Summer Friday Tips, Tricks and Inspiration

Happy summer Friday! I hope your long summer days have been filled with fun! Now that I've adjusted to school being out, I am buckling down to focus on (all of our) health and fitness.

Tips - Get in Your Potassium

Even healthy eaters can have a deficiency. Recently I was suffering from night-time leg cramps and thought potassium might be the culprit.  Just in time, Fooducate posted this article on the topic:  Potassium: You're Not Getting Enough.

The article lists several good sources for potassium -- and yes, it includes more than bananas. In fact, several foods offer twice as much potassium as bananas. Check it out.

Top Tricks for Restaurant Dining

This week delivered some shocking  news on how quickly restaurant calories add up from the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

But you certainly can be successful eating out. Your best bets? Check out these restaurant tricks:

Ordering Tricks

• Start with a brothy --not cream -- soup, eaten slowly. Research shows this single action can greatly reduce the number of calories you consume in your meal.
• Avoid anything with these words: breaded, fried, cream sauce, creamy, buttery, buttered or gravy.
• Ask for sauces and dressings on the side.
• Have your meats and seafood broiled or grilled and,
• Let your server know you are watching your waistline.
• Share an entree with a friend; you can always order an extra salad or soup.
• Order a to-go box WITH your entree and put half your meal in the box; you'll never miss it.

Cocktails, Anyone?

• If you won't enjoy your outing without alcohol,by all means have a drink! But take a minute to Google the company's nutritional info and know the cost in sugars and calories before you order.
• Easier: order wine or beer instead of a cocktail.
• Order a bottle of sparkling water with wine and dilute it 50/50. It is still delicious(!) and you get twice the beverage for the same calories. 

Mealtime tricks:

• Push the breadbasket to the far end of the table. 
• Eat slowly, beginning with all the vegetables on your plate. 
• Try your baked potato plain! They are surprisingly flavorful
• Dress your salad sparingly at first and only add more dressing as needed. 2 tablespoons of dressing is a serving.
• Drink a full glass (or two) of plain water with your meal.  
• If it's a special occasion and you want dessert, split it with a friend or better still, the whole table. 
• Finally the best eating out tip of all: If it isn't delicious, don't eat it! 

Inspiration from an Unlikely Source: Fast Food!  

Good news for fast food lovers: Amy's Kitchen is opening a quick-serve restaurant  Amy's is well known amongst vegetarians, gluten-free eaters, and healthy eaters nation-wide. Their organic, vegetarian frozen meals have been around for over 25 years and were the standard-bearer for a heathy, organic, non-GMO  frozen food. Amy's Kitchen's labels read like recipes; to wit, the ingredient label onn their famous black bean burritos: Ingredients: (Vegan) Organic wheat & whole wheat flour, filtered water, organic black and kidney beans, organic onions, organic potatoes, organic broccoli, organic corn, organic bell peppers, expeller pressed high oleic safflower and/sunflower oil, organic tomato puree, organic sweet rice flour, spices, sea salt, organic garlic, cilantro, organic tapioca starch, organic green chiles, organic jalapeño peppers. Contains wheat. 

Amy's Kitchen was a dream come true for vegan eaters, those avoiding gluten, and other folks just trying to eat with awareness. Now there are other contenders in this specialty frozen food market but Amy's Kitchen has found a new way to make waves with a quick-serve restaurant.   Fooducate reports that the restaurant will serve fresh cooked, affordable, high quality foods and will feature a drive-through. This outlet, an antithesis of fast food (healthy, local, and vegetarian), will open this year in northern California, near the companies headquarters.

I am pulling for the success of this venture and hoping it leads to a chain!. Busy parents and professionals could use a fast food restaurant with a whole foods, healthy eating mindset! Yay Amy's!

Those are your Tips, Tricks and Inspiration for this week. Next time look out for "Nerd Fitness," an android game that is encouraging exercise and some great news from the FDA.  Cheers!

Fit Friday: Tips, Tricks and Inspiration

Thank you, Smart Phone. I am finally able to get back to my health-reading habit since my smart phone allows me to squeeze that activity into the nooks and crannies of time available in my 3-Ballplayer-Mom lifestyle! Which leads to our Friday Tips, Tricks and Inspiration.

Tips: Choose a Plan You Can Stick With and GET SUPPORT

I'm not one to get into flame wars so in complete honesty, the part of this editorial  ("Why Protein Isn't Bad for You") that goes after Dr. Ornish wasn't personally interesting to me. However, this thought provoking op-ed piece reminded me once again of the importance of a balanced, moderate approach to eating and the importance of in-the-flesh, ongoing support in your weight loss efforts. It never hurts to be reminded!

The salient points are these:

• Choose a moderate and healthy eating plan that you can continue over a long period or -- ideally -- forever. 
• Protein is a necessary part of our diet. Avoid processed meats; really folks, these should be for occasional treats or actual emergencies
• Any eating plan is more successful with regular -- think weekly -- ongoing support
• Online support has simply not been proven successful as a sole means of support; in the high tech age, it turns out we all still need people "in the flesh."

Tricks: Gastric Bypass Surgery is Not a Panacea for Instant Happiness

In fact, it's a proven successful method of weight loss that comes at a high price. For many people, it's life saving. Yet it's not easy nor instant, and the changes that come with it are hard for some people to handle. I hope you will take a minute to read this first-person account of weight-bias with a few words on the side effects of gastric bypass.

Who Knew? Getting Off Our Butts is Saving our Lives! Friday Inspiration.

I do write about this frequently but that's because there is an explosion of research on the topic. This recent study looks at the effects of sedentary behavior as related to our mortality. Straight from the researcher's pens' is this conclusion: 

" . . . long periods of sedentary time was positively associated with an increased risk for dying (from all-causes, cancer and cardiovascular diseases) and increasing the risk for certain forms of cancer . . ., cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. Our meta-analysis found that the largest association was with type 2 diabetes (91% increased risk)."

That's pretty hard to ignore. One of my loved ones died of complications of diabetes after a tough battle of many years that saw her losing both her legs, Death by diabetes is slow and painful.

The study authors go on to suggest that 30 minutes/day of physical activity is critical to longevity and health. They also mention other recent studies that suggest even that amount of activity will not necessarily counteract the negative effects of long periods of sitting. This has been much in the news lately, resulting in recommendations that we never sit longer than 20 minutes at a stretch. This is a very challenging goal to meet; I know because I try to keep it. 

It would be instructive to just notice how long your stretches of sitting are currently. If you have a Fitbit or Jawbone or similar device, it's easy to do: Just look at your data. If you do not have an activity monitor, it would be easy enough to keep a notepad on your desk or near your sofa. Try wearing at least a basic pedometer and increase your steps every day, paying particular attention to long periods of sitting.

It's easy enough to do:  I am going to focus on getting up during commercials when I watch TV in the evening which is when almost all my sitting takes place.  I am also going to make sure I get a minimum of 10,000/steps every day (even when ill!) which will help me accomplish the previous goal.

What will inspire you this week?

Fun Friday: Tips, Tricks and Inspiration

Happy Friday! Here are your Tips, Tricks and Inspiration!

Get Off Your Bottom and Save Your Life!

There was a very thorough and helpful article in the March/April 2015 issue of Weight Watchers Magazine on how sitting is the new "smoking." Your life can be seriously shortened by a sedentary lifestyle, even if you are regular exerciser. I cannot find a link to the Weight Watchers article -- which is excellent and worth your time to track down and purchase -- but here is a link to a shorter article on the same theme.

The crux of it is this: your desk job may be killing you! If you have a desk job, see if a standing desk can be made available for you. Get up at least once an hour for 5 minutes; this can have a huge positive impact on your health. Even better is getting up every 20 minutes.  The Weight Watchers article has a whole page of ways to implement this lifestyle change.

Tricks

We all know movement and exercise are crucial to weight loss and maintenance. But the trick is to keep ourselves motivated. 5 or 6 years ago, I started wearing a fitbit, intrigued by the accelerometer and more accurate (than a pedometer) step-tracking. There are several competing products out there now, too. It doesn't matter which product you use, these activity trackers are amazing. They make you aware of how active or sedentary you are and they are practically work-free. You just put them on with your clothes each day and charge them every few days. They sync by blue tooth so all you have to do is walk near your computer. All the products have mobile apps, of course. Most sync with the Weight Watchers app and other popular weight loss apps.

These products are a perfect example of something you don't technically need but once you start using them, you won't know why you waited so long! In the interest of full disclosure, I read a study that said half the users lose interest in the product over time. Fair enough. For the other half, though, these simple devices can lead to long-term lifestyle changes.

Start small. Simple devices like the fitbit zip are under $50. (Full disclosure: I am just a fitbit fan. I am not getting anything out of this free and unsolicited endorsement for their products!)

Inspiration

As I said recently, friends help with the challenges of ongoing weight loss. Sometimes they help without even knowing it! The fitbit app allows you to "friend" other fitbit users. One of my friends, Anne, gets tons of steps every week. Last night she had over 84,000 for the week! I asked her, "How do you always get so many steps?" Her answer: "I told myself there will be NO MORE days under 10,000 steps." So simple, right?  She totally inspired me! I took up the gauntlet for myself and I went from being in the middle of the pack of my friends to consisently in 2nd place, right behind Anne, of course! 

What this means in real terms is that I am now moving through my weekends instead of sitting through them. Last Saturday, I knew I'd be scorekeeping at 3 games and watching 1 or 2 more ballgames. I decided to leave my chair in the car. I stood up and did some jogging in place in between batters. I ran all over that ballpark. I never sat down! I'd have never done that without my 10K/day commitment. Sunday, I cleaned my house from top to bottom. Okay well I didn't get it all done but it was my most productive weekend in ages. 

Connecting with other fit-minded individuals is such a boost. Yes, it's exposing too, but transparency is a great thing. It's so freeing to be an open book and in so doing, you may inspire someone else. Allow yourself to be inspired --or be an inspiration -- this week!

Frigid Friday: Time for Tips, Tricks and Inspiration!

Finally it's Friday. I have fallen off on my Tips, Tricks and Inspiration for some months now, but we're back, Baby!

Tips

Want a tip to get your new year of weight loss or maintenance started strong? Get a group and get a support partner. Research shows that the components that add up to a successful weight loss or weight maintenance equation include:

• Tracking food and exercise daily
• And, having set goals for same
• Regular (at least weekly) weighing
• Using meal replacements on a regular basis (this includes frozen food like Lean Cuisine)
• Written contracts for goals
• Group sessions to discuss progress and/or work with a health coach, nutritionist, etc. ("Interventions")

Interestingly, on that last bullet point, face-to-face meetings were significantly better at providing successful support. Individuals who signed up for on-line only weight loss groups did little better than the control group which only received a written newsletter.  That in-person, real-time support is very important. The more frequently study participants attended such meetings, the more successful they were in reaching their goals.

Tricks

Way back during my PRT Challenge, I wondered why I run so slowly. I'm fat but I'm not that fat, you know?  No matter how I tried, I was not able to make significant gains in my running speed. Then I read a study by Weyand that explained it all: Running speed has everything to do with force which is a direct result of leg strength.  They tested bunches of runners and found that the big difference was in the push off the pavement. Almost nothing else, including running style, mattered.  What??? I do have weak legs. I have had years of chronic knee trouble and I cannot do typical strengthening activities like squats and lunges. The article suggested the trick to increase running speed was the simple and safe leg press. Yes, weight is a factor because the force is diluted by mass. Nonethless, I'm committed to trying it and see how it affects me. Now you know why I listed those machine-free-at-home leg presses last week.  Maybe there is another PRT challenge in my future!

Inspiration!

This week's inspiration came straight out of the teacher's lounge at school.  I was talking to a friend about exercise and she said, "It's so much easier to lose weight if you add in exercise and  not only put your effort in what you eat. It's really hard to justify cheesecake when you just spent 40 minutes sweating off 305 calories!"

Isn't that the truth?  When I am consistently on the treadmill, bike or elliptical, my desire for non-healthy foods is greatly diminished.  Suddenly a 1/2 cup serving of ice cream is plenty, or all-together unnecessary. A banana or apple will cure that sweet tooth. There is nothing like being able to equate the ease with which the calories go in the effort with which they go out!

Studies bear this out. Exercise has so many benefits in addition to burning calories, including a release of endorphins, stress reduction and a general strengthening of resolve. Inspire yourself with a good walk today and see if it helps!

The Meat/Blood Pressure Equation, Fitness Trackers, and a Crazy Workout: Friday Tips, Tricks and Inspiration

Happy Friday Fit Friends!!

It's time for your weekly dose of Tips, Tricks and Inspiration to cheer you into your weekend. How has your week been?

I have had some physical challenges this week and had to employ the strategy of rest to heal up my right foot once again. I am finally fed up with this ongoing right foot issue and have committed to myself to go to the podiatrist the next time it starts acting up. I'm no doctor but my best guess is it's a stress fracture. I am on my feet all day at work so I have to take good care of them. I also finally got fed up with a pair of my work shoes that seem to exacerbate the issue and have ordered replacements. I'm sticking with Reikers, by far the best fitting, most pain-free shoes I've ever owned!

Finding the Right Fitness Tracker

Good equipment is paramount, isn't it? Sometimes it's worth paying a bit more to get the thing that really is a good "fit" for you. My tip this week is to consider purchasing a fitness tracker to help you in your health goals. I personally love my Fitbit One because it not only counts my steps and other activity with it's accelerometer, it also differentiates between light, moderate and "very active" activity. This motivates me to pick it up as the day nears an end. Don't take my word for it though, here is a helpful review of several different fitness products. Not included in this review are the Weight Watcher's ActiveLink product which is surprisingly much lower priced than most of its competitors and can be even used in the pool! Also not included is the BodyMedia armband, offspring of the once-popular BodyBugg, made famous by the show, Biggest Loser. I believe both these last two products do require subscriptions to access their measurements. Check it out for yourself and consider treating yourself to a very useful step up from a simple pedometer.

Why You Might Want to Eat Less Meat

Are you or someone you know suffering from high blood pressure? Here's a simple trick to lower that number In my wellness reading recently I came across this JAMA paper review on Obesity Panacea that shows eating less meat can help lower blood pressure. Having been raised in a rural area, I am from the meat-eater ancestral pool. I have been vegetarian for several months at a time but it is not a way of life that is sustainable for me personally. Nonetheless, "Meatless Monday" and "Fish Friday" have helped me reduce the amount of meat our family eats and we also have meatless lunches at least half our days. Take a look at the article for yourself and see if there are some practical changes you can make.

Bookend Your Weekend Days with Workouts

Finally, a little inspiration for your weekend. If you tend to overdo on the weekends, try book-ending each day with a couple of workouts. Research shows that working out on the weekends makes us more mindful not only of what we are consuming but also of the work it takes to burn off the excess.  I tried out this SparkPeople video recently and it gave me a good run for my money! It's an all-over toning plus cardio piece that runs 28 minutes total. Give it a shot and let me have your thoughts! My commitment for the weekend (Friday through Sunday) is to break my workout into two pieces - morning and evening - so I'm less tempted to overdo on the snacks and alcohol. If you have some other inspiring weekend motivators for us, please share them in the comments.

Stop Sugar Now! Seriously! It's Friday so it's Tips, Tricks and Inspiration.

 Here's your tip:  eat local and eat seasonal when possible. I am believer in local foods. Not only does eating locally keep diversity in our food supply and preserving the environment, I think it has to be better for us. Have you ever noticed a craving for root vegetables in winter? I never crave them in summer! Seasonal foods have nutrients we need in those seasons. I make it easy on myself by getting a CSA box. We still buy produce at the grocery, but it is my purpose to eat as much seasonal, local food as we can. There are some great aids to help us. Here is a cool seasonal foods poster from the UK.  I also offer this pretty poster, put up monthly for that month's seasonal foods.  Sine we're enjoying all these cool kitchen print outs, I'm throwing in this very handy kitchen chart that covers all the questions I have on a continuing basis! I found all these amazing printouts (and many more) on Oh, the Lovely Things blog.

Is your eye tricking you? There is no better way to ensure you are eating the calories you think you then by weighing and measuring your portions. I made a pact with my good buddy Gina to weigh and measure everything through the weekend. I call it "Weigh and Measure Weekend." Isn't that original? The trick here is that over time, our ability to gauge our portions slips. Weighing and measuring ensures that we are eating what we think we are. My cereal bowl gets fuller over time and this morning I discovered my cup of milk is closer to 3/4 of a cup. It's particularly important to measure those calorie dense things like oils, alcohol and sugar.

To help me remember, I removed everything from my island except my scale, measuring cup and spoons. For on-the-go measuring, these collapsible measuring cups are cool. What's really good is to learn to eyeball your measurements. I can count an ounce of cheese very accurately because I do it all the time. Here is a helpful selection of tips to remember what a serving looks like of meat, pasta, dressing and etc. The importance of Weigh and Measure Weekend is to verify that your "eye" is still on the mark. The more you practice, the better you will get at it. Join us for Weigh and Measure Weekend!

I usually try to make my inspiration paragraph all about the inspiration: the joy, the results, the person we all want to emulate. Today, however, it's a bit of reverse inspiration. The more I read this article about the likely link between sugar and heart disease the more inspired I am to move sugar way, way into the corners of my life. This article is a must read -- must read. It's pretty startling. To quote directly:

"Over the course of the 15-year study, participants who took in 25% or more of their daily calories as sugar were more than twice as likely to die from heart disease as those whose diets included less than 10% added sugar."

And it's not just overweight people who are in danger here, it's everyone who seriously loves the sugar rush. Here's a guideline from the article:

"(Dr Fung) supports the American Heart Association’s recommendation that women consume less than 100 calories of added sugar per day (about 6 teaspoons) and men consume less than 150 per day (about 9 teaspoons)."

That's not much when you consider that a soda contains 3/4 to 1 teaspoon of sugar per ounce of drink. The gig's up, folks. Read it for yourself, please.  

(Web MD also has also parsed the study in case you'd like another read.)

Vitamins, Slowing Down and Active (not) Kids: Friday Tips, Tricks and Inspiration

Happy winter Friday, fit friends!  Here are your tips, tricks and inspiration:

We all know that savoring our food leads to more satisfaction in eating and helps calm those cravings. It's also true that our brains need time to receive the message that we have had enough. The biggest benefit to slowing down though, is the social one. When we are savoring our meal, we have time for conversation, time to really hear our dinner partners and read between the lines. Even when dining alone, savoring that meal allows us time to think through our day (just past or just starting) and feed our souls as well as our bodies.  In that tack, let's start with these 5 tips to eat slowly from Fooducate. To these I would add two tips from Weight Watchers: Put your fork down between each bite -- it's harder than it sounds -- and/or take a small sip of water between bites.

This week's trick focuses on another way we may be tricking ourselves. As I've long suspected, yet another study seems to show that taking vitamins just isn't a good use of your money! We need to get as much nutrition as possible from our food, folks! If that isn't enough, this scary article from the New York Times demonstrates that some people have suffered real harm from dietary supplements. Please be both wise and cautious in your use of supplements.

Do you think your kids are active? I think mine are! Yet this new study highlighted in Obesity Panacea shows many are not as active as we think. My kids hate it when I read things like this because I start enforcing our hour-a-day-rule for exercise to earn screen time. I think teens and pre-teens are at the greatest risk because their school day is sitting-based. Hopefully this little bit of inspiration will get our kids moving and us, as well. I have started watching my own screen time since reading this study.

That's it for this week's news. If you are facing a weekend of inclement weather as we are, think of ways to get the whole family out for some fun and activity. Maybe a visit to a local skating rink or bowling alley will add some fun to your weekend! Have a great one!

Why Not Diet Soda?, Preschoolers with Food and Getting Off Your Own Case: Friday Tips, Tricks and Inspiration

I love to make beautiful meals for my kids and dear hubby, but sometimes I lose heart. It is extra work and I do have to get up pretty early. Case in point, today their healthy lunch (whole grain crackers, baby carrots, low-fat cheese cubes and orange "smiles") all got plopped into zip lock bags and dropped in their lunch box. Not too romantic.

For years I have maintained that people enjoy their food more when it's attractive. Once I found a study that showed kids eat best when there are a variety of colors on their plate  - sort of the opposite of what most parents think.  All of these thoughts lead to my tip of the week, aesthetics matter.  The author of a recent study posted this summary article recently which indicates that kids don't really only want food from McDonald's, they want cute food.

I do have tons of cute bento boxes, food cutters, spiralizers, and other tools. I am recommitting to sending not only healthy lunches, but cute ones.  It's worth a head start the night before and getting up a bit earlier. They're worth it!

Some bad news for those of you who, like me, crave the sparkle. You may need to double-think that diet soda. The trick of the week is one that actually works against us, not for us. I long ago made the switch to diet soda to save my teeth and my waistline, but it turns out, it may only be saving my teeth. We have largely stopped buying soda for home -- it's not really food -- but I do enjoy the occasional treat. No more. My water "mit gas" will now be restricted to sparkling water. ( I may enjoy the occassional Izzy Esque, though. Real fruit and no sweeteners, what a concept!) This article (not the first I've read) reminded me that the chemistry of diet soda may actually be tricking my body and making my insulin resistance worse. Oops. I'm done!

Finally, it's good to bear in mind that we are human and moderation is really important.  There is no such thing as perfect eating and I was truly inspired by this article on the same. I am working really hard on eating healthfully and providing healthy meals for my people, but sometimes, we just need to relax. Honestly folks, we can't be perfect. Have a look at this article and let me know your thoughts!

Have a healthy and happy weekend!

First Friday of Fourteen - Tips, Tricks and Inspiration

It's a very new year still and here we are with our plans and resolutions. Perfect time for some tips, tricks and inspiration, right?

First some practical tips for keeping those new year's resolutions:

• Post your plans where you can see them
• Even better, post them where your family can see them and garner their support
• Have an honest check in every week on how you are doing and make a plan for going forward; adjust as needed and learn the difference between a mitigating circumstance and an excuse

You know this is absolutely true: there are no magic pills to lose weight and get in shape. So the first trick of the year is this, don't fall for any gimmicks, gags or snake oil salesmen! We are all going to meet our goals the same way, with hard work, perseverance, course corrections and a pinch of optimism.  

Speaking of hard work and perseverance, please meet my friend Mary Love. If she isn't an inspiration to you, I'll eat my hat!

Mary has lost over 100 pounds so far and has only 44 to her goal. No snake oil, no miracle pills, just perseverance, wise choices and a lot of hours at the gym. May we all work as hard as she has!

That said, let's get off the computers and on the treadmill. Happy New Year!

Last Friday - Tips, Tricks and Inspiration

It's the last Friday of 2013. Whew!

First, the memo: I posted my menu plan to Bright Love last Monday since it was more holiday than health-conscious, but if you're looking for ideas, there's the link.

I've been reading some interesting news in the fields of weight loss and whole health lately. Firstly this:
Restaurant labeling works and I am not surprised. While getting to the point where most restaurant fare could be called healthy is a ways off, at least with the labeling, research shows people do make better choices. Hence the tip of the week: Do take the time to read those labels and go for a healthier choice -- you will feel better about it. Did you know that California has had restaurant menu labeling laws for some time? Thus, if you plan on going to a chain restaurant, take a couple of minutes before you go to look up the restaurant online and enter your location as somewhere in California. You will then be able to see the whole menu with nutritional information. Cool, huh?

My trick of the week is an obvious one that bears restating. During these challenging holiday times, instead of saying "I can't have that" and depriving myself, only to binge later on something else. As we enter into week 2 or this long holiday time, try giving yourself permission to have a small piece or a single serving of your favorite holiday foods. Pass up any food that isn't your favorite to help offset the extra calorie expenditures. Trick 2 is one that everyone knows but seldom applies -- and this applies especially to buffets and group meals: If you take a bite of something and it is not nearly as good tasting as you thought it would be, do not take another bite. Try whatever you want to try, but only eat the really good stuff. I also make a point to pass up food we eat any time of the year -- breads, mashed potatoes, regular cake, etc -- and focus on the seasonal foods to lower the calorie cost of the whole meal. Make sense?

Although some would consider this last article bad news for someone like me, I take it as inspiration. I was actually relived to read that "healthy obesity is a myth." Yes, I have "good numbers." And as I tell my doctors, "I'm perfect on the inside." Still everything in me wants to fight the fat even though it's an epic battle with no victory yet in sight. None of my doctors will tell me to lose weight because my numbers are good. It's crazy. So I fight on for another year. What inspires you to keep fighting?

Have a safe, happy, and healthy new year!

Fit Friday - Tips, Tricks and Inspiration

I apologize for the inconsistency in posting lately; my parents are in town for several weeks and I am suddenly super-stingy with my time, trying to soak up every minute of family time!  Nonetheless, the fight to fitness goes on so here I am!

I have a tip: If you want to change the state of your health, don't spend time worrying about small things, like the timing of meals, but focus on reducing calories and increasing activity. This article on timing of meals is interesting, but in the end, metabolism plays only a small part in weight loss. Exercising more can reduce stress and build muscle -- which does speed up our metabolism -- but most importantly, the common side effect of exercise is that when we feel better about ourselves, we make better choices about what we eat. We all want the magic thing that will make weight loss easy and while speeding up our metabolism can certainly aid our efforts, in the end, it's all about what we eat versus what we burn.

The trick of the week is one I picked up at Weight Watchers from last week:  Put your fork down and take a small sip of water after every bite.  It's a simple tip to slow down my eating enough for my brain to get the message that I've had enough. The question is, how will I remember? My plan is to take the time to set a lovely table in the dining room each evening so I remember -- this is family time, not mindless-eating-time. I think is as much a challenge for the week as a trick; who is going to try this with me?

For this week's inspiration, I offer this wonderful article from the amazing Dr. Katz. When I suggest to people that toddlers and children can eat whatever adults eat, they think I'm crazy. Even some of the healthy eaters we know feed their young children differently than they eat. Dr. Katz says we are ruining our children with "kid food" and I agree. After 10 years of eating mostly home cooked healthy food with limited forays into processes or restaurant food, I will tell you that those odd chemical flavorings that are added to almost everything these days taste really weird to me! My concern is that if we acclimate our children to these chemical flavors, real food won't stand a chance.

The flavors in nature's food are more subtle than chemically enhanced ones. Kids will complain at first so we parents have to be patient but any child can learn to eat healthful, real food. Bento boxes are one way we've made real food fun for our kids. One of my proudest moments as a parent came when a worker at school commented on my 4-year-olds love of all types of vegetables. Oh and be realistic; my kids go to birthday parties and trick-or-treating. They get their occasional dose of candy and confection. It's all about moderation and a gradual lifestyle shift. Please read the article for yourself and let me have your thoughts.

I'm healed up from a foot injury so back to my Couch to 5K program this week.  Have a good weekend, everyone.

Fall Friday - Tips, Tricks and Inspiration!

Fall -- don't you love it?  When we have fall weather in Texas, we celebrate; it can turn back to summer at any moment.

The downside of this time of year is that we have dark evenings and they are especially dark for the next two weeks until the time change. I noticed our neighborhood walkers have disappeared with the dark evenings (and not just because I can't see them! - ha!). In the autumn we have to revamp our exercise routine to factor in cooler weather and darker evenings and mornings. Here's a tip, take time this week to figure out how you can continue exercising in consideration of the environment. Maybe it's time to take all the clothes off the clothes rack -- err, exercise bike -- or dust off the yoga DVDs. "Just Dance" is an ever popular form of exercise in our house when it's too cool or dark outside. Maybe you can incorporate a stop by the gym into your commute or ride your bike for work or errands. Making a plan now ensures that we will be able to keep exercising through the holidays. My personal plan is to hit the home gym before I fix dinner each night. The Littles will need a hearty snack after school to tide them over to a later dinner.

Fall is time for soups, stews, and chili's, right?  Trick your family and your metabolism with this yummy no-meat chili. To speed things up, cook the beans in the crock-pot and then dump it all in a saucepan to finish after work. Alternately, cook the beans a day ahead and store them in the fridge until ready.

You Won't Miss the Meat Chili

Serves 6 

5 Weight Watcher's Points Plus per serving 

Freezes Great

1# 9-bean or 7-bean soup mix; discard the seasoning packet. (Cook beans according to package directions.  Do NOT add remaining ingredients until the beans are soft).

When beans are cooked or nearly so, add:

2.5 T chili powder;
1 tsp Oregano
1 tsp Cumin
1.5 t salt; 
1/2 tsp Cayenne (or omit if too spicy)
1/4 tsp. powdered ginger (helps with "repeating")
2- 16oz cans diced tomatoes, un-drained; 
1 can (16 oz) tomato sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced

Heat til bubbly; reduce heat, cover, simmer 30 minutes. 

At the last 10 minutes, mix:
6 oz. of beer (room temp is fine)
2 tablespoons masa (corn flour) or regular flour

Add to the chili.

 For a slightly more caloric version of this chili, try this version with cornbread dumplings. SO yummy.  

I also love Surprise Chili which is a more conventional chili but includes pumpkin!

Finally, this week's inspiration is from our little Bennie. He's a four-year-old gabby gander but surprisingly wise. He has India on his mind this week; apparently he's been watching the news. When Tinker said she wanted to move to India, Bennie said, "Don't do it! They don't have enough water!" The next day as we were both exercising, he asked, "Mom, do people in India have elliptical's? " "I doubt it son; I don't think in general they have problems with overeating. I think they have trouble getting enough to eat." "Well," he said, "that's sad." 

I would use the word "humbling." It's the perfect example of a "first world problem." Poor me, I have to go in my home gym and watch my  big screen tv to exercise off all the pounds I gained by overeating. (Whine).

Oh my goodness. I am going to try to put things in perspective this week and actually stop eating when I've had enough to eat. I am not a big over-eater  but I am aware that several times a week I do eat when I am not hungry. I think a little more hungry in my life could be useful.

Fall Friday Tips, Tricks, and Inspiration plus a Challenge

It's fab Friday! Time for some tips, tricks and inspiration, plus a challenge.

Here's a tip: Don't Instagram your food if you want to fully savor it. In an interesting study on satiety, researchers see a link between a loss of enjoyment and Instagramming photos of food. I take a lot of photos of food to use in my "Menu Plan Monday" posts and also in my recipe file, so this study made me sit up and take notice. Now to be sure, it's a "first world problem." Nonetheless, as a weight watcher, enjoying my food is part of what keeps me on plan, so maybe I will cut back on that food photography!

Have you ever tried veggie noodles?  This is a simple trick to get more veggies, fiber and vitamins into your diet. In the interest of full disclosure, these "Zoodles" (recipe below) do not taste like noodles, but they are surprisingly satisfying.  I actually crave them now. I love my pasta but these Zoodles are good! My solution has been to eat the zoodles and include a half-serving of pasta along with them. I've fed them to the kids too; I just don't try to convince them it's pasta.  I love them most with tomato based sauces but am experimenting with other recipes too. Try them and let me have your thoughts.

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Zoodles

4 - 6 Servings

Ingredients:

4 medium zucchini

Salt 2 tsp.

1 Tblsp. olive oil

1 clove garlic minced

Preparation:

Julienne the zucchini using a julienne peeler, mandoline or spiralizer.  Salt it liberally (use 1/2 tsp. per zucchini) and allow to sit in a mesh strainer for 20 minutes. Don't skip this step; it's essential. 

Rinse the squash to remove some of the surface salt and then gently squeeze it with your hands to remove some of the excess water.

Heat the olive oil gently in a non-stick skillet and add the garlic; when the garlic becomes fragrent, increase the heat to medium high and add the zucchini.  Gently stir fry until heated through, about 3 minutes.

Serve with any sauce you enjoy with pasta.

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Just in time for fall, my inspiration this week came not from a weight loss story, but from a story about apples and a man who loves them. I promise, there is a farmer in me somewhere. Please enjoy this lovely story about apples and then visit a farmer's market near you in search of a new apple to enjoy. If the first story intrigues you, the second one on the same vein is also fascinating. 

I've decided to add a new item to my weekly Tips, Tricks and Inspiration blog: A challenge!  This week's challenge is to make an apple based dish in celebration of fall. Let me know what you love and I'll share your findings here! 

Happy Friday, Friends.

Vegetarians, Exercisers, Potassium (Spuds) and Saturday

Happy weekend! I missed my Friday "Tips, Trips and Inspiration" because I am getting over a terrible cold and just couldn't wrap my brain around getting up even earlier. But here I am on Saturday so, hello!  And hello to my 23 new followers reading from Feedspot; I look forward to your comments.

Regular readers of this blog know: I'm not a vegetarian. Although I have a wandering palate and interest in many types of foods, I have never succeeded at vegetarianism because I find it too hard to get my protein. That said, some studies, including the big one in this Fooducate report, have indicated that vegetarians are indeed thinner than the rest of us. It's an excellent tip; move toward a consciously plant based diet if you want to be thinner. There is a lot missing from the aforementioned study, like the cause of the body differences but it isn't too big a leap to say that adopting a conscientious eating style will serve you in the long run. I notice that as I have personally cut back on my consumption of meat in the past several years, I am getting more protein from other sources, naturally.

The trick of the week is . . . (insert drum roll here) exercise. Yes, it's so simple. For those of us with stubborn metabolisms and seriously obese ancestors, it's especially important. Lean muscle speeds up your metabolism in a way nothing else does. That's why those crazy TV "scripted reality" shows have those contestants exercising 6 hours a day. Lean muscle changes the way our bodies respond to food. I am NOT saying that 30 minutes a day of leisurely walking will change your body much  -- though it does benefit your heart and your mind! -- but serious exercising where you are actually building muscle will change things over time. Calories in, calories out is now and always will be the true equation for weight loss but for those of us with metabolic issues, exercise is crucial. You cannot  My commitment (now stated out loud) is to 6 hours a week until January and then I will ramp it up again. What are you committing to?

These two things have to find balance; if we adopt a vegetarian or more vegetarian lifestyle, balancing those proteins is important. If we are increasing our exercise in a significant way, getting enough protein and enough healthy carbs is also important. I would love to see more of us adopting simply healthy lifestyles where we enjoy healthy foods 90% of the time with occasional treats, exercise regularly, sleep enough, etc. I'm at about 75% on all of that. My goal is to be at 90% by the end of the year.

I've been brushing up on my veggies lately; potatoes have gotten such a bad rap in the "bad carbs" hype --but white potatoes and sweet potatoes too are full of fiber, vitamins and other nutrients, like potassium. Should we eat potatoes smothered in butter and cheese at every meal? Of course not. If, however, you are going to eat the carbs (and we know you are ) then consider potatoes at these meals instead of pasta or rice; you will get a lot more bang for your buck.

Get inspired this week to make a beautiful, healthy meal for yourself and your loved ones. My favorite meal of the week was Crockpot Chicken Tikka Masala to which I added green peas. We served it with a lovely whole grain couscous and Cucumber Raita.  I make the Tikka Masala waistline friendly by removing the chicken then cooling the sauce so as to completely de-fat it.  It was so delicious. We also use non-fat yogurt in our Raita and it is so lovely beside the spicier Tikka Masala.

Fab Friday Tips, Tricks and Inspiration

Friday.  This one came around fast. I have been reading a lot of interesting news lately but I will try to restrain my reporting to my usual Friday themes.

Trying to change up your whole grain world?  Here's a tip, try red rice. If you don't know about red rice, this Fooducate article will enlighten you to this underutilized super food. But I have my own reasons: It's pretty.  I used both red and black rice with brown this week for our 6 Color Rice and it is so pretty. Best practice though? Cook the red rice separately, then add in if you are doing multi-colored rice; it bled a bit into my brown rice and darkened the whole delicious dish. (I haven't typed up the 6 Color Rice recipe yet, but my starting point was this 7 Color Inarizushi recipe.)

It turns out an apple a day not only keeps the doctor away, but also the hunger at bay. My friend Gina has a trick for eating less at meals, especially potlucks and parties. She eats an apple on her way to the table.  It also bears repeating that numerous studies have shown that diners who have soup as a first course eat significantly fewer calories in the meal than those who do not.

At work today, I checked someone's drivers license and could not help commenting that she must have lost a great deal of weight. She had, indeed; 168 pounds were "lost" and she was not trying to find them! The photo itself, though hugely, inspiring, was not the most inspirational part of this interaction. She mentioned that before losing the weight, she was a diabetic with high cholesterol and sky high triglycerides. All are under control now and she takes no medicine for any of it. Her enthusiasm for life and joy at what she'd done made my day.

That's it for me, folks. It's late and mama's tired. Have a fantastic and fit weekend!

Thank Goodness it's Friday! Tips, Tricks and Inspiration

I lost 5 lbs. this week. Normally that would be cause for celebration but it was the 5 pounds I gained the week before due to my weigh in falling in the few hours I had between two hospital stays. That said, I could honestly say that I was in my points range for the whole 3 weeks so far and I stayed on plan, even in the hospital. I will stay the course and see how I do this week.

Thank goodness it's Friday. I went back to work yesterday and while I did okay, I was beat when I got home. So I only have today and tomorrow morning and then some time to rest.

I have a simple tip for this week: Eat more watermelon! I read these fun facts about watermelon on Fooducate and realized my over-the-top love for this fruit is actually justified. I'ts a good source of Lycopene, and Vitamin C and it's a "filling food." The article offers some alternate serving suggestions at the end but to me using watermelon as an ingredient is akin to grinding up steak and using it as an ingredient. It's already perfect the way it is! I'm not too much of a purist though, a fat slice with a little cayenne and salt is the perfect snack.

You've tried logic, so now you want to know how to trick your teens into giving up sugary sodas. A new study had a surprising finding: If you label the soft drink cooler with the amount of exercise it will take to burn the calories from the soda, a lot fewer teens will choose the drink. Who knew teens were logical? Read the details in this brief article by The Salt on NPR.

While looking for something else, I stumbled across this government publication on the benefits of losing weight. If you have a metabolism like mine and weight loss comes slowly, it's helpful to have a little inspiration to keep working at it. Take a look at it and see which of the many benefits would mean the most to you right now.

I am focusing on small changes now. For instance, I am committed to journaling  my food, no matter what I eat. Knowing I will be logging it later helps me make a good choice in the moment. What small changes are impacting you right now? I want to hear from you!

Fab Friday Tips (Produce), Tricks (Lettuce) and Inspiration (Thriving through a Family Reunion)

Well it's Friday and it has been quite a week. More on that later!

The tip of the week is to buy your produce for several days and prep it all at once. For instance, chop bell peppers into both strips and chunks and put them in sandwich bags, about a pepper's worth of strips or chunks per bag. Wash the grapes and divide them up into kid sized bags. You get the idea!

The trick this week is one taught me some time ago by the indomitable Pam Tischler.  It is a sanity saver and makes your lettuce last -- crisp and ready -- up to a full week. Here's how you do it::

Throw the head of lettuce into a clean sink of cold water.  Pull the leaves out and gently spin dry them.  Then lay them out one leaf at a time onto paper toweling. Gently roll the towels back up, replace into your produce bag, close with a tie and throw them in the vegetable drawer. Or use a big zipper bag if you are not as cheap as I. When you are ready for a leaf for a sandwich or several for a salad, unroll and use as many as you need.  Isn't that cool? Trust me on this, it saves twice as much time as it takes and you won't wind up letting half the lettuce spoil because it's ready to use.

My Weight Watcher's buddy truly inspired me this week. She joined just before heading off to a family reunion where she did none of the cooking and had no input into the menu. Yet she managed to stay on program enough to lose weight. Give her a hand, ladies and gentlemen! It is truly amazing. One trick she and her hubby used was to keep a bag of apples in their cabin. As they hiked to each meal, they ate an apple so when they got there, they weren't ravenous. She also saved her calories for the things she really loved (read, "homemade") and passed up the more ordinary fare, like cake from the bakery. We weighed in on Wednesday and Thursday, she was off to the beach for a family vacation. I wish her as much self-control this week!

I, on the other hand, gained 5 pounds! On Tuesday, I wound up back in the hospital and got sprung Wednesday afternoon so that I could check into a different hospital on Thursday for a fairly urgent procedure. While in the first hospital they pushed the fluids through IV and drink because my blood pressure was very low and they were trying to bring it up. As a result, I carried all that liquid to the scale in my veins Wednesday night. I was surprisingly nonchalant about it. I had  forgone the delicious sausage gravy and biscuits the hospital served and taken an small egg-white omelet and fruit for breakfast. I'd had a large salad for lunch and was well within my points range for the week. No point in getting upset about elements beyond my control. I'm home from both hospital stays now and if my recovery goes well, I should have a good showing on the scale this week!

Fun Friday! Tips, Tricks and Inspiration!

Woot, woot! It's Friday.  I am posting late after a fun day with the kids but it's still Friday, so it counts, right?

My tip of the day is actually a question: Why are you taking a multi-vitamin? I have eschewed them for myself, finally, but in the spirit of full disclosure, I am still giving them -- irregularly -- to the kids. There is so little evidence that vitamin supplements do what we want them to and yet, inexplicably, millions of us take them. Check out this interesting Fooducate article and let me have your thoughts, please.

Do you have any tricks for eating out?  My favorite trick used to be to get a to-go container when the meal was delivered and put half of it away to take home. The down-side to that is that if it is as tasty as I hope it will be, then I will actually eat that half the next day. In fact, I have moved restaurant food to the category of "occasional treat" and therefore, taking it home to eat again, I am still  eating it and even though the calories are more reasonable, does not really fit with my larger goals. Now, I split a meal. I like it not only for the calories saved, I am very much enjoying the aspect of choosing my meal with someone else; quite often I wind up with quite a different meal then I'd have selected on my own. There is a sweetness in sharing that brings intimacy to the meal. I love it!

I have been inspired by Hunt, Gather, Love  (a Paleo Diet blog) for some time. I am not a person who has embraced Paleo, but there are aspects of it that appeal to me. So I was surprised by her April post entitled, "Breaking up with Paleo." Her reasoning made sense to me; for me, I just can't understand why if all this beautiful food grows on the earth, why should I avoid it?  I have successfully avoided most breads for months now consuming processed starches about once a week and as an exception. Otherwise, we mostly shop and eat from the outside aisle and serve a lot of potatoes, rice, oatmeal, legumes and grits as starches. Since I started restricting breads and processed grains, I know I do experience a "sugar crash" after I eat them and I also know that it does not happen for me after potatoes, rice, oatmeal, beans or grits. I do not think I'm willing to live without them even temporarily so Paleo is out for me. I love the "purity" of it though, and will keep learning from the Paleo community.

I hope you've found something useful here. Have a wonderful weekend!

Friday Tips, Tricks and Inspiration

Happy Friday! Here are your tips, tricks and inspiration to start your weekend strong.

We have a crazy busy weekend planned so I am working to get in two hours of exercise today. To combat the boredom, I am mixing in some new exercises and activities. I found some great tips to fight the flab in my arms.  These exercises use a medicine ball, but you can substitute a cantaloupe   Alternately, you can make your own medicine ball by taking a kids playground ball (the durable rubber kind), cutting a slit in it, insert a ziplock bag, fill with sand or earth, then zip the bag. It's always a good idea to mix up our workouts not only for variety, but to keep our muscles challenged. Here are the instructions on Livestrong.


I decided to refresh my knowledge on Cholesterol lowering foods since one of our kids has a genetic predisposition to high cholesterol.  These foods are actually a health trick since they raise your HDL ("good" cholesterol) which affects the LDL/HDL ratio and lowers your overall cholesterol score. Some studies have found that emphasizing these foods has a much bigger impact than focusing on foods which contain cholesterol. We eat a lot of these foods regularly in our household, but I did find a few surprises.


There was an interesting and inspiring Washington Post article recently on Japanese school lunches. Having spent (too) much time in my son's lunchroom, this style of lunching appealed to me.  The kids in the feature are not used to choices -- there is one meal served and they eat it (kind of like at home!).  They involve the kids in the serving and the meals are simple, healthy and do not contain sweets. For a fascinating glimpse at what "could" be, please check out the article.

Have a wonderful, healthy weekend.

Fab Friday -- Tips, Tricks and Inspiration

Yes, I've been undercover lately.  Isn't that how the weight loss journey goes?  In my case, two events coincided:  I sprained my ankle and my parents arrived with their motor home for several weeks visit.  The two things combined have really impacted my motivation.  All that said, though, it sounds like just plain excuses so guess I will go back to taking care of myself, find a work-around for exercise with my injury and stop whining!

Now --to the Friday news!

Your tip of the week is one you already know but if you are human, like me, it never hurts to be reminded.  Don't eat fast food or if you really love it, it really must be only an occasional treat.  It's not just about lifestyle, folks.  Fast food in itself may be dangerous.  A very interesting study on Chinese adults showed a 27% increase in heart related illness and type 2 diabetes amongst individuals who had western style fast food twice a week.  Twice a week!   The study (linked just above in blue) is fascinating but -- let's face it -- we already knew this, didn't we?

My trick of the week is about ginger.  We eat so much Asian food and I love me some ginger, people, but it is really a pain to peel, mince, etc.  Recently I told you about frozen ginger cubes (I do love them) and how to peel ginger with a spoon. Now I have another ginger convenience to share - ginger in a tube!  I find it in the produce department refrigerator near the tofu; you can also buy pesto in a tube.  I think the frozen stuff tastes a little fresher but this is super convenient too, and a little less expensive. 

I was inspired by re-reading this 2006 study that shows mothers do have a strong influence over their kids' eating habits.  I'm mostly a healthy influence but there are a few ways I can clean up my act.  Sometimes it seems like a lot of work to feed the family healthy homemade food, but this study reminds me that my efforts are worth it!