Making it through the holidays

One of the main reasons we gain weight over the holidays is due to all of the dang food available. I have a knack for the obvious, right? Stay with me -

If you are concerned about gaining weight over the holidays, I challenge you to concentrate on just one thing: eat only what you really like, and if you really like it, pay attention while you are eating so that you can actually enjoy it!

There are so many mindless eating (and drinking!) opportunities during the holidays: the candy sitting out at the receptionist desk, cookies brought in by co-workers, fruit cake delivered to your door (maybe this is a lost tradition - I've never actually had this happen, but I hear that it used to happen to everyone), uncomfortable parties where you need to keep busy by eating and drinking, and so on.

This is a great month to practice these steps - before you eat anything, ask yourself if you actually want it. If not, take a pass. You can always come back to it later. After you start eating something, ask yourself if you really like it. If it doesn't taste great, why waste the calories? Save them for something fantastic.

And of course, we come to the question - what about nutrition? "If I eat only what I like, I'll only eat brownies" - if this is you, then think of this as baby step number one out of the diet mentality - you may want to read my earlier posts on the diet mentality.

Now that we are all eating only what we like, is anyone actually going to eat fruit cake?

One of my favorite things!

I really love this product from Birds Eye vegetables - individually frozen packages of baby brussel sprouts - bonus: they don't have any sauce on them. You just stick them in the microwave for a couple minutes, and you have a perfect portion for one of brussel sprouts - yum!

There must be a new technology in the wrapping business, because now there are all kinds of "micro in the bag" veggies available - frozen and fresh. I just bought some fresh broccoli at Fresh and Easy that you microwave in the bag, and it turned out great! I'm a little freaked out by the microwaving in plastic concept, because that just seems like something you shouldn't do - but, I'll trust that this technology was tested and approved for human consumption (it was, wasn't it...?)

Have a plan

One of the first things a person does when trying to eat healthy is to "load up on fruits and vegetables". In fact, if you look inside any magazine that offers healthy eating tips, you will probably find this exact mandate offerred as advice. The problem is that there is rarely a plan in place to use all of those fruits and veggies - and so, they sit. And go bad. And the well-intentions to eat better turn to frustration as money and food are thrown away.

The intent of the advice is valid - fruits and veggies are indeed the rock-stars of the food world. If you focus on just that one thing - eating more of your fruits and veggies - you will end up eating a healthier diet. The problem is the fact that they are perishable. You can buy a box of Twinkies without having to worry about eating them in the next few days. Those Twinkies can languish for years, or even centuries, if you believe the tales.

The best way to get more fruits and vegetables into your diet is to do a little pre-planning. Instead of just hurling random produce into your cart at the market, think ahead of time - what kind of fruit would you like to add to your cereal in the morning? What kind of vegetable can you add to your typical turkey sandwich? Before you throw those kiwifruit into your basket, think about when specifically you plan to eat them.

Don't forget about the other forms of fruits and veggies - frozen, canned, and dried; these versions can also be healthy (sometimes even healthier - more on that later) - and they help stretch the time between grocery visits.

Pumpkin muffins

I had a can of pumpkin leftover from Thanksgiving, because I meant to make the pumpkin pie, but traveling to the grocery store at 7pm the night before Thanksgiving means you may not be able to find any pie crusts.... so, Marie Callendar made the pie for me, and I needed to find another use for canned pumpkin.

Anyway, here's the recipe, and it's a hit with the short people in my house! I used half whole wheat flour, and I didn't have any molasses, so I used blue agave syrup; I used a little less butter and sugar than the recipe calls for, and, per the request of the resident 6-year old, I added some chocolate chips. Yummy!

The Health Halo effect

I came across this interesting article describing the health halo effect, and the author is suggesting that this effect is part of the reason for the American Paradox (being, that we Americans are paying more and more attention to nutrition and healthy eating but still getting fatter; it's a sad counterpart to the French Paradox, where the French seemingly eat butter, wine, and chocolate all day long and still fit into their skinny jeans).

They did an experiment in New York, where they showed a picture of a restaurant entree to people and asked them to estimate the calories. Then, they went to another group and showed them the same entree, but added a side of crackers that were labeled "trans fat free!". This group thought that the meal had LESS calories, presumably because of the suggestion of healthy given by those crackers.

In another experiment, researchers found that people eating Subway meals were more likely to underestimate how many calories were in a meal AND were more likely to add on calories in the form of regular soda or cookies, than people eating McDonald's. As one expert put it, “People who eat at McDonald’s know their sins, but people at Subway think that a 1,000-calorie sandwich has only 500 calories".

I really like the end of this article, in which the expert breaks this down into our (American's) unhealthy obsession with healthy food: “Europeans obsess less about nutrition but know what a reasonable portion size is and when they have had too much food, so they’re not as biased by food and diet fads and are healthier. Too many Americans believe that to lose weight, what you eat matters more than how much you eat. It’s the country where people are the best informed about food and enjoy it the least."

Just another example of the diet mentality at work - the health halo.

More Fruit, Please!

I just finished a project where I analyzed four days of diet records for ten different women; the only information I knew about the women was their age, height and weight. Their diets ranged from pretty darn good to downright negligent of nutrition.

My takeaway from this assignment was a reminder of something that the research has long declared - we don't eat enough fruits or vegetables. Not one of these women were eating enough of either, and most of the women skipped fruit altogether some days.

Now, I think I have revealed before that I am not a perfect eater - not even close. But, doing these records really served to remind me that it's not that hard to do just a little better, and motivated me to keep trying to do better. And you can, too - here's what I recommend:

* try adding a fruit or a vegetable to each meal, even if it's just a glass of 100% juice with breakfast, veggies to your turkey sandwich at lunch, and a big handful of baby carrots with the pizza you ordered.
* try to snack on fruit or vegetables at least once a day (this one's hard for me, but worth shooting for - of course, the trick is to have the food on hand and to not have less desirable food on hand at the same time)
* add fruits or veggies whenever possible - frozen berries to oatmeal or ice cream, canned corn to Hamburger Helper, veggie pizza, grated carrots to meatloaf, etc. Don't knock yourself out, because then you'll burn out and give up. Just think creatively when you're cooking and see if you can add the good stuff to your dish.
* Try to order veggies instead of fries at restaurants - I remember doing this at a restaurant, and the waitress looked at me knowingly and said "oh, you're doing the low-carb thing, huh?" I wasn't - I just wanted the asparagus instead of the fries..... but, I digress.

I'm back!

I've fallen off the blog wagon for a bit, here - busy, busy, busy!

Here's a clip from a news segment I was interviewed for on the Suddenly Slimmer Lemonmade diet, which is a new version of the old Master Cleanse diet - my bottom line: this will ultimately make you gain weight.