Quick Holiday Eating Tips

It is said that you can gain as much as 10 pounds over the holiday seasoon.  That figure may be more exaggerated than the reality, however, many people I have encountered over the years report gaining as much as 5-7 pounds over the holidays. Most likely though, you would gain about 1-2 pounds that would actually stick.

In order to fight over-eating this holiday season, you must be proactive.  Here are few tips to help you get past the holiday gluttony:

Drink a Glass of Water before Eating - You're still going to eat high calorie foods, so you can limit the amount that you eat by drinking some water before your meal.

Eat From the Veggie Tray - A lot of times, you have food that is prepared to snack on before your meal. Eat from the veggie tray. Don't be concerned about dipping it either. It's a heck of a lot better than eating the stuffed mushrooms or eating the cheese balls.

Eat Your Breakfast - You're supposed to eat breakfast anyway. However, you still wait because of the amount of food that will be available later. Eat your breakfast and you will not gorge yourself at your holiday meal.  Study after study shows that breakfast eaters always consume less calories than non-breakfast eaters.  

Stay in the Habit of Exercise (or get in the habit) - If you are exercising, you can still get up and do some activity. Sometimes you eat because you are bored. Go for a walk, throw the football around with your kids (or grandkids), do anything that is active and safe. It will keep your mind away from food. As they say, "out of sight, out of mind."

Eat Small Amounts - Pick foods you really like, but don't get huge quantities. Get plenty of lean turkey, surround your plate with some veggies, then place small quantities of sweet potato casserole, broccoli casserole, bread and butter, etc. (don't mean to make you hungry.) Only get a small amount of dessert as well.

written by

Kelly Huggins, A-CPT

Exercise Science, B.S.

Fitness Together Fitness/Nutrition Coach

Void the Pitfalls of Food Reward!

Void the Pitfalls of Food Reward!

Many of your food behaviors stem back to childhood.  Though mama taught us to eat breakfast, she also gave us a plate of cookies with a glass of milk when you didn’t feel well.  When you made a good grade, you would take a trip to McDonald’s.  When you won a ballgame, you got ice-cream.  There always seems to be a time to celebrate or medicate with food.  This is destructive behavior.

Science also supports the notion that we create neuro-associations to food for reward, even when you’re not hungry.  This makes this behavior one of the most difficult to break, as you can find a means to reward yourself for accomplishments of which you normally would not reward.  Make sense?

For example, after a hard day at work, patting fires, and dealing with traffic, you finally make you’re way back home to end the day.  Then the little devil pops up on your your shoulder and says, “You worked really hard today! You should go get a greasy cheeseburger with fries and a shake," or it may say,  "Cupcake!”  Then the devil says, "just one more time!"  But, you know that little devil is you that's talking. The mental processes (what you're thinking) drives the physiological desire and vice versa.  You also know as well as I do that it's silly to reward yourself with something so trivial.  There's always going to be good days and bad days.  Save the celebrations.

By the way, it's also dangerous to reward yourself with food when you achieve weight loss or fitness goals too! Especially if you already have these behaviors, you will eventually find yourself going in reverse.

In order to break this negative behavior, you have to change your perspective.  In other words, you have to understand that every time you reward or treat yourself with food, you are actually punishing yourself.  When you do this, chances are you will have more bad days than good.  There are long-term consequences.  If you reward yourself with things that may actually help you relax without all the calories, chances are you will have more better days than good!

Here are some better ways to reward and de-stress yourself:

• Get a massage
• Watch a movie
• Play golf, go bowling, or play mini-golf
• Go for a run
•  Organize something, like your closet
• Listen to music
• Walk the dog
• Do some gardening

Understandably, you may not look at some of these things as rewards.  However, you have to change your attitude.  What you see in everyone of these tips is that there are no long term consequences.  If anything, you achieve a true reward.  One of the other benefits of these rewards is that it keeps your mind off of food (with exception of gardening, which is good food)!  

written by:
Kelly Huggins, A-CPT
Exercise Sci., BS
Fitness Together Expert Fitness/Nutrition Coach

September Nutrition Tip of Week 4: Try a new leafy green-Swiss chard

Did you know that alongside spinach, Swiss chard is one of the most nutritious leafy greens on the planet? Swiss chard is related to the beet, and is an excellent source of vitamins A, K, C and potassium. Easy to make, buy it fresh and simply remove the stalks, chop up the leaves and sauté with extra virgin olive oil and garlic.


http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/swiss_chard/

MYTH: Skip breakfast - Consume Less Calories

Just like mama told you, "breakfast is the most important meal of the day".


Don’t skip breakfast thinking you “save up your calories”. There is more to food than calories in versus calories out.  The interesting thing is multiple studies show that people who eat breakfast consume fewer calories than those who don’t.  By the end of the day, non-breakfast eaters become ravenous. You’re ready to mow down on a bag of chips or cookies, or pull over to your favorite fast food restaurant.  There are a few reasons for this; however, the main reason is related to regulating your blood sugar and insulin balance. 

The Insulin Connection

Any time you eat, you will increase your blood sugar.  As blood sugar (glucose) increases, you release insulin into the body.  If you go without eating until midday, your blood sugar levels decreases.  This is when you get to starvation mode.   Read- Understand your Hunger Level.

Because of other physiological factors that affect your emotional state, your judgment as to what you eat becomes impaired.  Instead of choosing fruits or vegetables, you’re prone to eat a processed carbohydrate that is high glycemic and possibly high in fat.  This puts you into a yo-yo eating pattern the rest of the day, as you release more insulin than what was needed.   You begin to dip back down below your blood sugar level.  This causes you to get stressed, maybe even get a headache.  To relieve the pain (whether emotional or physical), you go back to eating crap.  Forgive my French, but you know it’s true.

Want some research?  Go to MrBreakfast.com.  

Before I leave with, "you need to eat breakfast," you still have to eat a sound breakfast.  Pop-tarts and doughnuts with coffee is not a good solution!

Here are some tips about breakfast:

• Prepare-  Know what you’re going to eat the next morning before you get up.  You can go as far as preparing it the night before.  Moreover, you can make something like an egg dish with veggies in it and keep it in the fridge.  It could last you all week!
• Create a routine-  If you’re like me, I have a routine in the morning of taking a shower, etc.  A part of that routine is eating breakfast.  At first, it may be tough, but give it some time.  Eating breakfast will be like brushing your teeth.  
• Get up a little earlier-  Hitting the snooze button over and over is not going to make you feel any more rested.  So, you might as well get up.  If you’re not a “snoozer” then set your clock to wake up 15 minutes earlier and go to bed 15 minutes earlier.
• Get the right combination:  Include a starchy carb, a fibrous carb, and a lean protein. A traditional breakfast could be oatmeal (starchy carb) with vegetable omelet (veggies = fibrous carbs, eggs = protein).  Getting the right combination of food is vital for any meal to regulate blood sugar.
• Keep it easy-  Understandably, you may not have time cook in the evening or morning.  There are a lot of things you can do ranging from cereal to protein shakes.  

written by:

Kelly Huggins, A-CPT

Exercise Science, B.S.

Fitness Together - Fitness/Nutrition Coach

Understand your Hunger Level!

One of the most common mistakes people make is waiting to eat until you’re starving.  When you’re in this state, your judgment is going to be significantly impaired.  As the saying goes, “ready to eat a horse.”

Most likely though, you’re going to reach for something sweet like chocolate or ice-cream, or something salty like chips or crackers.  You don’t eat a little.  You eat a lot.

One key to preventing this is to eat while you’re moderately hungry.  Don’t wait till you’re starving.  The scale on the right gives you an idea of when you should eat.  You should stay between 3-7.  When you eat this way, you stay between 3-7.  However, if you allow yourself to go all the way to 1-2, you over do it and wind up at 8-9.  This causes a vicious cycle.  Remember, it’s okay to eat.  The more often you eat, the wiser choices you tend to make. 

Here are a few tips on hunger:

• Eat regularly-  Starting with breakfast, shoot for 3 meals with healthy snacks in between. 
• Have ready available, nutrient dense snacks-  Snacks should be nuts, trail mixes, fruit, dried fruit, carrots, protein bars, etc.
• Never buy groceries while hungry-  When you go to the grocery store on an empty stomach, rest assured, you’re more likely to buy on impulse.  When you buy on impulse, you usually buy comfort foods.
• Drink water-  Drinking water may not take away the craving you have at the moment, however, drinking water regularly throughout the day keeps you hydrated.  This decreases some of the physiological stresses you may incur, which in turn causes emotional/mental stress.

written by:

Kelly Huggins, NASM CPT CES, A-CPT

Exercise Science, Georgia State University

Fitness/Nutrition Coach

The Olympic Attitude!

When you think of the word attitude, what do you think?  In today's society, attitude is often referred to someone who didn't treat you with the best of courtesy.  However, attitude can be positive or negative.

To an Olympian, your attitude is simply a state of mind.  A state of mind of not just winning, but doing your best.

Peter Haberl, sport psychologist with the United States Olympic Committee in 2008 said, "Attitude isn't something you're born with.  Attitude is a decision."  All Olympians realize that there is a chance that they can't win.  They can't control that.  Everyone is going to try to do their best, so you must do the best you can if there is any chance for you to win.  Regardless, they have already suffered many defeats and victories in order to get as far as they did.   

This is so important to understand, even when you're not an Olympian.  Everyday, I talk to someone who wants to get fit.  Maybe, their goal is to lose weight, decrease blood pressure, or simply decrease the aches and pains they have in their joints.  With over 15 years experience, I can tell you that your attitude can make or break your outcome.  

If you're not honest with yourself and set expectations that are too high, your attitude will cause you to quit and give up.  However, if your attitude is to stay committed, consistent, write in your journal, and listen to your fitness coach, then your attitude can help you get through the most challenging of times.  You can't focus on just outcome.  You have to focus on doing your best.  You can never get angry with yourself when you're trying your best.  What's tragic is losing when you realize you didn't try your best.  

Below are some ways to improve your attitude, taken from ACEFitness.org with some modifications: 

• Set Performance-oriented Goals. Focus on goals that you can attain. Haberl suggests, for example, marking improvements in your performance from month to month. Strive for a little more each time. Then when you enter competition, focus on your performance rather than your finish.
• Find triggers or cues that help you stay focused on your performance during your competition. Then rehearse that plan in practice. Do what Olympic athletes do and visualize yourself going through the competition, focused on your triggers.
• Avoid Mixing Your Self-worth With Your Performance.  This is a danger many Olympians encounter, and Haberl often works with them to separate self-worth from their performance. "Putting the two together places tremendous weight on their shoulders and makes it difficult to compete," he says.
• Relive Your Best Performance.  Write down what you felt and thought. That's your blueprint for how you should capture that performance again, Haberl says. Refer back to it often so that you relive the experience rather than the outcome.  (This is very effective).
• Dump Your Ego (important when listening to your coach).  If not, you won't allow yourself to do things that make you look bad, and in the end, that avoidance will keep you from getting better. Tennis players, for example, who have a weak backhand might try to avoid hitting a backhand shot and run around the ball to hit a forehand because they don't want to look bad or lose. Do this and that backhand will never improve.
• Accept Temporary Letdowns as Normal  (don't dwell on them, but learn from them). Nobody's perfect. Know that you will have errors and mistakes.
• Laugh Often (laugh at yourself). When the going gets tough, the tough laugh, right? Take the negative out of the situation and find something to laugh about.

written by:

Kelly Huggins, A-CPT

Exercise Science, B.S.

Fitness Together - Fitness/Nutrition Coach

P.S.  Be sure to check our blogs weekly as we will continue to post more GREAT articles!

Can I Replace Water with Something Else?

Sometimes I get asked the question, "can I drink something other than water?"  Before I answer that question, let me present a case for drinking water.

When you observe other species of life, what source do they seek to hydrate themselves?  Answer:  Water!  


You will also notice that we don't have soda, sports drinks, or any other form of liquid flowing through rivers and streams, or falling from the sky.  It's water.  Water is the basis for life for most organisms on the planet.  Without it, we don't exist and you must drink it.

(Side Note: A person may present a case that the amount of water in food is sufficient enough for hydration.  I remember a guy on a radio show a few years ago presenting this case.  Unfortunately, the scientific basis for this is not very well supported.  Over 50% of the body is comprised of water.  Most of the water in food is used for motility and other aspects of metabolism.  There simply isn't enough water in food alone to sustain hydration.)

Usually when someone speaks against drinking water, it's because they don't like the taste.  As unfortunate as it may be, it's a reality that has occured in a post-industrial society.  At birth, we begin to train our chidren to drink Kool-Aid and juice (which is another problem because of sugar), which extends in to adulthood.  A little over a hundred years ago, you would have never heard anyone say, "I don't like the taste of water."

Obviously, you can detect my position on the matter.  However, if you need help drinking water, here are a few suggestions.  

1.  Combine water with a light amount of freshly squeezed lemon or lime.  This will help flavor it up a bit and provide some vitamin C.  (Nutrient Brief:  Lively Limes)

2.  If you like tea, it's okay to drink for hydration so long as it's not caffeinated and loaded with sugar.  Drink it unsweet.  The empty calories of sugar not only leads to health problems, but it can lead to a need for even more water (for very gram of sugar, 2.4 grams of water is needed to transport it).

3.  Sports drinks such as Powerade and Gatorade are okay, however, they are only necessary when large amounts of water is lost due to sweating (or gastrointestinal issues like diarhea).   These types of drinks have higher amounts of electrolytes and a light amount of sugar (usually high fructose corn syrup- blah!) to replace loss of nutrients during high intensity training.  Due to it's marketing power though, it has been sold as a "water replacer" or casual drink.  The original Gatorade was made by an exercise physiologist that combined orange juice, water, sodium, and potasium.  It wasn't made using food dye to color the water or high fructose corn syrup to sweeten it.  Recently, marketers have caught on to the public's perception of these drinks and created new products such as G2.  It's still just colored water that has been sweetened.  The Origin of Gatorade

4.  Water Powders such as Emergen C and Crystal Light also can be used.   However, if you don't like artificial sweeteners, you may want to keep these to a minimum.  Emergen C you should only use once a day.

More than anything, if you have a problem drinking water it is due to perception and habit.  You can drink water if you fully understand its value and if you make an effort at drinking it over other fluids.  Keep in mind, water is the original drink that has sustained humankind for millenniums.

written by:

Kelly Huggins, A-CPT

Exercise Science, B.S.

Fitness Together - Fitness/Nutrition Coach