Preparing for the Holiday Season

Today I was looking at the calendar, and simply can’t believe the holiday season is nearly upon us.  Maybe it’s the lack of snow, but to me it feels like summer was just a couple of weeks ago.  I suppose it’s time to figure out a plan for the holidays, ie how to be at my healthy best during these sometimes troublesome months.  Here are a few tips to help you get ready for the upcoming season.

First, recommit yourself to your workouts.  Making sure they happen now will help you fit them in later.  Get them on your calendar and make those appointments with yourself happen.  You could even up the intensity a couple times a week, and fire up that fat burning machine.  As you know, your workouts will help with your stress levels, keeping your stress eating in check.

Next, ditch the Halloween candy.  It’s soooo tempting to have “just one or two, since they are so small.”  I’ve heard it before, and I know for me if it’s around, it’s much harder to resist.  No sense in sabotaging any progress you plan to make during November, right?

As far as your food, take a look at your New Year’s resolutions and goals.  You don’t have to wait for the calendar to change years to reevaluate your eating and make some adjustments.  Check your vegetable intake, sugars and protein amounts and confirm they are in line with your goals.  Again, getting back in the routine will help you when things get really crazy in a few weeks.

Get out your calendar, and fill it with everything you can right now, through the end of the year.  This includes your workouts, meal planning, grocery shopping, etc.  If it’s on the calendar, you may be more likely to fit it in, just like the parties, events for the kiddos and work deadlines.  You will also be able to figure out what days might be the best rest days for you, and plan those as well.  Planning ahead is critical in losing weight – wouldn’t that be something if you didn’t gain a pound, or even lost a few before the end of the year?

Plan now, and keep up with your workouts and healthy eating.  It will help once the holiday season officially starts and help keep you on track.  See you at the gym!

Clean Eating and Weight Loss

OK folks, it’s Monday and that means a whole new week for you to work towards your fitness goals.  It’s kind of like a do-over if you feel like you haven’t been great over the past week or weekend.  By now we know that diet is a key to your weight loss, so let’s take a look at a buzzword in being healthy: clean eating.

I searched and searched for some sort of formal definition for clean eating and couldn’t find an official one.  So I’ll discuss what the general idea is and what it may or may not include.  Clean eating typically results in weight loss and you’ll see why once I explain some of the details.

First, let’s look at what it includes.  Clean eating is eating fresh or unrefined foods, typically in five or six small meals throughout the day.  These fresh foods include produce such as fruits and vegetables, in an unrefined state ie not fried or processed.  Your small meals should include a lean protein, complex carbohydrates such as brown rice or oats, and heart healthy fats like avocado or almonds.  People who eat clean drink a ton of water.  The fewer ingredients in a food item, the better.  Label reading is big in clean eating, to ensure that minimal preservatives and additives are included in each food eaten.

Now let’s take a peek at what wouldn’t be considered clean eating.  Clean eaters avoid refined and processed foods.  Examples are refined sugars like soda, sugar, baked goods, white flour, and white rice.  The stereotypical junk foods and other high calorie foods are left out.   By this list, I’m sure you can see why this approach works well to help with weight loss.

Clean eating isn’t without its own struggles.  It takes more time and preparation.  Food labels need to be read.  Meals must be prepared, and often planned ahead of time to allow for grocery shopping and preparation.  It can mean more trips to the grocery store, since fresh items spoil quicker than canned or frozen items.  Cost is a factor as well, clean eating can be pricier in the checkbook than prepared foods.  For me, it’s worth the cost, since I notice a huge difference in my body, from higher energy levels to more efficient workouts and, yes, fat loss.

Clean eating is good for anyone, even if you don’t need to drop a few pounds.  If you are scared, try doing it a couple days a week and gradually add days as you go along. You’ll feel better!

What's In a Label?

Sorry I have been out of touch…I got some of the crud that’s going around and had to take it easy and recover. While I was sick, I found myself reading labels on my over the counter medications: what was the dosage, how much of what ingredient was in a tablet, how often to take them, any side effects that are possible, you get the idea.

I know most of us don’t give food labels this much attention, but perhaps it’s something we should consider. A food label can provide a considerable amount of information, which comes into play with a healthy lifestyle and weight loss.
First, it tells you how many calories are in a serving, and where those calories come from. It’s all a basic math equation, believe it or not. One gram of carbohydrate equals 4 calories, same for protein and one gram of fat is 9 calories. So, you can see how much energy the food will give you.

Next, what type of energy is it providing? Are the carbohydrates simple (sugary) or complex (think fibrous)? What percentage is the fat content? The answers to these questions are found in the label and the list of ingredients. If you look at the saturated fat content, it tells you the ratio of unhealthy to healthy fats. How much fiber is included in the carbohydrates? By reading the ingredient list, which are listed in descending order, keep an eye out for words that end in “-ose” such as fructose, lactose, sucralose, etc. These are all forms of sugar.

Here’s a little experiment you can do the next time you are in the grocery store: go to the canned fruit aisle. Take a fruit (fruit cocktail or peaches work great) and compare calories and ingredients between those in heavy syrup, light syrup and 100% juice.

Now, I don’t want everyone thinking that foods are horrible if they have a high fat content or some sugars in the ingredients. Balance and moderation is the key. Think of calories like the different grades of gasoline at the pump. If your body calls for premium grade gasoline (or nutrient rich, balanced foods), it functions best on that premium grade. You can choose the low (junk food) or mid grade, but you may not get the best performance and could feel sluggish.

Keep an eye on the labels and watch the scale and your mood change!!