What to do?

People ask me tons of questions about eating. What is the perfect breakfast? Do I need breakfast? What should I eat to lose weight? What should I eat to gain muscle? How often should I eat? How much should I eat?

I could go on for hours trying to answer these questions. Eating to be healthier is really quite simple. Here are a few tips:

1. Eat Intuitively: eat when you are hungry, stop when you are full. While you can "live to eat" the most important thing is to "eat to live." While something might taste good, when you are full you should stop - is that overstuffed feeling really worth it? Granted, this is easier said that done (I know from many personal experiences), the more you do it, the easier it becomes.

2. Eat at home: I strongly believe that our desire to eat out all of the time is why our country is so obese. A dinner out once and a while is fine but most Americans eat out multiple times a week. When you eat out you have no control over what goes into the food or how much food you are getting. When the waitress shows up with the over-sized double cheeseburger and unlimited fries, you are bound to violate recommendation number one. We seem to think that eating out is quicker than making a meal at home, but by the time you get to the restaurant, review the menu, order your meal, and wait for the food to come, about 40 minutes has passes and you could have made about 1/2 of the items on this blog.

3. Eat like your grandparents did: Although the media has come to tell us that things like steak and potatoes are "bad" for us they are not. Look at our grandparents - they were not all overweight in the 1940s and 1950s. But how could this be...they ate things like cream, and butter, and red meat, and potatoes??? They did not over indulge like we do today, they were more active, and they ate food that was closer to its natural source. They didn't eat processed and breaded chicken patties from the local supermarket or a burger with a brat patty on it covered in cheese (yes, this is available at Curly's Pub at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, WI). They ate chicken and steak from the butcher. Sure they put butter on their potatoes, but they didn't have over-sized potatoes covered with 2 TBSP of butter, 1/4 cup of sour cream, a handful of bacobits, and 2 ounces of cheddar cheese.

4. Exercise: While this has nothing to do directly with eating, it is important. It is as simple was walking for 10 minutes 3 times per day. We don't move around enough in our super-connected world. Why would we need to? We could work from our desk at home and have the local grocery store deliver our food. We can drive anywhere and can even get food brought to our car so we never have to move our legs. We have become obsessed with convenience and feel there is not enough time in the day to exercise. Looking at the big picture, wouldn't you prefer to prevent a plethora of diseases by sacrificing 30 minutes of TV and going for a walk with the family?

These three recommendations are things most people know but do not want to hear. Many people I talk to want to hear that they can eat fast food and not exercise but still loose weight and look like a celebrity. The reality is that it takes some time to break away from the norm of fast food and a sedentary lifestyle. If you are overweight, it will take some time to reach a healthier weight - how long did it take for you to get where you are? I am guessing it wasn't overnight. You may never reach what medicine calls a "healthy weight" because of the changes that have occur ed to your body over the years (if you want to know more about this feel free to email me or leave a comment and I will get back to you) but you can be healthier than you are. I promise that if you do the things above you will lose weight and feel better.

These pictures are of a dinner Jason and I had for Valentines Day. Sure, we could have spent $60 for dinner and wine for two on this special holiday, but we chose to make dinner together and eat at home. We bought good steaks from the local butcher and a nice bottle of wine. We also made a simple salad with dried cranberries, and some sauteed green beans with slivered almonds. I can guarantee that this meal was healthier and cheaper than any meal we would have got at a restaurant, and making it was half of the fun!

Everyone has the power to be healthier. It just takes a little direction and a lot of motivation. At first it is difficult and almost unconventional, but after a short while it is extremely satisfying knowing that you are treating your body the way it was suppose to be treated.

[Notice that I did not mention that in order to be healthy you must be a vegetarian or eat organic. Neither of these are required and the latter is becoming more of a trend that what it was originally intended to be. If you have the money and desire to purchase organic I highly recommend that you do this by purchasing local organic. Organic was created from the sustainability/green aspect. When you purchase organic at the store you are still putting money into big business and there are still tons of emissions going up into the air when the plane flies the produce from southern CA to northern IL. Instead, try to support local agriculture by purchasing food from your local Farmer's Market.]

Low-carb diets

To go along with the theme, I figured I would try to post about specific diets. I can't guarantee that my subsequent posts will also be about diets, but they may be. My parents have returned to the South Beach Diet and just finished phase one on Mother's Day. The Atkin's Diet is similar to the South Beach diet, but from what I have read, the South Beach Diet is more focused on lean protein, whereas the Atkin's Diet is more focused on any protein (including lots, and lots of bacon). Regardless, there are some things to keep in mind when it comes to low-carb, high-protein diets.

As I said in my last post, diets don't work - yes, they work at initial weight loss, but if the habits are not sustainable, they will not work to keep off weight long term. Calories are calories and excess calories are stored as fat, regardless of what kind they are.

While our country is obsessed with the number on the scale, there are many other better biomarkers that help us judge our health. Research has shown that diets high in saturated and trans-fat can increase "bad" cholesterol (LDL) and decrease "good" cholesterol (HDL).

• Foods like bacon, sausage, brats, and ground beef are all high in saturated fat. These foods are the foods many people are excited to be able to eat when going on the Atkin's diet, so while you may lose weight on the Atkin's diet, you may actually be less healthy.
• It is inconclusive as if whether eating cholesterol really affects our cholesterol levels - I do not think that it plays as large of a role as saturated and trans-fat do. However, where there is cholesterol, there is often saturated fat, so by cutting down on saturated fat you may be indirectly cutting down on cholesterol.

100-150 grams of carbohydrates are required daily to supply energy to the brain. Yes, you can survive for a few weeks on a limited carbohydrate diet, but your body will not be happy with you if you go any longer.

Protein is made up of two parts: an amino group that is used for protein synthesis and a carbon skeleton that is used for energy, fatty acid synthesis, and cholesterol synthesis.

• Our bodies need a minimum of 30 grams per day for synthesis. When the protein is broken up, the amino group (N) is used by organs. When we consume more protein than we need, the excess N is sent to the kidneys to make urea, which is excreted in the urine. When there is a lot of urea, it can be difficult for our kidneys to handle and over time can actually cause damage.
• After the N is removed and the carbon skeleton is left, the carbon skeleton is used for energy, or to make fatty acids, ketones (which some organs can use for energy), or cholesterol. Regardless, once our needs are met, the carbon skeleton will be stored as fat.

Not all carbs are created equal. There are complex carbohydrates and simple carbohydrates

• Simple carbohydrates are sugar. Natural sugars (like what is in an apple) are actually very healthy. Yes, they are sugar, but they contain fiber which help decrease absorption and increase satiety.
• Simple carbohydrates that should be consumed in moderation are those that are added to foods (i.e. fructose, high-fructose corn syrup, granulated sugar). These are quickly absorbed and can cause spikes in blood sugar followed by rapid crashes. When these are in high-fiber foods, the spike in blood sugar is not as pronounced as when they are in refined flour products (i.e. cakes and cookies).
• Complex carbohydrates are those that have longer chains, which means they take longer to be absorbed. Fiber is an excellent complex carbohydrate that promotes weight loss. There are two kinds of fiber (soluble and insoluble) which I won't get into now. Regardless,they are both good for you and when you eat them with a meal they create bulk that helps fill you up sooner. This can also decrease the absorption of sugars and food, helping your feel fuller sooner.

Remember, our bodies are smarter than we will ever be. If you are going to do a low-carb diet to get a jump-start on your new healthy lifestyle then I would suggest to meet with a dietitian. I personally do not agree with the first two weeks of these low-carb diets because they are restrictive and I do not think we should be restrictive with our eating. However, the emphasis on vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and lean meats in the second and third phases of the South Beach Diet are positive messages. I believe the third and fourth phases of the Atkin's diet also bring these into play, so this is also positive.

Remember, our health is what is important, not the number on the scale. Always think about the big picture and figure out how you can make a positive lifestyle change that is sustainable.

Here is the carb count of some common foods:

• 1 baked potato: 43 grams
• ¼ cup dry brown rice (½ c cooked): 35 grams
• 1 slice whole wheat bread: 22 grams
• Banana: 27 grams
• 1 cup Reduced fat chocolate milk: 26 grams
• 1 cup Corn, frozen: 25 grams
• 1 apple: 19 grams
• ¾ cup sweet potato: 18 grams
• ½ cup red potatoes: 18 grams
• 1 cup skim milk: 12 grams
• ½ cup peas: 11 grams
• ¼ cup cashews: 11 grams
• 1 cup strawberries: 11 grams
• 2/3 cup red onions: 7 grams
• 2 tbsp peanut butter: 6 grams
• ½ cup carrots: 6 grams
• 2/3 cup green beans: 6 grams
• ¼ cup peanuts: 5.5 grams
• 1 ½ cup lettuce, romaine: <3>
• 2/3 cup zucchini: <3>
• ¼ cucumber: <3>
• 1 oz mozzarella cheese: <1>

Addendum: I forgot to mention that it is not physically possible to lose 15 pounds of body mass in 2 weeks. You must burn 3500 calories to lose 1 pound, so you would need to burn 52,500 calories in 2 weeks to really lose 15 pounds. What is happening is your body is breaking into your glycogen stores for energy. Glycogen is the carb store in your body. When glycogen is broken down for energy, water is released. This is where most of the weight loss comes from. This would be detrimental for an endurance athlete, because glycogen as the energy source used during cardio exercise.

Diets

It has been so long since I have posted that I am at a loss of words. There are so many nutrition and health topics I would love to write about but cannot seem to put them together into a concise and engaging post. Today is my third attempt at posting this week - I think the feeling that I need to do this was making it more difficult that it needed to be. Regardless, I know it gets easier with time, so today I will begin.

I will start with diets.

First off, "diets" do not and will not ever work. When Americans talk about going on a diet, they are talking about a short-term fix to lose weight. They say it is also to make them healthier, but this could be debated. Only eating grapefruit, taking metabolism boosting medications, and consuming countless pills that are not tested for safety by the FDA are all just a few of the tactics people employ, all of which are less than healthy for our bodies. Are you one of these people who is currently on a diet or thinking about starting one?

What is it you want to get our of your diet?
...to lose weight?
...to look good in a swimsuit?
...to reduce their % body fat (this is different than losing weight)
...to lower their cholesterol?
...to improve their blood glucose control (HgbA1C)
...to lower their blood pressure?


Regardless of what you want, going on a diet is not the answer. The answer is making permanent lifestyle changes, which includes changing your diet, not going on a diet. When you say you are going on a diet it implies that it is short term. The problem with this is that once you stop you will likely end up back where you were; depending how restrictive your diet was, you may even end up with more weight than you started with.

The key is to make changes that you can keep forever - if you can keep the lifestyle forever, you can keep the weight off forever.

Last spring I wrote a comprehensive weight management program, encompassing many of the principles described in the American Dietetic Association's Position Paper on Weight Management. It has yet to be implemented (I do hope to implement this once I have established myself as a Registered Dietitian), but through the research process I learned a great deal about dieting and the weight loss process. In the past, I was the person who thought, "Why is it so hard for people to lose weight? All they need to do is eat less and move around more and they will shed pounds like a dog sheds hair after the winter." I soon realized that weight loss is much more complex than we think.

There is a strong psychological component that drives people to eat given certain triggers. It also causes people to feel hopeless with one mistake. American's have an "all or nothing" mentality, so one slip-up (i.e. eating a small bowl of ice cream) often results in immense regret and feeling of failure, followed by a submission to desire (i.e. eating the entire carton of ice cream, out of the carton). While this doesn't happen to everyone, it does happen to many people. If you are one of these people, I strongly suggest you talk to your doctor about a referral to a psychotherapist specializing in disordered eating or emotional eating - it could literally save your life.

There is also a strong physiological component that drives us to gain weight. Back in the day, before we had warm houses and Old Country Buffets, we didn't have much. In order to survive, we needed to hold on to all the energy we could in order to survive the cold winters and countless days without food (fat is great for this). Our bodies were programed to decrease our metabolism when we were in famine to preserve the fat mass we did have. This is very similar to restrictive dieting. At first we will lose countless pounds and will feel on top of the world. However, after a few weeks or months (depending on the person) we will start to plateau. We wonder what is going on - we are doing everything we were doing before and now we are not losing weight; in fact, we are gaining some! We start to blame it on that one potato chip we ate, or that 5 minutes we had to cut out of our workout last week. However, these things are not the reason for the sudden halt in weight loss. The reason is your body has realized it is being starved and it doesn't know when it will get the food it needs again, so it is going to slow down and hold on to everything it can. If this is you, please do yourself a favor and go to see a REGISTERED DIETITIAN (RD) who can help you plan out a healthy weight loss regime. This will likely include a small reduction in calories daily, along with daily exercise, and gradual weight loss of up to 10% of your body weight for 6 months. You will then be instructed to maintain (yes, maintain) your weight for the next 6 months. This prevents your body from going into starvation mode, readjusts your metabolism, and ensures you have the skills you need for long term weight loss.

Over 50% of Americans want to lose weight, most of whom would like to lose it over night, but that isn't possible - how long did it take to get to where you were when you decided you needed to change? Likely it was years in the making. Rome wasn't built in a day, but instead, slowly and precisely to ensure a strong, beautiful masterpiece. Weight loss is something that takes time, but when done properly can help you reclaim your life.