by Joan Kent | Dec 8, 2015 | Health and Wellness
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Okay, it’s not as if another set of tips on surviving the holidays is a pressing need, but hey. The holidays keep showing up every year, and it’s easy to fall into familiar traps. Here are some practical tips for your participants.
Obviously, the problem lies less in the 3 holidays themselves and more in the weeks of partying, socializing, and grazing between Thanksgiving and New Year’s.
– Workout Survival
Don’t skip workouts. They’re a spot of sanity in a crazy time, and can help you commit to eating right.
First thing in the morning is often best. No matter what happens the rest of the day, it’s done.
If you’re truly too busy for a class, don’t delay and hope for the time to take one. That can lead to doing nothing. Instead, aim for Better Than Nothing (BTN).
BTN means short duration — but it only works with high intensity. Here’s a sample 10-minute workout.
Warm up for 3 minutes: first minute easy, second minute a little harder, third minute a little harder.
Then start intervals — say, 30 seconds very hard, followed by 30 seconds easy. Repeat the pattern for the rest of your workout. Those 7 intervals can, and will, be physiologically meaningful.
– Office Survival
This is pretty obvious. Find out where the temptations lurk. Avoid them. Eat lunch elsewhere. Bring water, coffee, tea to your desk — to avoid seeing (and eating) foods that will make you feel crummy later.
– Party Survival
If there’s a party later that day, eat as usual. Skipping meals is a binge blowout waiting to happen.
– Buffet Survival
Eat before you go. At least have 3 ounces of a protein food, or a scoop of unsweetened protein powder.
At the buffet, place a full serving of protein on your plate. Fill half the plate with vegetables. Save any splurge calories for unique holiday foods. Skip ordinary foods you can have anytime.
Then step away from the buffet table!
When eating the meal, fill up on protein and vegetables first. Then, and only then, eat the other foods you’ve taken.
– Meal Control As Survival
Make or bring healthful dishes: vegetable platters; big, varied salads; a fruit and nut tray for dessert.
Modify recipes all month. Cut butter and/or sugar in half (no one will notice). Use chicken broth in potatoes instead of milk or cream. Don’t glaze foods. The sugar in the glaze can and will increase your appetite — for the wrong kind of foods.
– Post-Meal Survival
Take a walk immediately after dinner. Don’t wait — it might not happen. It’s extra exercise and will also prevent second helpings you don’t need.
Recruit a friend. “Let’s walk before we dive into those desserts,” might be just what your friend needs to hear.
When you return, stay on your feet. Help with clearing dishes, or stand and socialize.
– All-or-Nothing Survival
An all-or-nothing mindset will sabotage you. Get back on track immediately — at the next meal. Don’t wait till the next day — and certainly not till the following Monday.
– Leftover Survival
Don’t keep leftovers at home. Give them away. Throw away troublesome “trigger” foods.
Don’t take leftovers home from a dinner. If you’re pushed to do so, find a trashcan on the way home and toss them. Set yourself up to win.
– Alcohol Survival
Alcohol can make or break your holiday goals. Avoid it when possible. The brain chemistry changes will increase your appetite — for the most troublesome foods.
If you do drink, alternate a glass of your beverage with a glass of sparkling water. If sparkling water’s not available, drink regular water. Keep alternating as long as you’re drinking.
– Logging as Survival
Log your food — all of it! If you splurge, write it down and keep logging.
Clients tend to stop logging when they’ve gone off the grid, but that’s self-sabotage: “I’m not tracking, so I can eat anything.” It’s the all-or-nothing mindset again.
Log every holiday eating day, no matter what. You’ll eat less.
You might even want to keep a log all month. How great to be ahead of the game on New Year’s Day!
by Joan Kent | Nov 16, 2015 | Engage Your Students, Health and Wellness
I’ve never liked the word “snack.” People are casual with snacks, as if they don’t matter.
People also treat snacks as if they’re different from meals.
Case in point: When I give nutrition presentations, I outline a simple method for creating meals with a good balance of foods and nutrition. Someone almost always asks, “What can we have for snacks?”
The answer is: Whatever you have for meals, just less.
Does Everyone Agree About Snacking?
Some say snacking keeps energy levels high throughout the day. That prevents the low energy and excess hunger that can lead to overeating later.
Others — particularly weight-loss programs — stress eating precisely three meals per day. Snacking encourages overeating. With too many chances to choose food, we have too many chances to give in to temptation.
Let’s assume here that Snacks Happen, so we might as well be wise about them.
The Quick Energy Question
Clients often ask me what to eat for “quick energy.” Maybe they’re hoping I’ll suggest something sugary. (Those who read my posts or my book won’t be surprised that I don’t.)
The need for “quick” energy implies that your energy has dropped. Instead, balance your meals by eating a good combination of foods. That will help keep energy more even and sustained throughout the day.
Prior to a workout, when many people seek “quick energy,” eat a tiny meal that follows the same nutrient balance.
What Does a Balanced Meal Look Like?
Whatever the size of your plate, fill half of it with vegetables. And eat them.
Fill the other half more or less equally with protein foods (fish, shrimp, chicken, grass-fed beef, unsweetened protein powder) and complex starch (quinoa, yams, lentils, squash, turnips, and so on). Add “good” fats in moderation wherever you’d like them (coconut oil, avocado, macadamia oil, olive oil, raw nuts).
Treat snacks like small meals. If you treat a snack as if it’s different from a meal, it’s too easy to mess up the nutrient balance.
How To Balance Meals On the Go
One simple way to plan snacking throughout the day is to get some divided plates with lids. They’re available online and at variety stores, and resemble the color graphic above. Follow the plate format described. Vegetables always go in the big section!
If you have access to a refrigerator at work, perfect. Once you’ve created your solid and balanced meal, take the container to work. For a snack, just eat from the meal you put together.
But! Eat using the proportions of the divided plate. Don’t eat just one item in the container, no matter how good for you it may be. Eat the most from the biggest section (veggies).
If you eat lunch out, this method still works for your snacks. If you eat lunch at your desk, prepare two containers — one for your lunch, the other a smaller meal to snack from as needed.
Can You Drink Your Snacks?
Great question.
One research study allowed participants to eat at will from a buffet, and compared the calories consumed by three test groups.
Group 1 had no snack before eating from the buffet. Group 2 had a snack of 150 calories two hours before eating from the buffet. Group 3 had a 150-calorie snack in liquid form — juice, a shake or a smoothie.
Group 2 participants, who ate 150 solid snack calories, reduced their average intake of buffet food by about the same number of calories.
Group 3 participants, who drank 150 calories, did not reduce their buffet intake.
So drinking juice could possibly add calories to your day. If you’re thirsty, it’s a body signal for water.
There’s much more to say about snacking, but the bottom line is to treat snacks as small meals. Build them the way you would a meal. Keep the nutrient balance the same as for a meal. Don’t use snacks as an excuse to over-consume calories.
FYI, the foods that give the highest satiety are protein foods. Don’t skip protein.
Americans tend to snack on junky foods, but let’s not follow that example. In particular, avoid snacking on sugar. It’s bad for your health and increases appetite.
Who needs a bigger appetite with the holidays almost here?
by Joan Kent | Nov 2, 2015 | Health and Wellness
The sugar industry has powered its way through Washington as one of the most imposing lobbies, ever since the 1980s.
You may have read recently that sugar is under attack, specifically the industry’s substantial federal subsidies.
At first that might seem like good news, but the primary leader of the attacks is none other than the Corn Refiners Association.
These days, everyone knows sugar’s bad stuff. This ‘new’ news is actually old news. As covered in a previous post, the original studies on the evils of sugar date back to the 1970s. That was before the sugar lobby gained its stronghold.
Once the sugar industry came into power, all nutritional hell broke loose. Fat became Dietary Enemy #1 — sadly, the fitness industry was all over that viewpoint — and US obesity became epidemic.
It took a couple of decades for the pendulum to swing back to sugar. Yes, it’s about time.
But the worst news about the attack on sugar industry subsidies might have to do with what’s coming as a result. Logic tells us that, if the sugar industry loses its subsidies, sugar prices will skyrocket. In a perfect world, that might reduce sugar consumption, not unlike the decrease in smoking that followed sky-high cigarette prices.
The real, and unfortunately more realistic, nutrition danger is that demand for sweet foods won’t decrease.
What Might Happen Then?
One possibility is nothing will change. Hardcore sugar fans will simply pay the higher prices and keep eating their favorite desserts.
The other is that a cheaper alternative will be offered and devoured — exactly what the corn refiners must be plotting.
What will happen if high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) replaces sugar?
Much bad stuff has been written about HFCS — and it sparked controversy. Of course, the pro-HFCS side came from the Corn Refiners Association, so we can obviously ignore that as a highly vested interest.
Let’s simply skip over the looming shift in power in Washington and stick with food — as if sugar in any of its forms could be considered food.
What Does The Science Show Us?
Studies comparing fructose to glucose have measured the response of the hypothalamus to the two sugars. The hypothalamus helps regulate signals of hunger and satiety, as well as reward and motivation.
In comparison tests, subjects consumed either a fructose-sweetened beverage or one sweetened by glucose. Within 15 minutes, test results showed substantial differences in the activity of the hypothalamus. Glucose reduced activity in the feeding center of the hypothalamus, but fructose prompted a small increase.
The glucose drink also increased the participants’ feelings of fullness, which suggests they’d be less likely to keep eating after having something sweetened with glucose. That might relate to its effect on insulin. Insulin plays a role in fullness and reducing food reward.
Fructose is metabolized differently by the body and triggers less insulin secretion than glucose does.
Unlike glucose, fructose also fails to reduce circulating ghrelin, a monster hormone that increases appetite and food intake, while decreasing metabolism.
Sugar contains equal parts fructose and glucose. HFCS contains more fructose. All (all) research shows that fructose is the health troublemaker, not glucose.
Implications For Future Fructose Use
Obesity is epidemic and associated metabolic disorders (diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and more) are on the rise now, and largely because of sugar.
Imagine how bad things will get if sugar is replaced by HFCS.
James Davis, of the Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, said his group opposes special breaks for sugar and corn growers alike.
Davis said, “We’re not real interested in climbing in bed with the corn lobby to accuse the sugar industry of being prostitutes. We oppose all forms of corporate welfare.”
That’s a politician’s statement for sure, and this post will abstain from the politics of this issue.
And I’m certainly NOT pushing sugar over HFCS.
But wouldn’t it have been astounding if Davis’s second sentence had been, “We oppose all forms of sugar”??
by Joan Kent | Oct 27, 2015 | Engage Your Students, Health and Wellness
The client’s food log was extreme. She kept track of every bite she ate and calculated the calories in each item. In the food log, she described every workout she did and the calories she had burned. She was working out several times a day.
But the most extreme thing about her food log was that it included almost nothing but sugar: pastries, chocolate, malted milk Whoppers, fat-free muffins.
Her health issues were also somewhat extreme, at least in severity. The problems were varied. She had irregular menstrual cycles, endometriosis, breast engorgement and tenderness, chronic fatigue, and quite a bit more. Perhaps unsurprisingly, none had been diagnosed as linked with her diet.
She didn’t feel ready to quit sugar, but was willing, in her words, “to cut back.”
While I saw a drawback or two with that approach, I was convinced that her long list of health issues had a great deal to do with the sheet volume of sugar she was consuming. All day, every day. I was ready for any improvement I could encourage her to take.
Basics of Sugar Reduction
Cutting back on sugar is pretty basic; everyone knows these basics:
Skip desserts.
Avoid sodas.
Don’t snack on cookies or other sugary foods.
Don’t add sugar to coffee or tea.
Many more.
But environment matters. Especially at home, where what you have — or don’t have — in your kitchen can make a huge difference. Figuring out which foods to stop buying — and which ones would be okay to swap for them — is important. The bad news: It requires an ordeal called Reading Labels.
It’s important to know what to look for on those labels. Sugar can hide behind many names. Here are the names I’m currently aware of — but please keep in mind that the list keeps growing as new sugars are created. Some are technically not sugar, but have virtually identical effects on insulin and brain chemistry. A few are simply different names for the same thing. For example, Cane Sugar and Sugar Cane are, obviously, the same.
Overt and Covert Sugars
Agave
Alcohol
Barley Malt
Beet Sugar
Brown Sugar
Cane Juice
Cane Sugar
Corn Sweetener
Corn Syrup
Date Sugar
Dextrose
Erythritol
Fruit Juice Concentrate
Fructose
Glucose
Glycerin
Glycerol
Granulated Sugar
High Fructose Corn Syrup
Honey
Hydrogenated Starch Hydrolysates (HSH, Maltitol Syrup, Lycasin)
Isomalt
Job’s Tears
Lactitol
Lactose
Lycasin
Malted Barley
Malt Extract
Maltitol
Maltodextrin
Mannitol
Maple Sugar
Maple Syrup
Molasses
Polydextrose
Powdered Sugar
Raisin Juice
Raisin Syrup
Raw Sugar
Rice Syrup
Sorbitol
Succanat
Sucralose
Sucrose
Sugar
Sugar Cane
Turbinado Sugar
Unrefined Sugar
Xylitol
Why Use the List?
What’s true is the first time or two that you shop using this list — and it’s a good idea to take it with you to the grocery store at first — you might need to spend a little extra time reading all the labels.
The good news: After a couple of trips to the store, you’ll know what you can buy and what to skip. At that point, shopping will be just as easy as it is now.
As for my sugar warrior client, she’s been working on reducing sugars for a while now. Yes, during her cutting back process, some of my fears were justified. Eating little bits of sugar made her crave more sugar. That made it tough, even impossible, for her to eliminate cravings. She still thinks of desserts as a viable option when she’s stressed, and has to tell herself “no” each time. The individual “no” doesn’t always work.
But her health has been improving. Her energy has increased a lot. And that has provided enough encouragement and motivation to get her committed to quitting sugar altogether.
Nutrition geek that I am, that’s what I live for; it is, after all, all about the client.
by Joan Kent | Oct 19, 2015 | Health and Wellness
Your class participants deserve congratulations for caring about their health and wellness — and for getting started now. To help them prepare, here are the 3 biggest mistakes people make when starting a health and weight-loss program — and what you might advise them to do instead.[private PRO-Platinum|PRO-Monthly|PRO-Gratis|PRO-Seasonal|Platinum-trial|Monthly-trial|PRO-Military|30-Days-of-PRO|90 Day PRO|Stages-Instructor|Schwinn-Instructor|Instructor-Bonus]
MISTAKE #1: Thinking “Diet” Instead of Health
“Diet” is an outdated term for a temporary change in eating habits. From the start, the goal of a diet is to lose the weight so you can go off the diet and get back to eating “normally.” Which is probably what caused the problem(s) in the first place.
INSTEAD, suggest that they focus on health and think long-term. Fortunately, most people have abandoned the diet concept in favor of lifestyle and lifetime changes. Change what you eat — not just your portion sizes, not just your calories (I don’t care what anyone says). Suggest that they make changes gradually so they don’t feel as if they can’t wait to get back to their old habits.
MISTAKE #2: The All-or-Nothing Approach
What’s all-or-nothing with exercise? “I don’t have time for my cycling class, so I won’t work out today.”
What’s all-or-nothing with food? “I ate a cookie, so I blew it. I’ll start again on Monday.” (That can be really bad if it’s Tuesday — and they spend the week eating bags of cookies to gear up for Monday’s diet.)
INSTEAD, with exercise, think Better Than Nothing. Do whatever time allows. Won’t 15 minutes burn more calories than skipping their workout altogether? In fact, it’s a good idea — some say a better idea — to follow current thinking on high-intensity interval training. Plan a workout of, say, 10 or 11 minutes. Start with a short warm-up, followed by intense bursts of 30-45 seconds and 15 seconds of rest. Keep repeating till you’re done. (This was covered in a previous post last holiday season.)
With food, review Mistake #1. They’re in this for the long haul. What’s 1 cookie over the course of a lifetime? After a splurge, planned or not, go right back to healthful eating. Not next Monday, but now — or at the very next meal.
MISTAKE #3: Confusing Motivation and Enthusiasm
Which comes first — motivation or results? Often, people say motivation. How can you get results if you’re not motivated to start? Sure, there’s some truth in that.
But my first fitness job was to show new members how to use the equipment and begin their programs. Some were excited; others were resigned: “My doctor said I need to exercise to lower my blood pressure.” “My wife told me I have to lose weight.” Some were even resentful; they did not want to be there.
Yet once the members started to see results — lose weight, feel more energetic, sleep better, get compliments — they wouldn’t miss a day. They’d leave a pair of cross-trainers in the trunk because it messed up their plans when they forgot them one day. Sometimes results come first.
So what is motivation? Many people think it’s excitement, but that’s usually on a sliding scale.
The early A.M. gym crowd, for example, is pretty consistent. A man who’s at the gym most mornings once told me, “I didn’t want to be here today, but I said, ‘Gotta do it.’”
On any given day, many cycling class regulars probably feel exactly the same way.
INSTEAD, suggest that your participants take a more open approach:
– Accept love-it-hate-it feelings about exercise and eating better. One day, working on their health will feel great. Next day, they’ll hate it. Embrace the dichotomy.
– Prepare healthy meals while grumbling. Exercise with a scowl. Complain to anyone who’ll listen. No matter how much they didn’t want to do it, they’ll be glad they did.
– Redefine motivation as a neutral state. It’s not always enthusiasm, let alone excitement. If they did it, they were motivated.
Sometimes motivation is just planning, then getting where you have to be, doing what you need to do, and pushing through the obstacles that come up — so you can get the goal you say you want.
In keeping with that view, one of my favorite quotations comes from George Bernard Shaw, who said:
“Forget about likes and dislikes; they are of no consequence.
Just do what must be done. This may not be happiness, but it is greatness.”
Of course, I’m also partial to the short but effective Nike slogan: “Just do it.”
No one ever said, “Jump up and down with excitement first and then do it.” [/private]
