Anyone looking for healthy snacks to stop sugar cravings
Anyone looking for healthy, sweet snacks
Anyone looking to avoid trips to the vending machine at the office
Anyone looking to keep blood sugar in check
Is sugar your kryptonite? It is mine. I could incorporate a pound of Swedish Fish, a bag of Reese's Mini Peanut Butter Cups and a few oatmeal raisin cookies into my daily diet and not blink an eye.
How does that sound? Awful if you ask me. The fact is that Halloween unofficially kicked off what some call "The Weight Gain Season".
A Cornell University study recently determined that "In the U.S., weight patterns begin rising at Thanksgiving and peak around Christmas and New Year's." 😳
Grandma was right, you need to eat your fruits and vegetables. When it comes to weight loss, though, starchy vegetables and stone fruits may not be the most effective allies for dropping pounds. Leafy and cruciferous veggies are the weight loss winners while berries and citrus fruits top the list in the fruit category.
Do you hear that noise? It's the buzz surrounding a recent study which indicates reducing your calories foras few as five days a month can reduce risk factors for aging, cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The nice bonus? Weight loss.
Summer is my absolute favorite time of year, food-wise. The produce is delicious and the heat lends itself to eating it.
The warm weather is also motivation to keep us in shape. Why? Wearing less clothing in warmer weather is incredibly motivating. The easiest thing to do? Go for a simple 20-30 minute walk after dinner, three to four times a week. Do this in addition to your normal workout routine. That extra calorie burn will make a difference over the summer.
With Memorial Day behind us, summer has unofficially started. Pools are open which, in turn, means bathing suit season is here.
Are you ready? Me? Sorta.
Innergy Fitness owner, trainer and nutrition expert Stephanie Hanson recently shared a few secrets with me to help us feel better during the summer months. You know the routine: we're wearing tank tops, shorts and bathing suits. We want to feel good about doing that. Stephanie's tips can help. They don't require any crazy weight loss regime, diet pills or ridiculous exercise program. They're along the lines of the smart, simple strategies that I have been preaching for years.
Most restaurant meals are absolute fat pills. You can eat an entire day's worth of calories in one sitting. Whether you dine out for work or leisure, there are a number of strategies that can help you survive eating in restaurants without blowing your diet.
I found a breath of fresh diet-advice air recently. It happened in the form of a New York Times article written by Aaron Carroll, a professor of pediatrics at Indiana State University School of Medicine titled "Simple Rules for Healthy Eating".
Carroll advocates the smart, simple approach to eating that helped me lose 50 pounds and keep it off for more than a decade. Here's the condensed version:
Perhaps it's because I have a tried a slew of fad diets (and failed) but I love diets. I enjoyed learning the history of them, the science behind them, the failure rate behind them. You get the idea. There's even a fun, new book by New York magazine writer Rebecca Harrington chronicling her adventures in celebrity dieting titled "I'll Have What She's Having, My Adventures In Celebrity Dieting". This book is heaven for a diet lover like me.
The History Of Fad Diets
The LA Times had a great feature this weekend on the history of fad diets, starting all the way back in 1825 when French gastronome Jean Brillat-Savarin introduced a low-carb regime called "The Physiology of Taste".
Since then fad diets have included eating all caribou and whale blubber (GAG), bananas and skim milk, food combining, the grapefruit diet and the Drinking Man's Diet (which is exactly what you think it is). They also include more popular ones like the Paleo Diet, the South Beach Diet and the Zone Diet.
The thing is that many of these so-called "fad diets" don't work because it's almost impossible to adopt these habits permanently. Think about it: can you eat only grapefruit forever? Or caribou? Can you go Paleo in perpetuity? Probably not.
You can do almost anything for a few days. That's why many of these fad diets take off initially. You drop a few pounds at the start and start feeling like a million bucks.
Then, reality sets in and you realize you can't eat only skim milk and bananas or diet bars or cabbage soup for the rest of your life. That's why "diets" don't work.
If you read this blog, you know how I feel about dieting: eat well, mostly real food (produce and lean meats), get moving most days of the week and enjoy it. That's a recipe for success. As for dietary approaches, I love the Mediterranean philosophy which emphasizes plant-based food, replaces butter with healthy fats like olive oil, uses herbs and spices to flavor foods, limits red meat, advocated red wine and dark chocolate in moderation.
Your Fad Diet Experiments
Have you experimented with fad diets? I would love to learn about your crazy diet experiences, what worked and what didn't. Please share your diet disasters and success stories in the comments section. Don't worry. This is a judgement-free zone.
When I was fat, I tried the Zone & Atkins (hated them both). It wasn't until I made permanent changes, like closing the kitchen after dinner, that I experienced real weight loss. Want to learn how I did it? Get my free guide "The 10 Easiest Diet Tips: Simple Secrets To Help You Lose Weight & Maintain Your Weight Loss For Good". It's yours when you sign up for the The Real Skinny, my weekly newsletter that features simple diet and fitness tips designed for busy people who live in the real world, not fantasy-diet-land.
There are few things I love more than a huge bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal. Seriously. The cinnamon-y sugar goodness on top of those little squares is better than, well...you know...a lot of things.
The thing is, a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch (or just about any other cereal, for that matter) can do more diet damage than good.
Here are 3 reasons why cereal makes us fat:
1. We don't stick to one serving size. Who does? I don't. A serving of Cinnamon Toast Crunch is only 3/4 of a cup. Really? NO ONE eats only 3/4 of a cup. It's more like two cups. That's serious damage: 325 empty calories and 22 (!) grams of sugar, without even adding the milk. Try eating your cereal with a teaspoon, instead of a tablespoon and out of a coffee cup instead of a bowl to trick your mind you're eating more. (Tweet this).
2. We add too much dried fruit and other crap. Craisins, raisins, dried apricots and the like can all be fat pills. They have barely any water which means they're dense in calories. While nuts are great, don't go too far. Add a few, not a handful. Use fresh fruit to get the benefit of more fiber and water content to help fill you up. Try higher-fiber and lower calorie berries. Half a cup of raspberries, for example, have 4 grams of fiber.
3. We eat kids cereal. There's a reason I don't keep Cinnamon Toast Crunch in the house: I would eat the whole box. These children's cereals provide a ton of sugar but little nutritional value. Kinda scary, actually. Look for cereals with fewer than 5 grams of sugar. Or make this oatmeal with peanut butter, apples and cinnamon. Delicious.
Why I Gave Up Breakfast Cereal
I gave up breakfast cereal about 15 years ago. Not coincidentally, I believe, I lost weight. I have no "off button" when it comes to breakfast cereal. I can't stop eating it, that's why I rarely eat Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Even when I'm trying to be "healthy" and have something like Fiber 1 or Kashi Go Lean, I usually end up eating two bowls of it and, you know what, I'm hungry a few hours later. Cereal is not a satiating food. In my opinion, it's a fat pill (Tweet this).
When you're eating breakfast, get some protein in the mix, whether it's eggs, whey protein powder, nut butter, low-sugar/high-protein yogurt or lean meat. Protein takes longer to digest than carbohydrates and keeps you full longer.
I love two scrambled eggs with salsa and spinach with a side of berries or a green smoothie with whey protein powder (make it with two handfuls of spinach or kale, half a banana and whatever berries you or other fruit you have on hand). When all else fails, I'll grab a few hard boiled eggs (boil a half dozen of them at the beginning of the week). If you can't give up your cereal, here are some low-sugar cereal options.
Do you like cereal or are you like me and try to keep out of the house? I'd love to know what your favorite breakfast is. Let me know in the comments section.
Get my free guide, "The 10 Easiest Diet Tips: Simple Secrets To Help You Lose Weight & Maintain Your Weight Loss For Good". It's yours free when you sign up for The Real Skinny, my weekly newsletter that shares super simple diet and fitness tips like this one.
Eggs and coffee can be part of a healthy diet. Whoo-Hoo!
Coffee and eggs are hip. In a big, fat healthy way.
The U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services assemble experts every five years to study and recommend dietary guidelines. Why? Because it's a dynamic thing. Scientists and experts are continually studying and learning new data. New dietary guidelines will be released at the end of 2015 but preliminary recommendations were released on Thursday.
Among the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee's recommendations:
Eggs Are Ok - experts say that dietary cholesterol is "not considered a nutrient of concern for overconsumption". In English - don't be so worried about the cholesterol in egg yolks or shrimp, for that matter.
Coffee Is Cool - between 3-5 cups of coffee per day can be a part of a healthy diet and can actually reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Don't add extra calories with tons of milk, cream or sugar. Out on coffee? Drink green tea.
Watch Added Sugar - added sugar should be no more than 200 calories a day. Average Americans are getting about 268 calories from added sugar right now. These are completely empty calories.
While You're At It, Watch The Salt - stay under 2300 milligrams per day. This can add up quickly.
Eat A Plant-Based Diet - duh. We know we need to do this.
Get my free guide, "The 10 Easiest Diet Tips: Simple Secrets To Help You Lose Weight & Maintain Your Weight Loss For Good". It's yours free when you sign up for The Real Skinny, my weekly newsletter that shares super simple diet and fitness tips like this one about the wonders of, what else, coffee.
As always, take all this advice to heart but check with a trusted medical professional if you plan on making significant dietary changes. Image via Justin Leibow
For the first time in about a year, I had tall a Starbucks Skinny Vanilla Latte on Monday. It tasted like a warm hug on a cool Beaver Creek day. It was the perfect balance of sweet and toasty with a nice touch of cinnamon. It was heaven in a cup.
There's a reason, though, it was the first one I had in a long time: consuming lattes regularly, even skinny ones, can be a fat pill.
Learn how I lost 55 pounds and kept it off for more than a decade!
80% of my friends, girls AND guys, are on diets at any given time. They hate them. They stress over losing weight. They're miserable. They're making their spouses and significant others miserable, too.
Dieting doesn't have to be hard. Really.
By implementing simple changes, like the two-bite rule, you can save calories which will help you lose weight and maintain your weight loss for good. These tricks are designed for the long haul, not losing 10 pounds in a week. They're ridiculously easy tricks you can do the rest of your life without going crazy.
How do I know? I use one or two of them every day. They helped me lose more than 55 pounds and keep them off for more than a decade.
Learn The Secrets To Effortless Weight Loss & Maintenance
So I wrote an ebook: "The 10 Easiest Diet Tips: Simple Secrets To Help You Lose Weight And Maintain Your Weight Loss For Good".
There is no food combining, disgusting diet powders or whacky MLM scheme involved in this book. It's simply a list of the easiest diet tips that can help you reach your goals whether you want to lose five pounds or 50.
It's yours free when you sign up for The Real Skinny, our digest of diet and fitness updates designed for people who have real lives in the real world. No trainers or personal chefs required (not that there's anything wrong with that).
I hope you had a great weekend. Full disclosure: I have been dieting like a mad bitch for a photo shoot today. The nice thing about the diet (which I will detail in an upcoming post) is that I really haven't craved anything. I have been a bit of recluse, though, and avoided going out to dinner all week. I am a night eater and didn't want to be tempted.
Here are a few things that caught my eye. Hope they help you have a healthier week!
Fasting 12 hours a day can help you lose weight. I try to do this most days of the week (think 5) and it is so much easier than you would think. Eat dinner before 7pm, have breakfast after 7am. That tends to be the most manageable window in the real world. If you need to eat a bit later, try to do it before 8pm and eat your breakfast after 8am.
Dr. Oz has a new diet plan: the Total 10 Rapid Weight Loss Plan. On it you ditch coffee for hot lemon water (the bitterness of the lemon stimulates bile flow which helps emulsify and remove fat-soluble toxins, according to Dr. Oz - Tweet this), eat protein in the morning (smart!) and two healthy snacks a day are allowed (think kale chips, lentils and almond butter quinoa balls).
Make 2015 the year you make it happen. Whatever your "IT" is.
For many of my friends and family, gaining control of their weight and overall health is a priority. For me, staying the course is the goal but that's never easy. I am a recovering a fat girl and and am always a Golden Corral buffet away from my orca phase.
The thing is, whether you're at your ideal weight or fitness level or still trying to get there, your health should be one of your top priorities. If you do not have a healthy body and spirit, nothing else matters (Tweet this). Simply put:
If you don't have your health, you don't have anything.
We know that resolutions, many times, fail. I prefer not to think in terms of resolutions for a new year but in goals. It's scientifically proven that writing down goals helps you achieve them.
Be Realistic
Don't put too much pressure on yourself. We're all human. There will be days that we eat too much candy or miss a workout. We will yell at people we love and feel fat. We WILL get off track. The key is to jump right back on when we do get off track. Little missteps are a part of life. It's how we rebound from them that help define us.
Get Easy Diet & Fitness Tips In 2015
Looking for extra motivation this year? Sign up for The Real Skinny. You will receive smart, practical advice that you can use in the real world (like THIS ONE) to help you reach your diet and fitness goals.
Share Your Goals
Please share some of your 2015 goals in the comments section. I would love to learn what you have in store this year. Check back on Monday. I will share my 2015 goals worksheet.
Are you resolving to finally lose that unwanted weight in 2015? Don't wait until January 2015 to begin. Start now to jumpstart your new year's resolution. It serves two purposes:
It gets you mentally ready to prepare for your weight loss journey.
It works. You WILL lose weight. Bonus!
This is one of the world's easiest diet tips and you won't even feel like you're dieting. You don't have to starve, over-exercise or avoid certain foods. All you have to do is this: leave two bites on your plate at lunch and dinner.
Here's How To Do It
Enjoy both lunch and dinner but leave two substantial bites on your plate during those last two meals of the day. Don't leave baby bites. Leave two solid, full-fork bites.
Simple is that. The thing is, this works.
By leaving two big bites on your plate at lunch and dinner, you will save roughly 100 calories a day (Tweet this). If you start today you can cut about 700 calories by January 5th. Not a ton, but it's a step in the right direction and helps you get ahead of the game when you start that weight loss journey for real.
Now, if you're eating spinach and broccoli for lunch and dinner, that's a different story. But if you enjoy a sandwich and chips for lunch and pasta, steak or some other big meal for dinner, this tip is for you.
A Few Calories Here & There Add Up To Serious Weight Loss
Those little caloric savings add up. If you do this every day, you will shave about 36,000 calories over the course of the year. That's 10 pounds, friends. Without even trying! If you do it only five days a week, you will lose about seven and a half pounds in a year.
Get Simple Diet & Fitness Tips In 2015
This is one of the easiest diet tips ever. There are more. Tons of them. Do you want them? Looking for extra motivation this year? Sign up for The Real Skinny. You will receive smart, practical advice that you can use in the real world to help you reach your diet and fitness goals.
Me, circa 1999, close to 200 pounds
Why am I an expert? Friends, I'm a recovering fat girl. At one point in my life, there wasn't a Golden Corral buffet I didn't love. I have lost more than 50 pounds and kept it off for a decade. Most importantly, I know how to do it while juggling work, studies, parenting and other aspects of our chaotic lives that can derail even the most dedicated dieter.
I have been there....and am fighting to the good fight every day to avoid going back there.
Sharing 2015 Goals. What's Yours?
Are you trying to lose weight in 2015? Share your goals in the comments section. Publicly stating your intentions keeps you accountable.
Me? I want bikini abs. That's all. A stomach that won't embarrass me while wearing a bikini. That's my goal. I'd love to hear yours.
After an indulgent trip to Paris where, as usual, I lost weight living on cheese, chocolate and wine (granted I did walk about eight miles a day and eat small portions) it was time to return to the gym. I had done some light weightlifting on my own but nothing too regimented. This past Saturday I took one of exhale's Core Fusion Barre Basic classes, my 56th of the year but first in a few weeks. I felt like I was taking it for the very first time.
Core Fusion Barre Basic may sound like an easier version of an Open class. That couldn't be further from the truth. The movements are targeted, tiny and effective. Each time I take one of these classes, it is challenging. I was sore the next day, in a good way. In fact after Saturday's class, I am still sore on Monday.
Core Fusion Barre Basic Movements
In Core Fusion Barre Basic, you will do movements for both the upper and lower body with an emphasis on glutes and thighs. You will use a combination of light weights as well as your own body weight.
After a three to five minute warmup, you will spend about seven to 10 minutes doing a variety of weighted movements for your arms, shoulders and back with a quick set of pushups thrown in. The movements are rapid and deliver a good burn, despite the light weight.
For the last 15 minutes, you will focus on your abs after a quick set of bar pullups. The ab work combines rollups, planks, leg lifts and extensions. For me, the ab work rarely burns in class but I usually feel it the next day.
You always finish with a good stretch, something I love. I could spend an extra 15 minutes stretching at the end of class. I feel like that's something I always need.
There is not a heart-pumping cardiovascular component to this 60-minute class like there is in exhale's Core Fusion Cardio Barre class (read my review HERE). Taking that into account, I rarely feel like I need to do cardio on days when I do a Core Fusion Barre Basic class. I consider it "enough" of a workout.
The Gear
You can wear pretty much anything to Core Fusion classes. I recommend yoga pants/leggings simply because shorts tend you leave you a little, um, exposed. Grip socks are mandatory to keep you from slipping on the wooden floor.
The Takeaway
exhale's Core Fusion classes are never routine. The class size is small enough that the instructor can deliver individual attention to you. Sometimes you love it because it helps you perform a movement properly. Most times, candidly, I hate it because it makes the movement infinitely more difficult. That's what you want, though, because these classes deliver results. The movements target those tiny muscles which truly give your body a lift in the areas that need it.
Core Fusion classes are always a challenge, no matter how experienced you are with this type of exercise. That's a good thing.
With the indulgent holiday season up on us, a number of my friends are planning juice fasts to "get rid of the toxins" they consumed in November and December. Heck, after having wine at just about every meal in Paris, Lord knows my liver needs a break.
I love a good juice fast as much as the next person. It can help you drop a few pounds quickly and are a good way to get a large amount of nutrients efficiently. I have a green juice three of four times a week. As for the whole "ridding our bodies of toxins" thing, I am not so sure. Scientists have repeatedly said that a quality, produce-heavy diet does the job.
Dr. Linda Lee, the Director of John Hopkins Integrative Medicine and Digestive Center in Maryland, tells the Wall Street Journal that the term "cleanse" is nothing more than a marketing tool and there is no science to prove that fasting cleanses the system.
That marketing is working. Sales of "superpremium juice" was more than $1.4 billion in 2013, up from $1 billion in 2010.
This is a situation in which you need to do what works for you. Will your body be free of the damage caused by a month-long feast of champagne, cheese, steak and indulgent desserts with a 10-day cleanse in January? Probably not. Will you drop a few pounds? Likely. Will that make you feel better about yourself? If so, go for it but be smart and do your homework.
Finding Juice Fasts That Work For You
There are a TON of juice fasts to choose from. I have done the Blueprint Cleanse, Suja Juiceand a variety of my own. Prepared fasts are expensive which is why I enjoy making my own juice. That, however, can be labor intensive and messy. Gilt City always has sales on juice fasts. They're currently offering deals on American Juice CompanyandOui Juice. Bliss is also offering the Joule Body Cleanse, which I have done in the past, too.
I use a Breville Juicer and make my own recipes adapted from a variety of books I have read over the years. The 3-Day Cleanse is a good one.
Are you a juicer? Are there any juice fasts you swear by and love?
