5 Powerful Diet Tips

If I were to tell you the secret to losing weight is diet and exercise, would you hold it against me?!   Life gets busy and sometimes it is difficult to stay on track.  Here are five powerful diet tips that healthy weight people follow.  

1. Drink plenty of water and fill in with green tea

People confuse thirst with hunger.  If you think you are hungry, try drinking a glass of water first.   If the feeling of possible hunger dissipates, you only needed water.  

If drinking water is not an easy task for you, try adding a splash of juice or squeeze some lemons or limes in it.  

Green tea is another option.  The warmth of the tea is filling as well, and you get health benefits of the green tea.

2. Be particular about your night time snacks 

If after dinner time triggers mindless eating of high calorie snacks for no other reason than to put something in your mouth; consider one or some of these solutions that you know will work for you.  Find your motivator for not sabotaging your otherwise healthy day.  Is it that you sleep better, feel healthier or wake up feeling proud of yourself because you made it to bed without hitting the pantry?!  If you eliminate the night time snacking, would you easily lose weight without changing anything else?  

• Close your kitchen after dinner 
• Allow yourself only fruit or crunchy veggies before bedtime
• Have small ramekin bowls on hand and fill that with your favorite snack (portion control)...no seconds!  These are about 1/2 cup portions
• Having favorites sometimes eliminates weight gain over time because focusing on what you can’t have will most likely lead to overeating later

3.  Add fruits and veggies to your diet rather than focusing on cutting other foods out

• Start by focusing on adding more fruits and vegetables to your diet each day
• Make half your plate vegetables, like the USDA recommends 
• Adding a salad to your lunch or choose to eat a cut up crunchy red bell pepper as a side to your sandwich 

When you add more fruits and vegetables to your diet, you are naturally displacing fat, adding fiber, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and phytochemicals.  These are nutrient dense foods which means they are packing an abundance of disease preventing and health promoting nutrients with very little calories or fat.  The fiber and volume of vegetables you can eat without the extra calories will make you feel satisfied.

4. Stock your kitchen with healthy, prepped and ready to eat convenience foods

Having already prepped for this weeks meals will help you have healthy, ready-to-eat snacks and meals-in-minutes when hunger strikes.  You will eat what is available and what you like when you are hungry.  Having healthy choices available and ready to eat makes you less likely to turn to junk food.

Look at a Well Stocked Refrigerator Pantry for items to have on hand and make sure you always have:

• Frozen vegetables
  
• Bags of pre-washed greens
• Canned diced tomatoes
• Canned beans
• Brown rice cooked, stored in fridge 
• Pre-cooked grilled chicken breasts
• Cooked whole grain pasta, stored in fridge

You can prepare a healthy meal in 5 to 10 minutes by prepping ahead and having healthy foods on hand.  Frozen vegetables will save you many times!  

5. Be physically active

Try going for a walk if you think you are hungry.   This change in your normal routine can break a mindless eating habit at home.  At work, go for a walk around your office instead of going for a less than healthy snack.  This is a diet trick.  Maybe you just needed to get up and move your body.  

The American Heart Association recommends 30-minutes of moderate activity, but three 10-minute periods of activity are almost as beneficial to your overall fitness as one 30-minute session. This is achievable! 

• Find what works for you
• Focus on how good you feel after walking or jogging or riding your bike, taking a yoga class or lifting weights 

There is nothing like it.  It is for your sanity.  Regular physical activity can relieve tension, anxiety, depression and anger.  There are plenty of studies that show physical activity helps maintain a healthy weight, prevents bone loss, promotes optimism and increases muscle strength.  The list goes on and on...

• Improves your general well being
• Boosts your mental wellness
• Improves your physical wellness and overall health
• Promotes a peaceful sleep 
• Stimulates your brain

Health Inspires.

Powerful Protein:  What it is and Where to Get it

According to the USDA, the recommended dietary allowance, or RDA, for protein is 46 grams per day for non-pregnant, non-nursing women ages 19-70 + (better calculations to follow).  The RDA was created to reflect the average daily amount considered adequate to meet the needs of most healthy people.  The fact that I am being lumped into a range between a 19 year old female and a 70 year old female, without any consideration of my exercise habits or muscle mass, coupled with the definition of RDA, our government clearly gives us these recommendations as a general guide.  We need to find what works for us within reasonable variations.  

Let’s take a look at what protein is, why we need it and an example menu of what this all looks like for a healthy you.  Understanding why we need protein might lead you to healthier choices.

What Protein is:

Proteins are made up of about 20 common amino acids.  Amino acids are the building blocks of protein, and proteins are the building blocks of most body structures.  There are 9 essential amino acids, that the body cannot make, and that you need to get from the foods you eat.  Your body (liver) can make protein as long as it has the needed amino acids simultaneously.  The optimal goal is to get the protein you need from a healthy diet so your body does not need to break down its own proteins to get it.

Why we need it:

Protein makes up every cell, tissue and organ in the body and is an important part of a healthy diet.  

• What it looks like on the inside; Proteins are building blocks of:

         Bone, teeth, skin, muscles, cells, enzymes (build up and break down structures), hormones, as          regulators of fluid balance, as acid- base regulators, as transporters (of nutrients and other molecules, oxygen, lipids, vitamins and minerals), antibodies, as a source of energy and glucose.  

• What it looks like from the outside; Proteins make you look healthy: 

         Consuming enough protein helps women increase their ratio of lean mass to body fat to look and   feel their best.  Consuming too little protein can lead to fatigue, irritability, decreased muscle mass, a protruding belly, changes in hair texture and a weakened immune system. 

How much we need:  The RDA (recommended daily allowance) for non nursing and non pregnant women

Females 25-50: .8 g/kg
Females 51+: .8 g/kg
Endurance athletes:  1.2.-1.6 g/kg/day

If you are a healthy weight:  Convert pounds to kilograms (2.2 lbs/kg)
Ex:   120 lbs /  2.2 lb/kg = 55 grams of protein

If your present weight falls outside a healthy weight range, use the midpoint of what you know your healthy weight is and will be , to calculate protein needs.  

Lean protein meals are not only a good source of protein; they also do not add too much fat or calories to your diet.  Just like eating too many calories or too much of anything, if you eat more protein than your body needs it will convert it to fat and stored for later use.

Food Sources and Portions:  

According to the USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans, a lean protein includes 1 to 3 grams (g) of fat and 50 to 55 calories per oz.  If a serving of chicken, fish or beef is 3 oz-4 oz, you can determine the calories.  The USDA states that 3 oz or 85 g cooked chicken without the skin has about 160 calories, 22 grams of protein and 7 g of fat.   So 4 oz would have about 29 g of protein.  That is about the same for fish.  A 3.5 oz serving of tilapia contains 26 g of protein, 2.65 g of fat and 128 calories. Salmon is a great fish choice as it comes packed with omega-3 fatty acids.  

To simplify, if you are having red meat, choose a lean cut, if you are having chicken, bake, broil or grill without the skin and fish is a great choice to bake, broil or grill.  To simplify even more, 4 oz of any of these has about 30 ish g of protein, 3 oz has about 22 g and 5 oz about 35 g.  

Complete Proteins: 

Foods that contain all the essential amino acids are complete proteins.  Those foods are generally animal foods such as poultry, meat, fish, cheese, eggs and milk (choose skim).  Quinoa and soy are also considered complete proteins.  

Incomplete proteins: 

Plants based foods are an excellent option to or add to your diet or substitute for some complete proteins.  They are called complement proteins for vegetarians that mix incomplete proteins in a meal to equal a more complete protein.  These healthy options include legumes, seeds, nuts, grains and vegetables.  Dried beans and legumes are high in protein and low in calories and fat and add fiber to your diet. 

Fun Fact:  

Egg protein can be used as a standard for measuring protein quality.  The egg is the highest quality protein!  Scientists give it a value of 100 and the quality of other food proteins is determined based on how they compare to the egg.  This standard is called a “reference protein”.  A regular size egg contains 70 calories, 5 grams of fat and 6 grams of protein.

Saturated fat is the catch:  

Do you believe eggs are good or bad?  The real question is, “How much saturated fat is in your overall diet?”  Your answer to that question is the answer to the egg question.  If you are eating more than the recommended amount of protein and getting it from saturated fats, then substitute some of that protein with plant based sources.  Moderation, moderation, moderation.

Consider the protein content and fat content you will get from the balanced sample menu:

Breakfast:  One egg plus one egg white, maybe toss some spinach in it or cut a tomato on top (your preference matters for satiability), 1 piece of Ezekiel bread (or whole grain) toasted and spread with a tiny bit of avocado and salted (yum! healthy fat) or a tiny bit (1 tsp unhealthy fat) of butter (your preference) (egg- 10 g protein, 5 g fat of which 1.7 g are saturated fat) This breakfast is about 250 ish calories.  Eggs will sustain you and you will feel good!  

Lunch:  3 oz chicken, abundance of fresh veggies or salad, add only I piece of whole grain bread for a sandwich or roll if you will feel neglected without it , or ½ cup of a whole grain  (22 g protein, 7 g fat of which 2 g are saturated fat). This lunch is about 375 ish calories.

Afternoon snack:  Apple with 1 T of favorite nut butter, (3 g protein, 8 g fat, of which 3.5 g is saturated fat) calories about 180 ish

Dinner:  3-4 oz salmon, 1/2 c brown rice tossed with 1 tsp olive oil and lightly salted, veggies, veggies, veggies or/and salad (30 g protein, 12 g fat, of which 2.2 are saturated). This dinner is about 500 ish calories.

Fill in with green tea, water all day long, and raw veggies if you need snacks or feel hungry.  Try the water and green tea first to see if you are really hungry.

This example menu is about 1300 calories and does not include a whole lot of added oils, fats or sauces.  I like to use “ABOUT” because 3 oz of chicken will vary depending on marinades, if it was measured and how and what it was cooked in.  Even the most credible resources vary in their published nutrient content.  Your goal is to eat healthy and be a healthy weight and feel good about yourself every day.  Rigidity is painful.  This is life…so let’s say…ABOUT, and go easy on ourselves.  The following is the nutrient breakdown of protein, carbs and fat of the above menu.

• 72 grams of protein. I usually intake about 50 ish g-70 ish g of protein a day.  I do not always eat eggs and I do not always eat that much protein at each meal, but I believe in protein and that it helps sustain you and your muscles and helps with a healthy weight.  Proper nutrition will make you feel good.  My experience tells me I need a little more protein than what the USDA tells me I need.  
• In this sample menu, I counted the protein from the animal foods (62 g), the brown rice (4g) and the peanut butter (3 g).  Peanut butter is still my favorite and my preference with all the nut butter choices. The whole grain breads and other whole grains have protein as well (2 g).  
• This menu shows you what eating healthy looks like and how little calories we really need if we are eating the right foods.   
• The fat content is about 35 g ish g (315 calories) of which 10 g (90 calories of the 315 calories) is saturated.  
• There are 315 calories coming from fat in this overall 1300 calorie day.  This equates to about 24% calories coming from all fats and 6.9% of total calories from saturated fat.  The USDA recommends that no more than 10% of daily calories come from saturated fat, and the American Heart Association recommends no more than 7%.
• 22% of calories in this meal comes from protein which fits within the recommended guidelines of between 10% and 35% (and there you go…lots of flexibility here depending on your needs)
• Most of your calories should come from good carbohydrates, which in this plan they do.  These take into account your vegetables, fruits and whole grains.  Choose whole grains for the extra fiber, slower absorption and protein.  
• Most importantly, notice how very little added fat is in this meal plan, and notice the sources of protein are pretty simple and plain, without a lot of added anything, and it just about maxes out the limits recommended by the USDA and American Heart Association.

If you are wanting to lose weight, this 1300 calorie a day meal plan is a good example of healthy eating.  If you want to cut calories, reduce your portion sizes and back down some on the starchy carbs (breads and grains).  If you want to hover around 1500 calories a day, what foods, beverages or extras will you choose to get your extra 200 calories to come from?  You have a choice and you should enjoy it and keep the portion small.  

Here are some examples of what your choice(s) might be:

• Healthy dipping sauce like hummus (1/4 cup) with 6 baby carrots
• It might be your glass of wine or your favorite beverage (juice, milk…other)
• Extra olive oil on or in some of these foods or on your salads
• A slice of toasted Ezekiel bread with avocado spread on top, salted (my new favorite “addiction”…my addictions change week by week)
• A banana with 1 T peanut butter
• Fruit smoothie
• Yogurt
• One handful of almonds or count out about 24 ish nuts for about 170 calories
• Maybe today you need a cookie, or a piece or two of dark chocolate, or a ½ c ice cream (but not every day)

Health Inspires.

5 Steps to a Healthier You

Goal:  A healthy lifestyle for the rest of your life

1. Rest/Sleep
   
2. Healthy Diet
3. Exercise
4. Water
5. Self-Discipline

1) Sleep: 

Clinical evidence shows that women that get 8 hours a sleep per night eat much less and weigh less that their female counterparts that get 6 hours of sleep or less per night.  You are more likely to reach for comfort foods and eat more, in general, when you are sleepy in attempt to raise your energy level. You are also more likely to skip the gym when you are tired.  In addition, hormone regulation is out of whack when you are sleep deprived and your metabolism is slower.  Get 8 hours of sleep per night.  Plan your nightly routine to make this achievable.

2) Healthy Diet:

What is a healthy diet?  A diet rich in plant foods and no or very little processed foods is a healthy diet.  We have different food preferences and can make positive changes with our likes and dislikes.  Together we can make healthy changes that make a big difference in your health.  Avoid white foods as a general rule, palm oil, hydrogenated oil, high-fructose corn syrup, too much sugar and salt and processed foods.  If you avoid foods with any type of hydrogenated oil, palm oil, food coloring and high fructose corn syrup on the ingredient panel, and including anything you cannot pronounce...you are on your way.  Choose foods that come straight from the earth or that have a mama.  Make a habit of carrying a piece of fruit with you or a baggie full of almonds for a quick and healthy snack.

3) Exercise: 

Engage in at least 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity every day to maintain your weight while eating a healthy diet.  Add strength training to your routine.  Exercise more when you are trying to lose weight.   Keeping it fun will help create a lifelong healthy habit.  You are more likely to succeed if you have a buddy system.  It adds accountability and a faithful companion to motivate you.

4) Water:

Lean muscle is 60% water.  The leaner you are the more you are made of water.  Every system in your body depends on it.  Water flushes toxins out of vital organs, carries nutrients to your cells and provides moisture to tissues.  It helps your bodily functions, keeps fatigue at bay and can help control your weight.  Drink a glass of water 30 minutes before every meal and at least 8, 8 oz. glasses everyday.   

5) Self-Discipline:

Health Inspires.  Your commitment to a healthy lifestyle is imperative to your success.  Your commitment to changing one thing will lead to another because success breeds success.  When you have a healthy lifestyle of enough rest, a healthy diet and exercise, you will feel empowered to do great things.  Most importantly, you just feel really good.  You don’t know how good you can feel until you feel good.  

How are you caring for your physical body?  Choose at least one of these 5 health factors that you know you can start doing better.  Make it your own.  What works for you?  Why would it make you better?  How will it make you feel?  I know when I accomplish things big or small it makes me feel really good!  


Health Inspires.