Archive for November, 2009
Eating Healthy AROUND the holidays
It’s that time of year again – that’s right, I’m talking about the time of year when the average American packs on the pounds between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. Inevitably, around this time I get requests for “healthy holiday recipes” or to present a “healthy holiday” cooking class or workshop. My answer to these requests is always the same: NO!
But why on earth would a Registered Dietitian, someone whose livelihood is helping families eat healthier and individuals lose weight, not want to help people eat healthier on the holidays? Well, there’s lots of good reasons.
- Honestly, when you sit down to Thanksgiving dinner, do you really want to eat fat-free mashed potatoes or do you crave those decadent mashed potatoes with all the butter and cream in them that you only eat once a year? Do you truly prefer low-fat pie made with artificial sweetner? Yeah, I didn’t think so. Food is a great pleasure in life. Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s are 3 days out of the 365 in a year. That’s 0.8%, less than 1% of the year. What you eat less than 1% of the time will not make you fat. It just won’t. However, constantly denying and restricting yourself is unsustainable over the long term and will always lead to a cycle of weight loss followed by the inevitable gain. Sound familiar?
- The holiday meals are a time to spend with family, give thanks and celebrate. Would you want to sit down to dinner with someone who spends the meal keeping a nutritional tally of the calories, fat and carb grams of everything on the table? That is not fun. And if you are the person keeping tally, it is hard to have meaningful interactions with other people if you are distracted by and worried about every bite you are eating.
- What is important is how you eat the other 99% of the days in the year. Splurging on the holidays is one thing, but splurging for the entire months of November and December is another. 2 months out of 12 is about 17% of the time, and what you eat 17% of the time could very well contribute to packing on the pounds. It is okay to splurge once in a while, but be careful not to veer down the slippery slope of using the entire holiday season as an excuse to eat mindlessly.
- If you are eating sensibly and mindfully for the majority of the holiday season there is no reason you should not be able to splurge on the holidays and a few holiday parties in between. The trick is to eat mindfully. Listen to your body. Eat the things that make you feel good and pay attention to your body’s internal signals of when to stop. Don’t eat food just because it is there. Are you really hungry?
- Keep exercising! Think of exercise as a gift to yourself. Yes, I know it can be painful and hard to make time in your schedule. But the stress-relieving properties of exercise are so worth it, especially during a time that can be stressful even for the merriest of us. And burning extra calories at the gym or wherever you like to exercise, helps negate the effects of those overindulgences. Winter can also be a great time to try new activities – think skiing, ice skating, snow shoveling (really, it is a great workout!).
With a little planning and attention to your day-to-day eating, there is no reason to cut back on the holidays. If you feel like you need extra help to guide you through what can be treacherous times for even the most strong-willed, don’t wait until New Year’s to begin those nutrition and fitness resolutions! Hire a personal trainer and personal nutritionist now to help get you through this season and get a jump start with your commitment to a healthy lifestyle. No matter how you get through the season, though, it is important to realize that good nutrition and good health should not involve feeling deprived. As in all aspects of life, it is all about balance. If you eat healthfully around the holidays, you can enjoy yourself on the holidays.
Add comment November 17, 2009
Exercise and Weight Loss
A couple months ago, there was an article in Time Magazine discounting the role of exercise in weight loss. Apparently this is the story that just won’t die. Gretchen Reynolds wrote a post for the NY Times Well blog last week on the same issue. So let’s analyze the information.
1. Exercising doesn’t burn that many calories. Well, duh. Whether you are running a mile or walking a mile, you burn about 100 calories. When losing weight, you need to eat less calories than you burn. So you can either eat less, burn more or do a combination. Since we know it would require lots of time and energy to burn enough calories to lose significant weight, the majority of these reduced calories come from restricting intake. But considering that burning 200-300 calories during a workout is not an unreasonable amount, you could either exercise this much or further cut back your already restricted food intake. As a person who likes to eat, I’ll take the extra 200-300 calories in food, thanks.
2. Exercise makes you a healthier person. This fact was never in dispute. Since being overweight is associated with so many illnesses like diabetes, heart disease, joint degeneration, etc. and regular exercise is associated with lowering blood glucose levels, lowering blood pressure and cholesterol, increasing muscle mass and tone, the benefits of exercise for combating the ill-effects of overweight are obvious.
3. Exercise is important for keeping weight off once it is lost. This may be the biggest benefit of exercise for people trying to lose weight. It appears that regular exercise, at least in formerly overweight lab rats, resets some metabolic pathways. In humans, one thing shared by most people who have managed to keep off the weight they have lost is that they all exercise regularly. While some people find that they eat more when they are more physically active, many people find that exercise helps to keep their appetite in check. Eating healthier food can also be easier when you exercise regularly. If you are training for a 5K, that sluggish feeling that comes after eating a bunch of fries becomes a lot less appealing, right?
As with most things in nutrition and fitness, it really comes down to common sense. Just because exercise by itself doesn’t lead to weight loss, that certainly doesn’t mean that you should set aside exercise combined with an eating plan you can maintain for the long term in favor of a crash diet that is impossible to maintain. In fact, one of my favorite parts of this blog entry is the author’s response to one of the comments where she encourages people to seek the help of a Registered Dietitian to find a plan to help them lose weight and maintain their loss as well as exercise regularly. Now that’s something I can endorse!
Add comment November 10, 2009
Top 10 Car Snacks
My daughters’ sports schedule has changed over the past couple weeks. On the plus side, we are home at dinner time more. On the downside, this involves at least one day a week where we have exactly 15 minutes from the time school is dismissed to race to the minivan, change clothes, drive and eat a snack on the road that will give one girl enough energy for an hour long tennis lesson and the other girl energy to do her homework. And sometimes my schedule doesn’t allow me to stop home before I pick them up so the snack has to be something that I can keep in the van.
A good snack to fuel anyone before physical activity should provide some carbohydrates for quick energy and protein for staying power. Preferably, carbohydrates should come fruit fruit, dairy or whole grain and not a bunch of added sugar. Getting enough fluid before physical activity is important to replace losses that occur during a workout. Even a small amount of dehydration can negatively affect physical performance. Providing enough to drink on the way to sports is especially important when going straight after school. Most children do not not drink water throughout the day at school. You do not need a sports drink (which is full of simple sugar); water or milk is a better option.
Here’s a list of my 10 favorite car snacks. They can all be eaten in a reasonable amount of time and provide the nutrition a young athlete needs. Some are things you can keep in the car and some you can fix ahead and keep in the fridge and grab before you walk out the door. Milk is a perfect drink with any of these snacks; it provides extra carbs, protein and fluid. And don’t forget a bottle of water for during and after practice!
- Granola bars. I prefer bars that have whole grains and some protein as well. My kids and I love Kashi bars. They have lots of different varieties (crunchy, chewy, fruity, etc) and while they have differing amounts of calories and protein any one of these makes a good, quick snack. Read nutrition facts labels carefully for different brands of granola bars – you would be surprised at the widely varying nutritional profiles!
- Half a peanut butter sandwich. Add banana and honey. Or a favorite type of jelly. Or even sprinkle a couple chocolate chips on it if you’re feeling particularly nice!
- Apple slices and slices of cheese. Or apple slices with peanut butter in a little cup, although this could get messy with younger children.
- Homemade trail mix. Any combination of raisins, dried cranberries, dried apricots, dried plums, peanuts, walnuts, almonds, dry cereal, pretzels.
- A cup of low fat yogurt and a baggie of grapes.
- Crackers and string cheese
- Smoothies. Either buy pre-bottled smoothies at the store or make your own from frozen fruit and milk (cow or soy). Add some sweetener of choice to make it tasty. Frozen mango chunks, banana and milk makes a fabulous smoothie. Put in a covered “to go” cup or straw bottle to avoid messy spills.
- Rice cakes or crackers and hummus.
- In a tortilla, roll up some lunch meat and cheese then cut into slices to make little roll-ups.
- Whole grain mini bagel and cream cheese.
What’s your favorite on-the-go snack?
Add comment November 3, 2009
