Give PEAS a Chance!!

If iceberg lettuce, pickles, and ketchup didn't count... when was the last time you had five servings of fruits and vegetables in one day??

I am a terrible dieter...deprivation just doesn't work for me. And the harder I try NOT to eat something, the more it seems like I want to have it! So I discovered a new strategy...I use ADDITION instead of SUBTRACTION. Instead of saying I can't have Fritos or Reese Cups or Pizza, I just tell myself that I can have any and all of these things after I finish the healthy stuff.

Okay here's your challenge...
For the next week, you have to eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables per day. You must have at least one serving with each meal and you have to eat it first...then after that you can have anything you want. The idea here is that the fiber in the fruits and vegetables will help you feel full faster and you won't eat as much of the other stuff. Remember, use healthy preparation methods for your fruits and veggies to further enhance your success.

And NO....iceberg lettuce, pickles, and ketchup still don't count!! Good luck! Let me know how it goes. Have a great week

Gimme Some Sugar!!!

On a recent episode of Good Morning America, they did a segment on hidden sugars in various foods. One of the foods was the GO LEAN bar by Kashi....sounds healthy enough right? Wrong.

The GO LEAN bar has as much sugar as FIFTEEN Hershey's kisses. Wow! I have to say I think that I'd rather have the kisses! Now, I know I've touched on this topic before but this deserves a quick review.

Five grams of sugar is equal to one teaspoon of sugar...

So, the next time you are eating a breakfast cereal or drinking a juice drink...look at the label! If it says that it has 25 grams of sugar then you are literally ingesting 5 teaspoons of sugar! Not necessarily what you had in mind for a glass of V-8 Fusion or that bowl of Raisin Bran Crunch?!

Not only that...a gram of sugar has four calories ... then 4 X 25=100 calories. Wow...bet you didn't realize that the 160 calorie juice drink is 63% sugar?!

So that's the bad news...the good news is that you can start over today...reading labels and making choices that make sense for your healthy lifestyle. Be especially aware of pseudo-healthy foods marketed towards children...they're usually loaded with sugar. Just remember...just because it sounds healthy doesn't mean it is!

What are you really craving?

You know that late afternoon gnawing sensation in your belly? When you are really craving something but you're not exactly sure what??

It could be just another wave in the ebb and flow of your blood sugar levels. The body likes for everything to stay kind of even...blood sugar, blood pressure, H2O levels, etc. and it strives to keep the body in that balanced state, known as homeostasis.

So when things get out of whack, it goes to the brain and has it tell you that you're hungry or thirsty or whatever. Unfortunately, we often misinterpret the signals or ignore them altogether, thus causing the body to go even further out of balance. So just guess what the body does to combat these stressful waves?? It decides to store fat or retain water or whatever it thinks it should do to avoid this situation in the future! Not exactly what you had in mind?!

So when you get one of those cravings...try to stop and listen. Your body is trying to tell you something. If its hungry, don't wait...feed it! Your weight loss efforts are best rewarded when you never let yourself get too hungry. As a rule of thumb...if you get past 6 on the hunger scale of 1-10, then your body is going to react by storing fat because it wants to be sure it has something for later! And one more thing...did you know that thirst is often misinterpreted as hunger? So start listening to your body, I'm sure it has something to say...and hopefully it's "thank you!"

So...What’s the Point?!?!

You know I have this major motivation when it comes to gaining weight...well, actually I have two.

1. When I gain weight, I start to look like Uncle Fester and,

2. It’s my job to appear fit and healthy...

So I have these imaginary weight zones that kind of dictate my diet and my lifestyle...

There’s the Home-Free Zone when all my clothes fit and I feel really good about myself.

Then there’s the Put-the-Twinkie-Down Zone when my pants start to get a little tight and I would rather have a tetanus shot than to take my shirt off in public.

And finally, there’s the Uncle Fester Zone when it’s all gone to pot and everything seems to jiggle even when I’m sitting still.

So I think having some idea of what your body weight is and where it needs to be in order for you to feel good about yourself is very important. I think it’s key to know when you are getting out of your Home-Free Zone and starting to edge into Twinkie land. Let’s face it...it’s a lot easier to take off five or ten pounds than it is to take off twenty or thirty. So what’s your set point? Do you know...and how close are you to it right now?? Don’t let yourself get to the point of no return...I mean really, if we eat four times per day then we will have 1460 meals this year. It won’t hurt to practice a little self control to get back into those skinny pants! You can always eat whatever you want after you reach your goal. So weigh weekly and track your progress (or demise) and let it govern your habits. It is summer after all!

The Skinny on Artificial Sweetners

I’m a diet coke junky so this fit tip is going to be a real reality check for me. I was raised on Coca-cola...as I got older and more health conscious, I decided to switch to diet coke in order to save on calories...little did I know...that it actually can make me GAIN WEIGHT!!

A recent study on lab rats found that rats fed yogurt containing artificial sweeteners went on to consume more calories, gain more weight, and increase their body fat percentage. The study speculates that this phenomenon occurred because the artificial sweeteners actually made the rats crave MORE sweets and intake MORE calories.

The brain naturally links sweet tastes with the ingestion of high calorie foods...so when we “trick” the brain by ingesting these artificial sweeteners, the brain reacts by actually SLOWING the metabolism!! And this isn’t a one time occurrence either...once the brain becomes conditioned to artificial sweeteners, it starts to respond in the same way every time we eat...with a sluggish metabolism in order to make the “reduced” calories last longer! Obviously...this is not what we’re looking for!

So here it is...a challenge for all you diet coke junkies out there...starting next Monday, let’s take ALL artificial sweeteners out of our diets for seven days and just see how we feel. Yes...this means you will have to read some labels but it will be interesting to see if we can actually tell a difference. Hey! If I can do it...you can! Email me and let me know how it goes! Have a great week!