohydrate rich foods, you should take care to eat only what your body needs, and keep your plate mostly loaded with high fiber, colorful veggies with low caloric values, such as spinach, green leaf lettuce, and celery. For more lo-carb veggie options, check out this link: http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/whattoeat/a/whatveg.htm
That’s all for now; remember to eat well most of the time to enjoy the benefits of your workout program. If you work out hard but eat a ton of junk, you may still remain at the same weight and not look any differently.
One more interesting link on potatoes and their contents: http://breastcancer.about.com/od/cancerfightingfoods/a/potatoes.htm
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