If You're Serious About Losing Weight, You Must Keep A Journal

The key to successful, long-term weight loss is making healthy lifestyle changes, however, this needs to be combined with monitoring your energy intake and usage.  Most of us eat more than we think, and our foods contain much more calories, fat, sodium, etc... than we usually give them credit.  If you really want to lose weight, you must learn to keep track of what you eat and how much you exercise.

When I teach a college course in Introductory Nutrition, I have my students keep track of everything they eat for 3 days using a software program that computes their nutritional data.  When the students see what their diets are really like, they nearly cringe in their seats.  They are shocked to see how imbalanced their diets are, including various deficiencies in vitamins, minerals, and fiber, in addition to being surprised by how little, or how much calories and/or fat they are consuming. The same occurs with clients who first begin to keep food journals. 

Keeping a food journal, ideally with software that will compute the nutritional data for you, can be an eye-opening experience as well as a helpful tool to keep you within your recommended calorie range for weight loss.  Suppose you need to consume 1800 calories a day to lose 2 pounds per week.  If you keep track of your food, you can make wise decisions throughout the day about your food choices to ensure you stay at around 1800 calories.  Without tracking this information, it is easy to eat too much, or at the wrong times.

Keeping track of your food intake will not only keep you within the right calorie range for weight loss, it will also make you more aware of what you are eating and help you work towards eating a more balanced diet.  You would be surprised at how easy it is too consume too much fat, too little carbohydrates, or too much sodium.

I recommend using a journal program that is portable, such as one that you can use on your mobile phone or other mobile device, so that each time you eat something, you can input your food.  If you wait until the end of the day, you are almost sure to forget things you ate.  Try to record your foods immediately.  I often will do this while eating a meal at home and it helps me to decide whether or not I should eat more, should stop eating, or should eat something different.  

Which brings me to the next important point about food journaling, it isn't just for people trying to lose weight.  Everyone from time to time should do this just to make sure they are eating a well-balanced diet and bring consciousness to daily food consumption.

There are many programs on the internet that are great for helping you keep a food journal either for free or for a small cost.  If you're serious about wanting to lose weight, I highly recommend keeping a food journal and using it daily.  The more you use it, the easier it is to utilize.  

Eat Like a Queen for Breakfast, a Princess for Lunch, and a Pauper for Dinner

Many dieters (and non-dieters, too) have developed a bad habit from years of yo-yo diets; eating light throughout the day until 4pm when they are starving and make up for all the missed calories from the day, and then some.   Although it is hard, allow yourself to eat a filling breakfast and lunch.  In the long run, you will consume less calories later in the day (and evening), and will actually take in fewer calories, overall.

I know some are afraid to do this, because they are in the habit of eating a lot at night, and fear that having more calories at breakfast and lunch will just add to the normal calories.  This is NOT true (well, it doesn't have to be).  If you are not hungry throughout the day, you will be less likely to have night cravings or overeat,... really.  If you allow yourself to eat during the day, you won't treat 6pm like its your last meal. 

My suggestion if you are trying to lose weight is to keep a food journal, try MyNetDiary which is online and an iPad app, and monitor your daytime calories.  If you are too low early in the day, make yourself eat more (yes, really).  For example, assume you need to take in 1800 calories to lose a pound per week.  If you only had 200 for breakfast and 300 for lunch, you have made it through half the day on only 500 calories, leaving 1300 for the last meal!  Not good.  Try to re-distribute the calories so that maybe breakfast is around 400, lunch is 400, snacks are 100-200 each, and leave 600 for the remainder of the day.  Or something to that effect.

It will be a hard habit to break at first, but you will be much better off following the old nutritional saying, "Eat like a king for breakfast, a prince for lunch and a pauper for dinner". 

Losing Fat with Exercise Training, Despite Recent Trends in Women's Fitness

While good nutrition is key to any weight loss effort, exercise is equally (if not more) important.  One could argue that they are equally important because if you are not properly fueled, or within the right calorie range, the exercise portion will not be as efficient.  This is true.  However, exercise boosts the metabolism (while dieting can reduce it) and exercise causes hormonal processes to increase the efficiency of fat burning (there are no foods that do this, despite what you may hear).  If you diet, alone, you may lose some weight, but may also slow metabolism.  If you don't diet, but exercise properly (I'll get to this in a minute), you will lose weight and speed up your metabolism.  Nutrition and exercise need to work together for optimal health and weight loss.  But if you were running a contest, comparing the two alone, exercise would win (in my opinion). (Of course, I recommend both, though).

So it is surprising to me that when people need to lose weight, they always consider going on a diet before beginning an exercise program.  My best guess is that it appears easier to just change your eating habits than to start spending time each day going to the gym.  But for me, I would rather eat healthy, delicious foods all day, without being hungry, and sacrifice an hour a day at the gym, than to spend all day long thinking about how hungry I am.  

I can't stress enough the importance of exercise in weight loss efforts.  However, you must exercise properly.  In other words, you must work at a level that challenges your current fitness level.  Exercise needs to be fun and enjoyable enough for you to return to it each day, but if it is only fun, and lacks efficiency, it won't really help you lose weight.  

Over the past few years, I see this problem occuring in group exercise.  There appears, to me, to be a trend in group exercise being fun, but with little physical effort.  I have attended numerous classes where I didn't even break a sweat or even get my heart rate over 100 bpm, the entire hour.  People enjoyed the music and had fun, but the workout was so easy, it wasn't really a workout.  I'm not sure why this trend is occuring, but I'm not the only one to notice.  I recently bumped into a former collegue from my early days in group fitness and she noticed the same trend. 

If you are trying to lose weight, and you are smart to incorporate an exercise program, make sure you are challenging yourself enough to benefit.  You don't need to go crazy, and please stay within safety ranges, no one wants you to be injured.  But make sure you are sweating and getting your heart rate where it needs to be.  If you are not sure what that range is, please hire a fitness trainer.  They are worth their weight in gold.  For a $20 co-pay, you may get 10 minutes with a doctor who simply tells you to "eat better and exercise".  But for around $60 you can get a full hour with a qualified fitness trainer who will actually tell you how to exercise, what exercises to do, and will give you a program designed specifically for you (so that you can be an efficient exerciser).  Just always check for qualifications and make sure your trainer is educated (college, preferably), and holds a national certification (CSCS, AFAA, ASCM, NSCA).  

And if you attend group fitness classes, again, make sure you are getting a good workout.  If you're not sweating 15 minutes into the class, it's too easy.   Every instructor is different.  We each have a different style, personality, and class format preference.  If you have tried a class and didn't like it, don't assume all classes are the same, they're not.  You can love one class and dislike another.   Try out different instructors and find one that works for you.  

And above all else, exercise.  It's not only great for fat loss, but can be fun, and you feel great afterwards.

9-A-Day: Roasted Spaghetti Squash with Zucchini and Sun-Dried Tomato

Do you ever peruse the produce section and notice the wide variety of vegetables and then say to yourself "I have no idea what half this stuff is or how anyone would prepare it?" This thought is then followed up with the purchase of the same vegetables you eat week after week after week.....

So I came up with the idea that I would start doing some experimenting of my own and come up with easy recipes, that taste good (of course!!), involving all of those fruits and vegetables people typically avoid due to the "what is that?" factor.

Personally, I am a big fan of squashes, ANY squashes.  They are super easy to cook, full of vitamins, minerals, and fiber, taste sweet from their natural sugars, and can be prepared in a variety of ways.  So for my first "9-A-Day" recipe: Roasted Spaghetti Squash with Zucchini and Sun-Dried Tomato.

Ingredients:

1- Spaghetti squash, large

1- Zucchini, medium-size, quartered and sliced 1/4 inch thin.

1/3 cup Sun-dried tomatoes, chopped

1 TBSP Butter

Parmesan Cheese (fresh, preferably)

Salt and Pepper, to taste

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees.  Cut Spaghetti squash in half (lengthwise) and place in shallow cooking pan coated with a little olive oil spray.  Bake about 30-40 minutes (or until soft enough to easy shred inside with fork).

While the squash is baking, slice zucchini into quarter slices (about 1/4 inch thin) and chop sun-dried tomatoes.  Mix and set aside.

Remove squash from oven. Melt 1 tbsp of butter in medium saucepan and add zucchini and tomatoes (cook over medium heat).  Once squash has cooled for a few minutes, shred the inside with a fork and add squash to zucchini and tomatoes.  Once mixed and heated through, remove from heat.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Top with fresh parmesan cheese and serve.

A Different Kind of Bread: Sprouted Bread

Bread is often well liked by many, but for some, bread can make a person feel bloated, causing digestive discomfort.   Many people also note that if they consume too much bread, they have a more difficult time losing weight.  

Carbohydrates are healthy, but bread falls into a somewhat grey area.  It is dense with calories due to the small amount of water it contains (which is why a bagel at Dunkin' Donuts can have up to 400 calories!).  Bread offers a lot of calories, with little nutrition.  When consuming grain-based carbohydrates, ideally you want to get a good dose of naturally occurring vitamins, minerals, and fiber.  Bread, however, is often enriched (even if it is whole grain) and the fiber content usually comes from added fibers, not whole grain fiber.  In small doses, it is usually fine, but large amounts may add to weight gain due to the high amount of calories.

However, most of the American diet involves eating a lot of bread, and it is hard to completely remove it from one's diet (nor should you have to, remember moderation).  A possible alternative is to try sprouted bread.  Sprouted bread is different from enriched bread. Sprouted bread is allowed to germinate and "sprout", saving vitamins and minerals that are usually removed in the milling process of enriched breads.  It is made from the entire grain: the germ, bran, and endosperm, whereas enriched bread has the germ and bran removed, removing most of the vitamins and minerals.   Sprouted bread does not go through the milling process of converting grain into flour.  Therefore, sprouted bread is actually flour-less bread.  Sprouted bread can also be made from gluten-free sources, as well.

There are some who question sprouted bread, wondering if the sprouting process can cause harmful bacteria to grow.  However, I have not come across this problem or read of any cases of this actually happening.

Food for Life® is a company that sells sprouted breads and similar products.  You can find these products in the freezer section of the grocery store (often in the health food section, if located separately in the grocery store).  These breads must be kept in the freezer or refrigerator.

For more information or to see various sprouted bread products, visit, http://www.foodforlife.com/our-products/sprouted-grain.