Lose 5 Pounds in 5 Weeks

Want To Avoid Seconds? Keep The Serving Dishes Off Of The Table

May 25, 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, maybe two or three times, for more.

And if you keep the serving dishes on the table right in front of you, it’s way too easy to keep refilling your plate – or just stick your fork out and eat from the platter.

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. 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 grab seconds if you have to get up to get them. 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.

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.

To help avoid the temptation of going back for seconds:

Let this be your mantra: no seconds. Figure out a reasonable portion of food that is within reason but not so skimpy that you’re nowhere near satisfied when you’re finished.
Keep the serving dishes off of the table.
Choose your food, fill your plate from the stove or from the serving dishes on the counter, and that’s it. No seconds.

Eat More: Add In Healthy Food To “Crowd Out” The Less Healthy Food

May 24, 2013 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Eat more food. But make it the healthy kind. Think about adding vegetables, fruit, and some whole grains into your diet rather that focusing on what you shouldn’t eat and what you should take out.

We’ve all had the kind of day when it seems that your stomach is a bottomless pit and you can’t stop eating everything in sight. But the amount of food your body can take in is not infinite. At some point you simply have to stop eating.

When you load up on fruit, veggies, and whole intact grains that are rich in fiber and nutrients you help to displace — or “crowd out” — some of the foods in your diet that are higher in fat, sugar, and calories. And, as a bonus, you get the incredible benefits of all of the antioxidants and phytochemicals in the rainbow of produce that you add, plus the additional fiber to help keep you full.

Some Crowding Out Tips

If you fill your body with healthy, nutrient-dense food, you’ll find that your cravings for unhealthy foods will naturally decrease.

Try drinking a lot of water and eating whole food that’s naturally stocked with nutrients earlier in the day. It will help crowd out potential cravings later on in the day.

Think outside the box, too. You don’t have to focus on adding side dishes of vegetables or fruit salad for dessert. Add veggies into your main dish – plump up burgers, meatloaf, or meatballs with chopped vegetables and/or some whole grains. Add cauliflower to mac and cheese. Mix fruit into your yogurt or oatmeal or use it as a topping for chicken or fish. Get creative!

15 Pretty Easy Ways To Burn 100 Calories

May 23, 2013 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Want to burn some extra calories? Try fitting in a couple of these activities in every day.

A 150 pound person would burn around 100 calories by:

Casually biking for 23 minutes
Using the elliptical for 8 minutes
Walking stairs for 11 minutes
Doing yoga for 20 minutes
Doing zumba for 11 minutes
Doing pilates for 24 minutes
Dancing around the kitchen for 20 minutes
Washing the car for 20 minutes
Pushing a stroller for 35 minutes
Walking the dog for 26 minutes
Cooking for 34 minutes
Cleaning the house for 26 minutes
Carrying five grocery bags from the car to the kitchen, putting the food away, taking out the trash, washing the dishes, and wiping down the kitchen counter
Leisurely walking in the park for 51 minutes
Chewing sugar free gum for nine hours

This is the end of the fourth week of the lose 5 pounds in 5 weeks challenge. How have you been doing? Let us know on Facebook.

Vending Machines: What Are Your Favorite Letter/Number Combinations?

May 22, 2013 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Sooner or later you’ll have your next sharing moment with a vending machine – you share your money and the machine shares its calories.

Vending machines are everywhere – down the hall from your office or around the corner from your hotel room, in hospital waiting rooms, in train stations, and calling your name on road trips. They call your name when you’re especially vulnerable – when you’re stressed, tired, bored, anxious, and your blood sugar is traveling south – all of which means the sugar, fat, and salt junk food allure is really hard to overcome.

When a vending machine calls your name, choose wisely. There are good, better, and best choices to be made. You can almost always find packages of nuts, popcorn, pretzels, or dried fruit along with the packaged sweet or crunchy calories.

Be careful of choices with too much sugar, especially if you’re driving. A big time sugar hit may give you quick energy but more than likely it will be followed by a drop in your blood sugar levels that could possibly make you sleepy, grouchy, unfocused, and hungry for more sweet and fatty food.

No Choice Is Perfect; Make The Best Choice For You

Your choice depends on what you want: protein or sweet satisfaction; fill-you-up fiber or salty crunch. Here are some common choices so you can compare calories, fat, carbs, and protein:

Crunchy

Baked! Lays Potato Chips (original), 1 package, 130 calories, 2g fat, 26g carbs, 2g Protein

Baked Doritos, Nacho Cheese, 1 bag (38.9g): 170 calories, 5g fat, 29g carbs, 3g protein

Cheez-It Baked Snack Crackers (Snack Pak): 180 calories, 9g fat, 20g carbs, 4g protein

Ruffles Potato Chips, 1 package (1.5 oz): 240 calories, 15g fat, 23g carbs, 3g protein

Cheetos, Crunchy, snack size bag (1 oz):  150 calories, 10g fat, 13g carbs, 2g protein

Sun Chips Original, 1 package: 210 calories, 10g fat, 28g carbs, 3g protein

Snyder’s of Hanover Mini Pretzels, snack size: 160 calories, 0g fat, 35g carbs, 4g protein

White Cheddar Cheese Popcorn, Smartfood, 1 package: 120 calories, 8g fat, 11g carbs, 2g protein

Nuts/Seeds

Planters Sunflower Kernels, 1 package (1.75 oz): 290 calories, 25g fat, 9g carbs, 11g protein

Planters Salted Peanuts, 49g (1.75oz): 290 calories, 25g fat, 8g carbs, 13g protein

Cookies/Pastry/Bars

Mini Chips Ahoy!, snack pack (56g): 270 calories, 13g fat, 38g carbs, 3g protein

Frosted Strawberry Pop-Tarts (2 pastries):  410 calories, 10g fat, 75g carbs, 4g protein

Hostess Fruit Pie, apple: 470 calories, 20g fat, 70g carbs, 4g protein

Fig Newtons, 1 package: 200 calories, 4g fat, 40g carbs, 2g protein

Quaker Chewy Low-Fat Granola Bar, Chocolate Chunk, 1 bar:  90 calories, 2g fat, 19g carbs, 1g protein

Nature Valley Granola Bar, Crunchy Oats and Honey, 2 bars: 190 calories, 6g fat, 29g carbs, 4g protein

Candy 

Skittles (original), 2.17 oz: 240 calories, 2.5g fat, 56g carbs, 0g protein

Twix, 2 cookies: 250 calories, 12g fat, 34g carbs, 2g protein

3 Musketeers, king size: 200 calories, 6g fat, 36g carbs, 1g protein

Peanut M&Ms, 1 pack: 250 calories, 13g fat, 30g carbs, 5g protein

Snickers, regular size: 250 calories, 12g fat, 33g carbs, 4g protein

Do Ballparks And Amusement Parks Mean Hotdogs, Peanuts, And Cotton Candy?

May 21, 2013 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Seriously – you’re not going to a game or to go on rides without having something to eat and drink. That’s part of the fun.

So what do you do with food vendors about every 20 feet hawking dogs, ice cream, and fried everything?

There Are Ways And Then There Are Ways

If you’ve got a will of iron you could ignore the food and drinks. But, if you don’t (and who does all of the time?) you can try to minimize the damage without taking away the fun. If you know you’re going to be having a stadium or boardwalk meal, do some thinking, planning, and sleuthing. The best choices are not always the obvious ones.

Do you need both peanuts and popcorn? Can you make do with a regular hot dog instead of a foot-long? Can you keep it to one or two beers instead of three? Can you choose the small popcorn instead of the jumbo tub? Can you ditch the soda — or maybe the second one — and replace it with water?

Make Your Best Choice To Save A Few Calories

It’s all about choices. Here’s some info to help you make good ones.

Cracker Jack (officially cracker jack, not jacks): candy-coated popcorn with some peanuts. A 3.5oz stadium size box has 420 calories but does have 7g of protein and 3.5g of fiber.

Hamburger: 6oz. of food stand beef (they’re not using extra lean – the more fat, the juicier it is) on a bun has about 490 calories — without cheese or other toppings — which up the ante.

Grilled Chicken Sandwich, 6oz.: 280 calories – not a bad choice. 6oz. of chicken tenders clock in at 446 calories. Barbecue dipping sauce adds 30 calories a tablespoon.

Hot Dog: Most sold-out baseball stadiums can sell 16,000 hot dogs a day. A regular hot dog with mustard has about 290 calories: that’s 180 for the 2oz. dog, 110 for the bun, zilch for regular yellow mustard. Two tbs. sauerkraut adds another 5-10 calories and a punch of flavor, 2 tbs. ketchup adds 30, and 2 tbs. relish another 40. A Nathan’s hot dog racks up 320 calories; a foot-long Hebrew National 510 calories.
Pizza: Stadium pizza is larger than a usual slice, about 1/6 of a 16-inch pie (instead of 1/8) making it about 435 calories a slice – add calories if you add toppings.

Super Nachos with Cheese: A 12oz. serving (40 chips, 4oz. cheese) has about 1,500 calories! Plain French fries look like a caloric bargain by comparison.

French Fries: A large serving has about 500 calories. A serving of Hardee’s chili cheese fries has 700 calories and 350 of them come from fat.

Potato Chips: One single serving bag has 153 calories (94 of them from fat).

Cotton Candy: Nothing but heated and colored sugar that’s spun into threads with added air. Cotton candy on a stick or wrapped around a paper cone (about an ounce) has around 105 calories; a 2oz. bag (common size) has 210. A lot of sugar, but not a lot of calories – albeit empty ones.

Peanuts in the Shell: What would a baseball game be without a bag of peanuts? Stadiums can sell as many as 6,000 bags on game days. An 8oz. bag has 840 calories; a 12oz. bag has 1,260. Yes, they have some protein and fiber. But wow on the calories.

Soft Pretzel: One large soft pretzel has 483 calories – giant soft pretzels (7-8oz.) have about 700 calories.

Draft Beer: A stadium draft beer — 20oz. cup, the usual size –has about 240 calories. A light draft saves you 60 calories.

Coca Cola: A 12oz can has 140 calories –- and close to 10 tsp. of sugar.

Helmet Ice Cream: Your team’s mini-helmet filled with swirly Carvel, 550-590 calories.

Souvenir Popcorn: At Yankee Stadium a jumbo size has 1,484 calories and a souvenir bucket has 2,473 calories.