calorie tips

What’s On Your Holiday Plate? 9 Easy Calorie Saving Tips

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

1. Leave some space for the holiday specials, but, in general, aim to practice portion control with the higher calorie foods and pile your plate high with the lower calorie vegetables. When you take in more calories than your body needs and uses, you’ll gain weight.

2. Your body can handle a certain amount of “big meal” overeating (Thanksgiving, the occasional holiday party). The problems with the scale happen when poor choices and expanded portions become daily rather than occasional events. It’s difficult during the long holiday season not to indulge on large portions and frequent treats. Be attentive to what and how much you’re eating. Even a controlled portion of a holiday treat several times a week – or even everyday — is better than multiple large portions everyday from Thanksgiving through New Years.

3. Choose your food wisely. If you can, pick lean proteins like fish, poultry, and the least fatty cuts of pork, beef, and lamb that are grilled or broiled, not fried or sautéed. Load up on vegetables – preferably ones that are not smothered in cheese or dripping with oil. Eat your turkey without the skin.

4. Work on eating a larger portion of fruit and veggies and less of the densely caloric foods like pastas swimming in oil and cheese. Consider beans or eggs as your protein source. But beware: it’s easy to be fooled by fatty sauces and dressings on innocent looking vegetables. Vegetables are great. Veggies smothered with butter, cheese, croutons, and/or bacon are loaded with calories.

5. Leave the breadbasket at the other end of the table. If you absolutely must have bread, go without butter or oil. Harder breadsticks generally have fewer calories than the soft breads and rolls. One teeny pat of butter has 36 calories, a tablespoon has 102 and 99% of them are from fat. A tablespoon of oil has about 120 calories. Would you rather have the oil or butter or a cookie for dessert or another glass of wine? Which calories will be more satisfying?

6. Don’t eat all of the piecrust. You can save around 200 calories at dessert by leaving the piecrust sitting on the plate and nixing (or decreasing) ice cream toppings like hot fudge sauce and whipped cream.

7. Is a half enough? If you decide you really will feel totally deprived if you don’t indulge in one of those delicious baked goods, choose one without loads of thick buttery crumbs on top, cut it in half or in thirds and be satisfied with that amount. Put it on a separate small plate that you can easily push away from you. Keeping it on your main plate or even a smaller one that’s easily reachable means you’ll be nibbling away at it the entire time.

8. It’s the mindless calories that are probably the most dangerous. For some reason we don’t seem to mentally process all of those random nibbles and calories from the treats on the receptionist’s desk, the neighbor’s homemade peanut brittle, the office party holiday toasts, the second and third helpings, or the holiday cookies in the snack room. If the food is in front of you it’s hard not to indulge. See it = eat it.

9. Don’t skimp or skip meals. Feed yourself well. Your body needs good nutrition. If you skip meals to try to save up calories you’ll just end up (over)eating because you’re starving, your blood sugar will be in the basement, and your body will be screaming, “feed me.” When that happens, you head straight for the carbs right off the bat – and it’s almost always all downhill from there. Not a great tactic for your body or your mind – or for your general mood.

For more helpful hints download my book from Amazon: 30 Ways To Eat Your Holiday Favorites And Still Get Into Your Jeans.

New from iTunes: Eat Out Eat Well magazine for iPhones and iPads. Head on over and take a look!

10 Ways To Save Calories At Summer Parties, Picnics, And Barbecues

June 6, 2013 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Before you grab some tasty morsel, 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’re reaching out to eat what’s in front of you for reasons not dictated by your stomach but by your eyes.
Do you really need to stand in front of the picnic table, kitchen table, or barbecue? 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.”
Don’t show up absolutely starving. How can you resist all the tempting food when your blood sugar is in the basement and your stomach is singing a chorus?
If you know that the barbecued ribs, the blueberry pie, or your cousin’s potato salad is your downfall, acknowledge that you’re going to have it or steer clear. For most of us, swearing that you’ll only take a taste is a promise that is doomed to fail and you end up with second or third helpings heaped on your plate.
If you’re asked to bring something to a party, picnic, or barbecue, bring food you can eat with abandon – fruit, salad with dressing on the side, maybe berries and angel food cake for dessert (there’s no fat in angel food cake and moderate calories). Bring something that’s a treat but not over the top. That way you know you’ll always have some “go to” food.
Really eyeball the food choices so you know what’s available. Then make a calculated decision about what you‘re going to eat. Taking some of everything means that you’ll eat some of everything. Is that what you want to do?
Take the food you’ve decided to eat, sit down, enjoy it without guilt, and be done with it. No going back for seconds.
If you’re full, stop eating and clear your plate right away. If it 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 – serves as a visual reminder of how much you’ve already had to eat or drink.
Give yourself permission to eat – and enjoy — the special dessert or a burger or ribs. If you don’t, you’ll probably be miserable. Then when you get home you end up gobbling down everything in sight because you made yourself miserable by not eating the stuff that you wanted in the first place! But no seconds and no first portions that are the equivalent of firsts, seconds and thirds built into one.
If hanging around the food gets to be too much, go for a walk, a swim, or engage someone in an animated conversation. It’s pretty hard to shove food in your mouth when you’re busy talking.

Protein: Have You Ever Wondered How And Why It Fills You Up?

October 3, 2012 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Protein Really Does Help You Feel Full, But Why?

According to the September 2012 Tufts University Health & Nutrition Letter, French researchers published the findings of a study that confirms that dietary protein affects satiety – the feeling of being full and satisfied — something that a lot of people seem to know but that hadn’t previously been explained. The researchers found that there’s a chain reaction of signals between your brain and your digestive system that explains why this happens.

Why Does Protein Make You Feel Full?

When you eat and start digesting dietary protein, it stimulates activity of molecules called mu-opioid receptors, the same receptors that are responsible for your body’s reaction to morphine. As the protein is being digested, the receptors send signals to your brain, which then tells your intestines to release glucose. As your glucose (blood sugar) levels start to rise, both your hunger and your desire to eat starts to get suppressed.

How Much Protein?

The good news is that most of us, barring certain problems, usually meet or exceed our protein requirements. Protein is a very common part of a lot of the foods that we eat — especially if you’re eating a pretty varied diet. Most Americans get about 12-18% of their calories from protein sources.

Every cell in our bodies contains protein – with the exception of bile and urine. Our bodies need that protein to form new cells, repair old ones, and build and maintain muscles. People with medical issues may have different protein needs and research is showing that protein intake in older adults may help with frailty.

What Are Good Sources Of Protein?

A gram of protein has four calories but the problem is that a lot of our dietary protein comes from large portions of animal sourced foods — like fatty meats and full fat dairy — and not from lean meat, fish, beans, and certain vegetables and whole grains.

The National Academy of Medicine says that most adults can meet their daily need for protein with two to three servings of protein rich food.

Recommended servings might be:

1/2 cup of cooked dried beans
One ounce of cheese, two tablespoons of peanut butter, or one egg
Two to three ounces (about the size of a deck of cards) of cooked poultry, lean meat, or fish
Two to three ounces of soy protein (such as tofu or soybeans).
An egg is almost a perfect protein source. One large cooked egg has more than six grams of protein and about 70 calories.

Good vegetable protein sources are: black, pinto, garbanzo, and kidney beans; split peas; peanuts and peanut butter; sunflower seeds; nuts; and soy products.

Animal sources might be: skinless poultry; bosom; lean cuts of beef and pork trimmed of visible fat; fish and shellfish; and low or non- fat dairy products.

Why Your Mindless Bites Are Making Your Jeans Tighter

September 28, 2012 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Are your pants feeling a bit tight and you can’t figure out why?

It’s those mindless bites that will get you. Each one of those “shove it in your mouth without thinking about it” bites is worth about 25 calories. Do the math. If you have four mindless bites a day above and beyond your daily calorie needs that 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).

Do You Do Any Of These?

Snag a piece of candy from the bowl on someone’s desk

Scoop the last bit of leftovers from the pot into your mouth

Taste the cookie dough batter then lick the beaters

Finish the crust off of your kid’s grilled cheese sandwich

Sample the bar food while having a drink

Taste the free “want to try” foods when you’re shopping

Have “just a taste” of your friend’s or spouse’s dessert

Eat the freebie cookies or candy that come with the check in restaurants

Twenty-five

Ouch! Each bite adds up to — on average — 25 calories (sometimes more, sometimes less).

Be aware of what you’re eating – especially when you’re not really eating. Most of us don’t have a clue how many calories – or even bites – we’ve shoved into our mouths at times other than meals. Unfortunately, all of those calories that we eat when we’re not eating meals not only count but add up to those pounds gained — and you can’t figure out why you gained them.

What To Do

Keep track of when and where you’re most likely to indulge in the mindless bites you shove down the hatch while you’re walking, talking, socializing, working, and driving.

The most effective method is to try to write down what you eat. That may be a pain but might serve as a real “heads-up” because a written record is hard to deny. If you don’t want to write it down (I must admit I have trouble doing that) at least be aware of your mindless bites – and decide if you want to eliminate, control, or include them in your daily calories.

Awareness is a good thing — especially if it makes your jeans fit better.

What Are Your Eating Triggers?

September 25, 2012 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Is it almost a foregone conclusion that you’ll stuff yourself to the gills when you go home to your parents’ house for holidays or other events? Is it almost impossible for you to navigate your office without stopping at the snack room and the receptionist’s desk to sample the never-ending array of holiday specialties or someone’s birthday cake? What about the routine lunch for a not-so-good friend that makes you go home and eat a pint of ice cream?

Know Your Triggers

Most of us can name situations that make us want to eat. Sometimes it takes dedicated thought to precisely identify what it is that starts the cascade of events that leads to not just wanting to eat, but the feeling that you absolutely must have a particular food — sometimes in large quantities. Keeping a food journal where you record not only what you ate but the environment and what was going on while you were eating can help you identify the causative factors.

Sometimes those triggers are big red flags – for instance you know that having a piece of pecan pie — or any other sweet food for dessert at lunch will trigger nibbling on candy at the office the rest of the afternoon. But do you eat it anyway?

Or, do you intentionally go to store A instead of store B for a cup of coffee because you know store A always has lots of free samples of freshly baked cake and cookies? Do you know that if cookies are in the cupboard and ice cream is in the freezer that you will sooner, rather than later, eat it?

Which Foods And Environments Are Your Red Flags?

Be honest  with yourself and admit that certain foods and environments are red flags for you. I know that I can’t have cookies in my house and I also know that I tend to overeat at family events.

There’s no reason to psychoanalyze why certain foods or situations act as your triggers. Just know which particular things serve as your red flags — your triggers — and have strategies in place to deal with them.