Nutritional Shortcuts

You will never weigh everything!

I'm busy, you're busy...I like to tell my DH that even we SAHM's are more busy then anyone else (our job is 24-7). That being the case, the idea that you'll measure every single thing you'll eat or drink is unrealistic. The trick to life-long change is Ease With Your Lifestyle. If preparing food on Saturday and freezing the food for the coming week is best for you, do it. If sticking your car, pocket book, brief case, desk, etc is better for you? Do it! There is no right or wrong. Everyone was led down a different path, even though we all ended up with those extra pounds. So you're path to being healthy won't be the same as anyone else.

So, how do you know you're eating the right portion size without breaking out the scale for every meal? Well, there are tricks we nutritionists use. It's really the easiest way...but you must be honest with yourself. If you'll eat 2 servings it's ok, just exercise that much more to burn the extra calories. So you don't need to close one eye and stand on your left foot with your right fingers crossed in order to say it was a single serving.

Here are the visual tricks to determining Serving Size:

• A rounded handful - one 1/2 cup vegetables or fruit, 1/2 cup of cooked rice or pasta, or a snack serving of crisps or pretzels
• Woman’s fist - another way of visualising a serving of vegetables, or one piece of whole fruit
• Small handful or golf ball - 1/4 cup of dried fruit
• A matchbox - a 1 oz serving of meat, or a serving of cheese
• Deck of cards, or the palm of your hand (excluding fingers) - a 3oz serving (recommended serving) of meat, fish or poultry, or ten chips/french fries
• Thin paperback book - a 8 oz serving of meat
• Check book - a serving of fish (approximately 3 oz)
• Tennis ball - 1/2 cup of pasta, or a serving of ice cream
• Computer mouse - a medium baked potato
• Compact disc - one serving of pancake or small waffle
• Thumb tip or one dice - one teaspoon of margarine
• A ping pong ball - two tablespoons of peanut butter
• Small milk carton - 8 oz glass of milk
• A baseball - 8 oz cup of yogurt, one cup of beans, or one cup of dry cereal
• If you have certain foods you tend to eat all the time (like for me it's sesame seeds) then weight those once. I buy my seeds in bulk, then weight them into individual Ziplock baggies. No need to weight every time, once is enough!

Oh - when you're at a resturant or a family dinner here is what I suggest:

• Always get dressings on the side. Even dipping each forkful will give you less dressing then they usually put on. Try to stick to the vinegrettes, but if you MUST get the ceasar then dip or use the biggest spoon and put 1 1/2 spoon fuls on your salad ONLY.
• As soon as you're plate is placed in front of you ask for a doggie bag. Immediately bag up at least 1/2 of your food. It's appaling the size of the plates here in America. You'll be less tempted to over eat if the food simply isn't there.
• Always leave food on you're plate....trust me, the starving children in China won't care.
• If you're going to a family dinner, and you know they'll hound you into eating high-calorie foods, ask for a desert plate and use this instead of a full dinner plate. It will help you to minimize the damage of those high cal foods.

Free Meal Plans

Now that you have a better understanding of how to determine the nutritional value of the food you usually buy (and the holes of extra calories) You can begin to plan out what you will eat for the coming week.

I can not begin to tell you how important planning and journaling is. For some of us, the fact that we have to keep a log each day is enough to keep us from straying (how harsh is it to have to fill that log with the crap you wanted to eat). So loging or journaling can help us stay on the straight path, but more than that - if you hit a plateau one of the reasons might be that you're eating more calories than you THINK you're eating. Looking back through your logs can help you to develop a clearer picture of the amount of cals.

• You can take your log and compare it to the food Calorie Lists here:
  Mike's Alphabetical Food Calorie Chart
• or You can use a Calorie Calculator to type in the food and it will calculate the calories and fat.
• You can determine Your Recommended Caloric Intake here.
• You can determine your Recommended Serving Sizes based on your Recommended Caloric Intake here.
• What actually Counts As A Serving Size. As stated in the previous post. This is the hardest part...Who would have thought that 1 Slice of bread is 1 Serving Size...who makes a sandwich with only 1? That means you need to multiply the calories by 2!! This link will give you the foods list that equal 1 serving size.
• Here's some Menu Plans for a 2200 - 2400 calorie a day diet (what most of us SHOULD be eating, most deprive the body short-circuiting the metabolism): Life Styles Management
  Pyramid Diet (using the FDA Recommended Daily Allowences listed on the Nutritional Labels for a diet) just scroll to the bottom of the screen for the Meal Plans.
  

No More Excuses

Hey Everybody,

Well it's 10am (est) have you worked out at all today? No? What about yesterday? Awww your son had a snuffly nose? Your hubby went out with his friends leaving you home with all the tired and grouchy kids? Awww I feel ya.....but....what exactly is your excuse? That's life, and no one said the road would be smooth sailing (how boring would that be). You'll always have a sick kid, or hubby (even worse :D), you'll always have a mile high stack of laundry, you'll always have to make dinner, and call your sisters-cousins-best friend.

Lack of motivation is the number one excuse EVERYONE uses. Sure some may think they are motivated, but if they were then their ass wouldn't be sitting at a computer desk right now.

So, here's my #1 wight-loss secret....

YOU DON'T HAVE TO WORKOUT FOR 2 HOURS AT A TIME TO LOSE WEIGHT!
That's right....you should be doing about 45 minutes of cardio-respiratory exercise every day. BUT, this includes walking at a clip through the mall, or parking further away from work. Playing with the kids can be considered cardio, heck even sex is considered cardio...the actual definition of Cardio Respiratory exercise is any movement that utilizes several muscles at the same time for an extended period of time...So the treadmill, elliptical, stepper and Rower are cardio exercises that burn lots of calories (on average about 400-600/hour the same as about 1 meal)...So you should be doing continuous movement for a minimum of 45 minutes a day....but it's difficult to put aside an hour a day, things can get in the way....but you can easily find 10-15 minutes....that's right. You don't have to do the 45 minutes all in one lump, you can split it up throughout the day. You can easily find 15 minutes 3-4 times a day!!!!!!NO MORE EXCUSES, if you can find time to pee, you can find time to exercise....if you can find time to read this post, then you can find time to exercise!