Manage Your Weight

Ten Easy Ways To Save Some Calories

May 28, 2016 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

10 Ways To Save Calories

If you’re full, stop eating and clear your plate right away. If the food hangs around in front of you, you’ll keep picking at it until there’s nothing left. An exception – a study has found that looking at the “carnage” – the leftover bones from barbecued ribs or even the number of empty beer bottles – can serve as an “environmental cue” to stop eating.
Do you really need to stand in front of the buffet table or kitchen spread? The further away from the food you are the less likely you are to eat it. Don’t sit or stand where you can see the food that’s calling your name. Keep your back to it if you can’t keep distant. There’s just so much control you can exercise before “see it = eat it.” Take a walk or engage someone in an animated conversation. It’s pretty hard to shove food in your mouth when you’re busy talking.
Before you grab another slice, some chips, mac and cheese, or a cookie — ask yourself if you really want it. Are you hungry? Is it worth the calories? Odds are, the tempting display of food in front of you is visually seductive – and may smell great, too — but you may be reaching out to eat what’s there for reasons not dictated by your stomach, but by your eyes. Have you decided that you want to splurge on something specific? Try deciding what that splurge will be ahead of time and commit to your choice so you don’t find yourself wavering in the face of temptation.
Drink from a tall, thin glass instead of a short, wide one. You’ll drink 25%-30% less. People given short wide glasses poured 76% more than people who were given tall slender glasses, and they believed that they had poured less. Even experienced bartenders poured more into a short, wide glass.
Let this be your mantra: no seconds. Choose your food, fill your plate, and that’s it. Keep a running account in your head of how many hors d’ oeuvre you’ve eaten or how many cookies. Keep away from food spreads and open bags of anything to help limit nibbling and noshing.
Stop eating before you’re full. If you keep eating until your stomach finally feels full you’ll likely end up feeling stuffed when you do stop eating. It takes a little time (around 20 minutes) for your brain to catch up and realize that your stomach is full. A lot of eating is done with your eyes and your eyes love to tell you to try this and to try that.
Divide your food up into smaller portions and separate them to help avoid overeating. Yale researchers took tubes of potato chips and made each seventh or fourteenth one red. The people who got to the red potato chip “stop signs” ate less than half as many chips as the people without the red chips — and they more accurately estimated how much they’d eaten. Definitely avoid eating from a large open bag — count out your chips, crackers, and pretzels or only eat from a single portion size bag. Who can stop when there’s an open bag of salty, crunchy food right in front of you? It’s amazingly easy to keep mindlessly eating until the bag is empty. A dive to the bottom of a 9-ounce bag of chips (without dip) is 1,260 calories. One serving, about 15 chips, is 140 calories.
Cut down a little bit, you probably won’t even notice. Have a one scoop cone instead of 2 scoops, a regular portion of French fries instead of a large, a small smoothie instead of a medium. Eat slowly and give your brain time to register the fact that you’ve fed your body some food. You’ll probably be just as satisfied with the smaller portion and you’ll have saved yourself a lot of calories.
Use a fork and knife instead of your fingers, a teaspoon rather than a tablespoon — anything to slow down the food going into your mouth. Chopsticks can slow you down even more. Chew your food instead of wolfing it down. If you have to work at eating your food – cutting it with a knife, for instance – you’ll eat more mindfully than if you pick food up with your fingers and pop it into your mouth. Before you eat, drink some water, a no- or low-calorie beverage, or some clear soup. The liquids fill up your stomach and leave less room for the high calorie stuff.
Use a smaller plate. We eat an average of 92% of what we serve ourselves. We pile more food onto larger plates, so a larger plate means we eat more food. A two inch difference in plate diameter—decreasing the plate size to ten inches from 12 inches—would mean a serving that has 22% fewer calories. It’s a smaller serving but not small enough to leave you still hungry and heading back for seconds.

Super Bowl and Food: What Will You Be Eating?

January 29, 2016 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Super Bowl and Food

It’s amazing how food has become associated with football — from tailgating to Super Bowl parties to the selection of food sold in stadiums. Where there’s football there also seems to be many opportunities to eat, often mindlessly.

Even when you’re surrounded by a smorgasbord of highly caloric, fatty, salty, and sweet foods there are plenty of opportunities for eating deliciously well if you are a bit more mindful about your choices.

Some common Super Bowl food

Tostada with guacamole: 2 pieces (9.3 oz), 360 calories, 23g fat, 32g carbs, 12g protein
Salsa: 1 tablespoon 4 calories, .04g fat, 1g carbs, .2g protein
Nacho flavored tortilla chips, reduced fat: 1 oz, 126 calories, 4g fat, 20g carbs, 2g protein
Regular Nacho flavored tortilla chips: 1oz, 141 calories, 7g fat, 18g carbs, 1g protein
Potato chips: 1oz, 152 calories, 10g fat, 15g carbs, 2g protein
Potato chips, reduced fat: 1 oz, 134 calories, 6g fat, 19g carbs, 2g protein
Raw baby carrots: 1 medium, 4 calories, 0 fat, .8g carbs, 0 protein
Pizza with cheese: 1 slice (1/8 of a 12” pie), 140 calories, 3g fat, 20g carbs, 8g protein
Pizza, pepperoni: 1 slice (1/8 12” pie), 181 calories, 7g fat, 20g carbs, 10g protein
Grilled chicken breast: one 4.2 oz breast, 180 calories, 4g fat, 0 carbs, 35g protein
KFC Fiery hot Buffalo wing: one 1oz wing, 80 calories, 5g fat, g carbs, 4g protein
KFC extra crispy drumstick: one 2oz piece, 150 calories, 6g carbs, 11g protein
Chili (Wendy’s, with saltine crackers): 8 oz, 187 calories, 6g fat, 19g carbs, 14g protein
Wheat bread: 1 slice, .9 oz., 65 calories, 1g fat,, 12g carbs, 2g protein
Italian combo on ciabatta (Panera): 1 sandwich, 1lb. 7 oz, 1050 calories, 47g fat, 94g carbs, 61g protein
Subway 6g of fat or less turkey breast & ham on wheat sandwich: 8.3oz, 296 calories, 4g fat, 48g carbs, 19g protein
Chocolate chip cookie: 2-1/4” from refrigerated dough. 59 calories, 3g fat, 8g carbs, .6g protein
Chocolate ice cream, Cold Stone Creamery: 5oz (like it), 326 calories, 20g fat, 33g carbs, 5g protein
Apple: medium, 95 calories, .4g fat, 25g carbs, .5g protein

If You Want To Save Some Calories …

Stick with grilled meat, veggies, or baked chips rather than fried. Turkey, baked ham, and grilled chicken are better choices than wings and fried chicken.
Plain bread, pitas, or wraps are less caloric than biscuits or cornbread.
Go for salsa and skip the guacamole. Guacamole is made with healthy avocados, but is quite high in calories. You can always alternate guacamole and salsa, too.
Minimize calories by dipping chicken wings into hot sauce instead of Buffalo or Blue Cheese sauce.
Try using celery for crunch and as a dipper instead of chips.
Go for thin crust rather than thick doughy crust pizza. Choose the slices with vegetables, not pepperoni or meatballs. If you’re not embarrassed, try blotting up the free-floating oil that sits on top of a greasy slice (soak up even a teaspoon of oil saves you 40 calories and 5 grams of fat).
Cut your slice of pizza in half. When you go back for seconds, eat the second half. You’ll feel like you’re eating two slices, but you’re eating only one.
Try fruit for dessert – or have just one cookie or a small piece of pie – leave some of the crust on your plate. Home made pie crust has around 150 calories (single crust pie), so leaving some pie crust on your plate can save you some significant calories.
Alcohol adds calories and dulls your mindful eating. Try alternating water or diet soda with beer or alcohol. That can decrease your alcohol calories (alcohol has 7 calories/gram) by 50%.
Put your food on a plate rather than constantly picking, it’s a form of portion control. And step back from the buffet. If you can’t reach out and grab it and you can’t see it, you won’t eat it.

Which Has Fewer Calories — a Ham and Cheese Sandwich or a Salad?

January 14, 2016 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

calories-in-salad

Do you feel virtuous when you order a salad for lunch?

So many of us think a salad, instead of a sandwich, is the way to go if we’re trying to be healthy and/or calorie conscious. Somehow we’ve embraced the idea that salads are always a light and healthy choice. Sometimes they are – but all too often they aren’t.

Sometimes a sandwich is the clear winner in terms of calories and fat. A ham and cheese sandwich ranges from 350 to 450 calories depending upon how much ham and cheese there really is, the type of bread, and whether it comes with mustard or mayo (and, of course, without fries or chips).

And sometimes the salad is a better choice — depending on what goes into it. The nutrient rich plant foods that make the base of a salad are high in antioxidants — especially the dark green, orange, and red vegetables. Most of the vegetables are full of fiber – good for your cholesterol, your GI functioning, and as a way to feel fuller for a longer period of time. Salads take a long time to eat – much longer than sandwiches or pizza that you can scarf down far more quickly.

The Green Base For Salads

The green stuff that’s the base for most salads isn’t the problem. Most greens are very low in calories and pretty nutritious.

1 cup shredded Romaine: 8 calories, 1 gram fiber, 1 gram protein, 0 gram fat
1 cup of Arugula: 6 calories, 1 gram fiber, 1 gram protein, 0 gram fat
1 cup raw spinach: 7 calories, 1 gram of fiber, 1 gram protein
1 cup chopped kale: 32 calories, 1 gram of fiber, 2 grams of protein, 0 gram fat

Calorie Savers

High calorie add-ons and dressings can make salads a “no thank you” choice.

Generally, at least ¼ of a cup (frequently more) of dressing is added to a tossed salad. A ladle of creamy dressing has about 360 calories and 38g of fat (a cheeseburger worth). Vinaigrette dressing, usually 3 parts oil to one part vinegar, adds its own fat blast.
Tuna, macaroni, egg, and chicken salads, the holy grail of delis and salad bars, are loaded with mayonnaise. On average (for a half cup): chicken salad has around 208 calories, 16g of fat; tuna salad has 192 calories, 9g fat; tuna pasta salad has 250 calories, 9g fat; macaroni salad has 170 calories, 9g fat. (Remember, ½ cup is pretty small.)
Then there’s cheese. A ¼ cup (which is really small) serving of shredded cheddar has 114 calories, 9g fat; blue cheese has 80 calories, 6g fat; feta has 75 calories, 6g fat.
Croutons and Crispy Noodles: ¼ cup of plain croutons has 31 calories, 0g fat; 1 serving of McDonald’s Butter Garlic Croutons has 60 calories, 1g fat; ¼ cup of crispy noodles has 74 calories, 4g fat
Dried cranberries: ¼ cup has 98 calories, 0g fat
Nuts and seeds: ¼ cup sunflower seeds: 210 calories, 19g fat; chopped walnuts: 193 calories, 18g fat
Avocado, ¼ cup: 58 calories, 5g fat
Bacon bits, 1 tablespoon: 25 calories, 2g fat
Bread (often used to sop up leftover dressing): 1 piece of French bread has 82 calories, 1g fat; 1 dinner roll, 78 calories, 2g fat. Dressing sopped up by the bread or roll: lots of extra fat calories!

Should Salads Go On Your “Not a Good Choice” List?

Absolutely not. The healthy stuff in salad tastes great, fills you up, and is good for you. There are plenty of ways to cut down on the fatty and caloric add-ons and still end up with a really tasty salad. There are even good choices in fast food and chain restaurants (and plenty of really, really bad ones).

Sandwich Tip

Having a sandwich for lunch?

Substitute mustard for mayo and save 100 calories.
Leave off the slice of Swiss cheese for another 133 calories.
Ditch the two slices of bacon for another 84 calories.
Put your turkey, ham, or roast beef along with lettuce, tomato and onions on a whole grain pita (74 calories) instead of between two slices of rye (180 calories).
you’ve saved a total of 423 calories.
Walk to and from the deli or around the block several times and you’ve easily saved yourself 500 calories.

Resolutions: Perfection Just Might Be The Enemy Of Good

January 4, 2016 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Resolutions

It’s a week into the New Year. Your pants are uncomfortably tight and the number on the scale is in the wrong zip code. Trying to right the ship you resolve – swear — to never again eat another chocolate chip cookie — or maybe you’ve taken an oath to lay off potato chips forever or to go to the gym six days a week at 6AM.

Resolutions Can Be Tricky

Count yourself among the legions of people who have a specific end game in mind and then set broad – huge – resolutions and goals to try to get there. Those resolutions and goals usually aim for perfect achievement – something that’s virtually impossible to accomplish.

Aiming For Perfection

Be honest. You know that aiming for perfection means lining yourself up for a big time fall. Inevitably, you end up feeling awful when you step over the theoretical line – or maybe it’s more like you fall off the cliff. Why must sticking to a resolution or accomplishing a goal be done that way? Perfection, in this case, is really the enemy of good. In the real world, isn’t movement toward achieving your goal good enough?

Two Tips

1. Ditch the all-or-nothing thinking and overly ambitious goals. Drastic changes usually don’t sync with daily life and probably won’t last more than a few weeks. Cycle through the drastic changes often enough and you solidly embed a “no can do” attitude in your brain. Remember, your less than ideal behaviors have taken time to develop and replacing them with more ideal, healthier ones takes time, too. Don’t reassess/alter everything at once. Instead, work toward changing one thing at a time. Human brains don’t like too much disruption all at once – they like their familiar way of doing things. Pick one thing at a time and create a new habit around it. Then go on to the next thing on your list.

2. Not having succeeded before doesn’t mean you won’t succeed this time. Everyone has made and broken resolutions. We’ve all tried to lose weight or eat more fruit and veggies. Adopt a positive attitude and frame your resolution in positive terms. “I will eat vegetables instead of French fries twice a week” or I’ll have cereal only on Saturday mornings” is much more positive than “I’ll never eat French fries or cereal again.” It’s easier to put a new habit in place than to change an old one, so embed the positive behavior not the negative one.

Three “I Didn’t Know That!” Calorie Savers

November 13, 2015 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Don’t be duped by turkey, fish, and veggie burgers and sandwiches. They sound healthier and less caloric than beef, but that might not be the case. At Red Robin a grilled turkey burger has 578 calories, 29g fat. Burger King’s Premium Alaskan Fish sandwich has 530 calories, 28g fat while a Whopper Jr. without mayo has 260 calories, 10g fat. A Sedona Black Bean Burger at TGI Fridays has 870 calories, 49g fat.
Chinese food — even broccoli has calories. If you think you’re getting off easy because of all of the vegetables in Chinese food, think again. There are 466 calories in a cup and a half of beef and broccoli stir-fry (and about a day’s worth of sodium). One cup of fried rice has 333 calories. If you include a vegetable spring roll for 63 calories and three fortune cookies for about 100 calories, your meal clocks in at around 1000 calories. Cut down a little bit, you probably won’t even notice.
Avoid eating from a large open bag. Count out your chips, crackers, and pretzels or only eat from a single portion size bag. Who can stop when there’s an open bag of salty, crunchy food right in front of you? It’s amazingly easy to keep mindlessly eating until the bag is empty. A dive to the bottom of a 9 ounce bag of chips (without dip) is 1,260 calories. One serving, about 15 chips, is 140 calories.