New Year...New You

Hello all! I hope you had a Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!  

Can you believe we are almost to 2012? It is hard to believe that 2011 has come and gone. The thought of the New Year brings up thoughts of New Year’s resolutions.  What will your New Year’s resolution be this year? Did you know that losing weight is the most popular New Year’s resolution in the United States?  Knowing this, it is hard to believe that over 60% of Americans are still considered overweight or obese.  What does this tell me? That year after year Americans are not reaching their weight loss goals. Why you might ask? The reason is because we set unrealistic, or unreachable goals. We need more patience. Remember the saying that “Rome wasn’t built in a day”. I want you to take a minute and do some math.  How long did it take you to gain your unwanted weight? Not how long have you been this weight but how long did it take you to go from your goal weight to current weight? Realistically, take that amount of time and double it. That might be how long it takes you to lose the weight. I know this news is frustrating to hear. This is the reality. The reason this is true is because once you have added fat cells to your body it is hard to take them off. Your body actually has to increase the size of your organs and grow more blood vessels to fuel, or feed a larger you. It is stated that if you were to stretch out the blood vessels of an average adult, there are about 100,000 miles of blood vessel. As a result, when you gain weight you also gain more blood vessels. When you are trying to lose weight your body has to break down the added blood vessels and adjust to your new weight. Also, research shows that fat cells produce hormones that help regulate appetite. Your body gets acclimated to having a certain level of these hormones in the blood, especially if you have been at your current weight for more than a year. When you lose weight, especially fat, the amount of the appetite regulatory hormones decreases in the blood.  As a result, your body panics and increases your appetite so that you will gain more  fat cells and send the hormone levels back to the level the body has gotten acclimated to. Some people refer to this as the body’s set point.

Here are some tips to help you set a New Year’s resolution that you can meet:

1.       Be Realistic with your weight loss goal. Then break the weight loss goal down into small reachable goals with timeframes.

Remember that is takes burning 3500 extra calories to lose 1 pound of weight. As a result, my advice is, do not set a goal to lose more than 8 pounds per month. In fact, I recommend starting with a goal to lose 4 pounds per month. I know that this seems like a slow weight loss, but in the long run it will help you to achieve you overall weight loss goal. The hardest part to weight loss is maintenance. If you lose more than 8 pounds per month, it usually means that you are doing something drastic to lose the weight that realistically you will not be able to maintain over the long haul. Examples of this are severely decreasing you calorie intake or exercising more than 90 minutes per day. This can lead to yo-yo dieting and regaining the weight. Research shows that yo-yo dieting is more detrimental to your overall health than being overweight.

2.       Be Realistic with your exercise goal.

Start out slow. A little bit goes a long way. If you don’t currently exercise, then make it your goal to exercise 15 minutes a day. In fact, it does not even have to be all at once. You could do 8 minutes in the morning and 7 minutes at night. If you currently exercise 30 minutes per day, then make it your goal to exercise 45 minutes per day. In other words, take what exercise you currently do and make it your goal to add 15 more minutes on per day. Remember, In order to consider it “exercise” you need to increase your heart rate enough where you can talk to the person next to you but you cannot sing to them. You should be slightly out of breath.

3.        Find a buddy to help keep you on track.

Research shows that people, who start a weight loss program with a buddy that has the goal to lose the same amount of weight, are more likely to reach their overall goal. You need some who can boost your spirit when you are getting frustrated. You need someone who will keep you accountable, when it comes to what you eat and your exercise plan. I recommended that this person be the same gender and not be a significant other/husband/wife.

4.       At the beginning of each week, make time in your daily schedule to accomplish your exercise goals. This would also be a good time to outline the meal plan for the week. If you drink alcohol, figure out where and how it will fit into your weight loss plan.

The biggest complaint that I hear about why people have trouble losing weight is because of lack of time. By taking time at the beginning of the week to plan the meals for the week you are more likely to stay on track. The easier it is to make meal decisions the more likely you are going to make the right ones. When it comes to exercise you have to figure out where it can fit into your schedule, realistically. A majority of people are not thrilled to exercise. Look at it as part of your daily work schedule that you have to accomplish before you can go home. Once it becomes part of your routine, it will make it easier to stay on track.

5.       Decide ahead of time how you are going to reward yourself after you achieve your goal. Do not use food or alcohol as a reward.

Think of all the money you are saving with each pound you lose. You are spending less money on food, medications, clothes, and stress relievers. I recommend that you come up with an amount of money that you are going to put aside for each pound that you lose. Once you reach your goal, take the money and go spend it on yourself. Whether it is on clothes, shoes, jewelry, a vacation or something you have always wanted. You deserve it for all of your hard work!

6.       Let your family, friends and co-workers in on your weight loss intentions.

Weight loss is not an easy task. There are tons a sabotages all around you. Whether it is commercials, holidays, special events, family, friends or yourself, obstacles will stand in your way and mess with your mind when you are trying to lose weight. If you can explain to family, friends and co-workers why it is important to you to lose weight, they can help you through the weight loss obstacles instead of being part of them. The larger your support network the more successful you will be. This is a good thing to keep in mind for your-self. You never want to be sabotage for family, friends and co-workers in the goals they are trying to reach.

Keep these things in mind when you are deciding on your New Year’s resolutions to help you to be successful in accomplishing your weight loss and overall health goals in the New Year. Have a happy and safe New Year! May 2012 bring you nothing but good health and success in achieving your goals!

XOXO!   The Dietnista

Meal Ideas for Breakfast

Can you believe another week has flown by? We have been working towards better health together for over a month now!  How has it been going? Have you been able to make the small changes to your diet that we have discussed?  I hope so! Please let me know if you have any questions or comments.

Over the past month we have discussed the importance of breakfast and the nutrients that it should provide. I started off by giving you an outline of where your breakfast calories should come from. I gave you specifics on how much carbohydrate, fat and protein is recommended for most people at breakfast. We discussed the importance of fiber and calcium and the sources of food that provide them.

Now I am going to give you some specific examples of healthy breakfast meals. The color coding helps you to see which items you can trade out.  I am going to give you some ideas for meals at home and on the go.

1 serving of Fruit= 15 grams Carbohydrate:

Small apple/Clementine/15 grapes/10 cherries/half of a small banana /half of an orange or grapefruit/1 cup of berries/small peach or plum/any fruit that is the size of a tennis ball or can fit into a tennis ball

2 servings of high fiber Starch/bread = 30 grams Carbohydrate and >4 grams Dietary Fiber:

1 cup of high fiber cereal (more than 4grams fiber/serving)/1 cup of oatmeal cooked/1 pre-packaged of high fiber oatmeal (more than 4 grams fiber/serving)/2 slices of whole wheat toast/ 1 bagel thin/1 sandwich thin/1 whole wheat English muffin

1 serving of milk/dairy (preferably fat free) = 15 grams Carbohydrate:

8 oz cow’s milk/6 oz yogurt/ 8oz soy milk/8oz almond milk

1 Fat serving if you did not consume any from your dairy source (preferably mono- or poly- unsaturated) = 5 grams of fat:

2 tsp of peanut butter/6-10 nuts/2 TBS light cream cheese/2 pecans or walnuts/1 wedge of light laughing cow cheese

Meal Option #1:

1 cup of berries (blueberries/strawberries/raspberries/blackberries)

1 packet prepackaged High Fiber oatmeal

Fat Free Yogurt or Greek yogurt

6-10 almonds in the oatmeal

Meal Option #2:

1 small apple (size of a tennis ball)

2 Slices of high fiber bread – toasted

8 oz glass of fat free milk

2 tsp of peanut butter

Meal Option #3:

Small Clementine

2- 100% whole wheat sandwich thins

1 slice of 2% cheese melted on the sandwich thins

Meal Option #4:

10 cherries

1 cup of high fiber cereal

8 oz of Fat free milk or 1% milk

Meal Option #5:

½ grapefruit

1 whole wheat bagel thin

6 oz fat free yogurt

2 TBS of low fat cream cheese

Meal Option #6:

McDonald’s Egg McMuffin with no cheese

Apple Dippers

Meal Option #7:

Chick-Fil-a Yogurt Parfait with granola

Milk Does Do A Body Good

Happy Wednesday!

Are you still keeping track of what you eat? I love to use “My Fitness Pal” to keep track of my intake. If you go to the settings under food diary, you can set the log to keep track of carbohydrates, protein, fat and FIBER!!! These are all things that we have focused on in past blogs. Remember you want to aim to consume at least 20 grams of fiber per day or more. If you need a refresher course on how much carbohydrate, protein or fat to aim for at breakfast, look back on the blog titled “Breakfast is for Champions”.

Now we are going look closer at another important factor to consider when putting together your breakfast, milk. Yes it is true, milk does a body good. Why might you ask? Because of the calcium, protein and other vitamins and minerals that are found in milk. We are going to focus closely on calcium. Calcium is very important in bone growth and strength. Calcium helps build strong bones in children because it slows down the growth of the bone so that it can develop properly. Calcium also plays an important role in muscle contractions, such as your heart beating, and normal nerve function.

So what happens if you do not get enough calcium? If children do not get enough calcium it could limit their bone growth and a severe deficiency may stop children from reaching their mature height.  It is thought that a majority of bone growth is formed during early years of adolescents.  By your twenties, bone-growth is usually completed, but bone continues to become denser until your early thirties. Whatever amount of calcium a woman has stored into her bones when she enters into her thirties, will be the amount of calcium that she will have entering into menopause. It is thought that the female hormone, estrogen, helps to protect the bones. So as estrogen levels decrease, so does bone density and calcium storage.  The take away message from this is calcium intake is extremely important from age 10 to 3o years to ensure strong and dense bones. A lifetime of a deficiency in calcium can increase your risk of osteoporosis or brittle bone disease by decreasing the bone density and increasing bone loss.  Your bones are a living tissue and are constantly taking in calcium and using it. To keep your bones strong you need to consume adequate calcium on a daily basis to continue to supply the needed amount of calcium. Other parts of your body use calcium besides your bones.  Your muscles need calcium to contract and release. As a result, every time your heart beats you are using some of your stored calcium. Studies also show that proper calcium intake can also help with high blood pressure and certain cancers ricks, such as colon cancer. 

So how much calcium do you need daily? It is recommended that teenagers consume at least 1,300 mg of calcium per day. As an adult, because there is very little bone growth, only 1,000 milligrams of calcium are needed daily. Above the age of 50, it is recommended to increase calcium intake to 1,200 mg per day to limit the risk of osteoporosis and bone fractures.  It is important that when taking calcium you include vitamin D, which is usually found in most calcium supplements.  Vitamin D helps to pull calcium into your bones and teeth. We will explore Vitamin D in the future. If you do not feel that you consume enough calcium you can take a calcium supplement daily. I would recommend a calcium citrate based supplement, such as Citracal. There is now an extended release Citracal to limit the unwanted side effects like constipation and stomach upset. When trying to increase you calcium intake, be careful consuming too much caffeine. Over consumption of caffeine intake can increase urinary calcium excretion. Alcohol consumption and smoking cigarettes can also decrease calcium absorption.

Can you get too much calcium? The answer is yes, if consumed in a large amount over a prolong period of time. This is usually the case if you consume dairy products plus calcium fortified products plus daily supplementation of more than 1500 mg. Too much calcium can limit the absorption of other vitamins and minerals, such as iron, zinc and magnesium. Kidney stones are also a byproduct of too much calcium over a large prolonged period of time, especially if you do not drink enough fluid to flush the kidneys out. Regular intake of dairy products will not provide too much calcium intake and cause the above side effects.

What are good sources of calcium in the diet? The best calcium sources are your low fat/ fat free dairy products, such as milk, yogurt, cheese and ice cream. You can also find calcium in dark- green leafy vegetables, such as kale, broccoli, spinach, bok choy, collard greens, okra, mustard greens, turnip greens and fish with edible bones, such as salmon and sardines.  When trying to lose weight, lower cholesterol and improve overall health, it is important to aim to consume fat free dairy products to limit calories and saturated fat. Regardless of a dairy products fat content, you will still get all of the added nutrients, such as vitamin D , calcium, riboflavin and protein. It is all marketing to call whole milk “Vitamin D” milk. All milk contains Vitamin D. Some people are concerned about the sugar content of milk. The sugar in milk is naturally occurring lactose. Only flavored dairy products contain added sugar.  People with diabetes should focus more on the carbohydrate content of milk and make sure that they limit themselves to 1- 8 oz serving of fat free milk per meal.

What are some examples of 1 serving of calcium (300 mg)?

 8 oz of fat free milk/8 oz fat free yogurt/1 ½ ounces of low fat/fat free cheese/ ½ cup of low fat/ fat free shredded cheese/ 2 cups of low fat/fat free cottage cheese/1 cup of low fat/fat free pudding made with milk/1 cup of fat free frozen yogurt/1 ½ cups of fat free frozen ice cream. Everyone should aim to have at least 3 servings of calcium per day.

Note: If you deal with gas, intestinal cramping or bloating after consuming dairy products you might be lactose intolerant.  Try drinking milk in small amounts or switch to other dairy products, such as yogurt.  If problems continue, look into calcium supplementation from a calcium citrate supplement or try using products such as Lactaid to help your body digest the lactose.  Soy, almond and rice milk do not have the same amount of calcium as cow’s milk. You would have to consume the calcium fortified version of all of the products.

Add a serving of milk to your breakfast everyday so that you can start your day off right with serving of calcium. Remember a serving of milk is:

1 serving of milk/dairy (preferably fat free) = 15 grams Carbohydrate:

 8 oz cow’s milk/6 oz yogurt/ 8oz soy milk/8oz almond milk

Have a great week!

The Dietnista