Food for Fun and Thought

No Seconds: Here’s A Useful Tip

January 16, 2013 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Do you skimp on putting food onto your plate thinking that it will keep your calorie count down?

What happens? You eat the skimpy portion – decide you’re still hungry – and then go back for more.

If the serving dishes are right in front of you there’s potential for making caloric matters much worse.

Get Those Serving Dishes Off The Table

If you want to make it a little easier for yourself to save on calories, one thing you can do is to get those serving dishes off of the table. According to an article in the May 2011 Nutrition Action Healthletter, when serving dishes are left on the table men eat 29% more and women 10% more than when those serving dishes stay on the counter.

Why?

It’s harder to mindlessly shove food into your mouth if you have to get up to get it. Sticking out your fork and shoveling more onto your plate while your butt remains firmly planted in your chair makes it far too easy to refill your plate without much thought about the quantity of food that’s going into your mouth.

According to the article, men chow down on more servings than women because they tend to eat fast — impatiently gobbling food while they wait for everyone else in the family to finish. As a result, they end up eating seconds and thirds while other people are still on firsts. Women usually eat more slowly so they’re not as likely to get to the seconds and thirds.

Pay Attention To What Goes Onto Your Plate

To help avoid the temptation of going back for seconds:

figure out a reasonable portion of food that is within reason but not so skimpy that you’re no where near satisfied when you’re finished
fill your plate with that portion from stove or from serving dishes on the counter
eat and enjoy knowing that you’ve selected a healthy meal that’s satisfying but neither too skimpy nor too large.

This article is part of the 30 day series of blog posts called: 30 Easy Tips for Looser Pants and Excellent Energy.

Slow Down You Eat Way Too Fast

January 13, 2013 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Do you wolf your food down so quickly that it’s gone before you realize you’ve eaten it all – and then you’re still hungry and staring at an empty plate?

Mothers around the world often say the same thing: slow down and chew your food. Well, what do you know, there’s something to it.
According to an article in the New York Times, studies show that people who eat quickly eat more calories than they would if they ate a bit more slowly. The people who ate more slowly also felt fuller.
A recent study showed that hormones that give you feelings of fullness, or satiety, are more pronounced when people eat slowly. Subjects given identical servings of ice cream released more of these hormones when they ate it in 30 minutes instead of 5 minutes.
It leads to eating less, too. According to an article published in The Journal of the American Dietetic Association people who ate at a slow pace compared to when they chowed down very quickly said they were fuller and ending up eating about 10 percent fewer calories.

An analysis of surveys completed by 3287 adults (1122 men, 2165 women), ages 30-69, concluded that eating until they’re full and eating quickly are associated with being overweight and that these combined behaviors might have a significant impact on being overweight.

Twenty Minutes Or Less

Research has shown that Americans start and finish their meals — and clear the table — in less than 20 minutes. A study published in the journal Appetite, found that people eating lunch by themselves in a fast food restaurant finish in 11 minutes. They finish in13 minutes in a workplace cafeteria and in 28 minutes at a moderately priced restaurant. Eating with three other people takes about twice as long – which can still end up being a really short chunk of time.

Once again, Moms are right – slow down when you eat. (Doesn’t that often go with don’t grab?) Slowing down allows you and your brain to register a feeling of fullness and may even mean that you eat fewer calories. You might even have time to really taste and enjoy your food, too.

This article is part of the 30 day series of blog posts called: 30 Easy Tips for Looser Pants and Excellent Energy.

Practice Makes Perfect (Or At Least Good)– Especially With Habits

January 12, 2013 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

What gets you to Carnegie Hall? Practice. What makes your new healthy behaviors stick? Practice.

If you’ve resolved to form new healthy habits, ones you want to keep and that fit in with your lifestyle, you need to keep repeating those new behaviors over and over again. It’s like learning a language or a new game. You need to keep practicing.

Why? Our brains are lazy. They like to default to what’s easy for them – and usually that’s an old habit (both good ones and bad ones). That default is what takes the least amount of energy and it’s nice and comfortable. Doing something that’s very familiar can be done without much thinking or energy — like eating a certain thing everyday at the same time or going for a daily run at the same time and on the same route.

The way to create a new habit and to make it “stick” is to create a new “default” pattern to replace an old one. That requires the repetitive practice of doing the same behavior over and over again – like creating a path through grass or weeds by walking on it day after day.

Some Additional Tips

You might like to try one change at a time instead of making too many resolutions or setting too many goals. Create one new habit and then begin to work on another. Since our brains are, in a sense, kind of lazy, they don’t like too much disruption or change at a time. They’re used to doing something one way, so pick one change at a time and create a habit around it.

Be committed and willing to work on your goal(s). Decide if you’re really willing to make change(s) in your life. Are you serious or half-hearted about what you want to do? “Kinda,” “sorta” goals give you “kinda,” “sorta” results. Realistic, achievable goals produce realistic results.

Start Small And Specific. So many of us are guilty of all-or-nothing thinking and overly ambitious goals. Guess what happens? We shoot ourselves in our collective feet and call ourselves failures. Do it often enough and a “no can do” attitude gets solidly embedded. Make resolutions you think you can keep. If, for example, your aim is to exercise more frequently, schedule three or four days a week at the gym instead of seven. If you would like to eat healthier, try replacing dessert with something else you enjoy, like fruit or yogurt or a very small portion of a favorite indulgence — instead of seeing your diet as a form of punishment.

Unhealthy behaviors develop over time. Creating healthy behaviors to replace those unhealthy ones also requires time. Be patient. And practice.

This article is part of the 30 day series of blog posts called: 30 Easy Tips for Looser Pants and Excellent Energy.

Mindless Bites: They Pack On The Pounds

January 11, 2013 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Are you having a bit of trouble getting your pants to close – or maybe it’s difficult to zip up your jacket?

In part you can blame those mindless bites – those “shove it in your mouth without thinking about it” bites. Oh come on, most of us — at one time or another — have:

Snagged some candy from the bowl on a co-worker’s desk

Made the last bit of leftovers from the pot disappear into our mouths

Spooned up generous samples of cookie dough batter and followed that up with licking the beaters

Finished the crust off of a kid’s grilled cheese sandwich

Sampled handfuls of bar food while having a drink

Liberally sampled the free “want to try” foods while shopping

Had “just a taste” of a friend’s or partner’s dessert

Gobbled up the freebie cookies or candy that arrives with the restaurant check.

The Twenty-Five

Here’s the big problem. Each of those mindless bites adds up to — on average — 25 calories (sometimes more, sometimes less). And, because they’re mindless, unless you religiously write down each oneas soon as you eat it, you forget about it and its calories. Since mindless bites are quick pops into your mouth, you don’t even have a chance to savor them and they probably don’t even register as food.

Do the math. If those bites average out at about 25 calories, four mindless bites a day above and beyond your daily calorie needs means possibly gaining slightly less than a pound a month (it takes 3500 calories to gain a pound — and yes, you need a deficit of 3500 calories to lose a pound). Ouch!

What To Do

So, be aware of what you’re eating – especially when you’re not really eating a meal. Start keeping track of when and where you’re most likely to indulge in mindless bites. You’d be surprised at how much you shove down your hatch while you’re walking, talking, socializing, working, watching games, and driving.

Awareness is the first step but writing down what you eat – as soon as you eat it – presents you with a record that’s hard to refute.

This article is part of the 30 day series of blog posts called: 30 Easy Tips for Looser Pants and Excellent Energy.

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When’s The Best Time To Start Your Diet?

January 8, 2013 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Do the stars, moon, sun, and all of the planets need to be in alignment for you to start your diet?

The word diet usually means deprivation and a way of life that’s not easy, comforting, or fun. So is there any wonder that there are tons of excuses and reasons to put off starting one? Who wants to be deprived of food – especially if you love to eat?

Does This Sound Like You?

If you’re thinking about losing weight, do any of these seem familiar:

“I’ll wait until Monday to start” – and then you eat enough through the week and over the weekend to pack on more weight.
“Wow, it’s Monday, but it’s so and so’s birthday on Wednesday and we’re going out to dinner and then we’ll have cake – so I might as well wait until after Wednesday to start.” And then it’s Thursday and you go back to “I’ll wait until Monday.”
“I don’t have the right kind of food in the house and it’s raining outside and I can’t get to the gym – so I might as well chow down today and wait until I can stock up on the right stuff” (and when will that be?).
“I was so ‘good’ all week and then on Friday I went out and had drinks and dessert and a ton of bread. So I figured I ‘blew it’ and might as well eat what I want all weekend. I can start again on Monday.” Of course Monday comes along and another verse is added to this tune.

There’s Always A Reason — Or An Excuse – Not To Start

You get the idea. You can always find a reason not to start your new healthy eating plan. How about listing the compelling reasons to want to start.

Just Start

Diets don’t work. Maybe they do for the short-term, but it’s rare to have long lasting weight loss using a restrictive diet mentality.

Try a different approach. Healthy eating habits are the key to success. Finding what works for the long term may require some out of the box thinking and creative solutions. Go for it and give it time. Just start.

Have you ever watched an athlete look for an opening through a crowded field of players who are obstructing his or her way? The athlete just keeps looking for an opening – an opportunity. The ultimate choice might be unconventional and require lateral movement or some pulling back before surging forward, but without making some kind of move nothing happens.

The first step is deciding that you want to change your eating patterns. Once you’ve decided you’re ready, look for your opening and take it – stop waiting for that elusive perfect moment in time. You can keep telling yourself that you’ll start tomorrow — but will your “tomorrow” ever come if you don’t take some positive action to make it happen?