1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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.

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Snacks account for more than 25% of Americans’ daily calorie intake; since the 1970s, snacks have accounted for around 580 calories a day — which basically turns them into “a full eating event,” or a fourth meal.

When And Where Do We Snack?

• Americans average 2.3 snacks per day, snacking most frequently in the afternoon, evening and late at night.
• Most people snack at home, 12% say they snack at work, 7% eat snacks while they travel from place to place
• 27% of Americans snack on impulse, 28% snack because they want a treat, and 14% eat snacks when they’re stressed or anxious
• 57% of people say it’s important that food and beverage snacks be healthy, the food and beverages mentioned the most were chips and soda.

How Many Calories?

Maybe we snack so much because multi-tasking has increased – think about how often you eat and drink while you’re doing something else.

Between 2006 and 2008, it took around 70 minutes to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Secondary eating, the kind you do while you’re working on the computer, driving, or walking down the street, doubled from 15 minutes in 2006 to nearly 30 minutes a day in 2008.

The time spent on secondary drinking jumped nearly 90% — from 45 to 85 minutes — which explains why beverages account for 50% of the calories we take in through snacking. (Ever wonder why Starbuck’s and Dunkin’ Donuts are so crowded?)

Are All Snacks Bad For You?

No.  Research doesn’t support the idea that snacking is the main cause of obesity; for some people — like young children and older adults – snacks can be an important source of nutrients and calories.

Trying to go more than four hours without something to eat can make you so hungry that you’ll eat quantities of just about anything in sight. Eating a small meal or snack every 3 to 4 hours helps keep your metabolism revved up so you burn more calories over the course of a day and will help ward off mid-morning and afternoon slumps.

Thoughtful, planned snacking can keep you from feeling outrageously hungry, really grouchy, and can put the brakes on raiding the refrigerator or going on a buying spree at the nearest bakery.

What’s A Snack?

Almost 100% of Americans snack every day, but there isn’t a standard definition of what a snack is or what motivates us to snack. We “self-define,” leaving plenty of wiggle room to blur the line between what’s a snack and what’s a meal.

A snack shouldn’t be a fourth meal.  An individual snack, like the one so many of us have mid-morning or mid-afternoon, is recommended to be between 150 and 200 calories, have at least 8 grams of protein for satiety and to keep your blood sugar stable, and at least 3 grams of fiber to fill you up. Keep the fat and sugar grams low.

Beware health halo foods – the so-called “healthy” snacks that are really a bunch of sugar and/or fat in disguise.  These include a selection of (but not all) cereals, breakfast and protein bars, yogurt-covered anything (like raisins and pretzels), sports and energy drinks, smoothies, and frozen yogurt. Check labels.  Most baked goods, chips, candy, and sugary drinks are occasional treats and not daily snacks.

If you’re not hungry, don’t snack. Ask yourself if you’re snacking because of hunger, habit, or some other reason – like boredom or anger.

Some Snack Choices

Pick snacks that taste good and you look forward to eating.

Some good choices:

• Baby carrots (or other vegetables) and hummus.

• Half a cup of cottage cheese with fruit or whole grain crackers.

• An apple, orange, pear, peach, or grapes with ¼ cup of almonds or reduced-fat cheese or a low-fat cheese stick.

• Whole-grain crackers, a slice of whole grain bread, or a banana with peanut butter.

• Trail mix or a combination of nuts, seeds, raisins, and whole grain cereal. Be careful of portions, though – although they’re healthy, nuts are a higher calorie food.

• A whole wheat or multi-grain English muffin with a small amount of nut or seed butter.

• Low-fat or non-fat yogurt with raisins, a banana, or a small amount of whole grain cereal.

• A 12 ounce skim latte or cappuccino.

This is the first post of week 4 of the lose a pound a week challenge.  How are you doing? Let us know on Facebook.

The post Are Your Snacks The Equivalent Of Another Meal? appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

If you’re impulsive it seems that you are more likely to be overweight. If you’re highly neurotic and less conscientious, it’s more likely that you’ll see your weight go up and down.

At least that’s what was found in a study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology — based on data accumulated over 50 years from close to 2,000 people. The researchers studied these generally healthy and highly educated people to attempt to determine how their personalities might affect their weight and body mass index.

Your Food Choices

So what does that mean for your food choices?

Think of it this way.  If you are an impulsive person and prone to giving into temptation — as many impulsive people are — standing in front of a delicious bakery window and peering in may not be the best idea for you.  It’s going to be darn hard not to succumb to temptation and turn around and walk away.  And, if you do walk in, what are the chances that you can just order coffee without getting that delicious cinnamon-pecan sticky bun to go along with it?

So maybe do yourself a favor and plan your route so you don’t pass the bakery.  By doing so you cut down on the opportunities for those impulsive food purchases that you might regret later.

Risky, Antagonistic, Cynical, Competitive, Aggressive

And by the way, according to the study people who are risk takers — or who are antagonistic, cynical, competitive, and aggressive — also gained more weight.

And If You’re Conscientious . . .

Lucky you if you’re conscientious because you were found (in the study) to typically be thinner.

The post Does Impulsive Mean Overweight And Neurotic Mean Yo-Yo? appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

Some Major Findings:

Adult Obesity Rates and Trends (2008-2010)

•  Adult obesity rates rose in 16 states over the past year. No state had a decrease.

•  Obesity rates exceed 25% in more than two-thirds of states (38 states).

•  Mississippi had the highest rate of obesity at 34.4%; Colorado the lowest at 19.8% — the only state with a rate below 20%.

•  Obesity and obesity-related diseases (like diabetes and hypertension) remain the highest in the South. Nine of the 10 states with the highest rates of diabetes and physical inactivity are in the South as well the 10 states with the highest rates of hypertension. Northeastern and Western states have the lowest rates of obesity.

•  In the past year adult diabetes rates increased in 11 states and Washington, D.C.; more than 10% of adults in eight states now have type 2 diabetes.

•  Obesity increased for men in nine states and for women in ten states, and decreased for women in one state (Nevada).

•  People who didn’t graduate from high school have the highest rates of obesity (32.8%). High school graduates who didn’t go to college or technical school have the second highest obesity rate (30.4%).  People who went to college/technical school had an obesity rate of 29.6%; graduates from college/technical school had the lowest obesity rate, 21.5%.

•  Households with an income less than $15,000 have a 33.8% obesity rate; households with an income above $50,000 have a 24.6% obesity rate.

Changes in Adult Obesity, Overweight, Diabetes, and Hypertension Over Time

• Twenty years ago no state had an obesity rate above 15%.

•  Twenty years ago the state with the highest combined obesity and overweight rate was 49%; now the lowest rate is 54.8%; 44 states are above 60%.

•  Twenty years ago, 37 states had hypertension rates over 20%; now every state is over 20%; nine are over 30%.

•  Over the past 15 years seven states have doubled their obesity rates; 10 states nearly doubled theirs with increases of at least 90%; 22 more states saw their  obesity rates increase by at least 80%.

•  Since 1995 obesity rates have grown the fastest in Oklahoma, Alabama, and Tennessee and the slowest in Washington, D.C., Colorado, and Connecticut.

•  Ten years ago there weren’t any states with an obesity rate above 24%; now 43 states have higher obesity rates than the state that was the highest in 2000.

Top Recommendations

“The report includes recommendations for policies to help leverage change quickly and efficiently, by providing individuals and families with the resources and opportunities to make healthier choices in their daily lives. For instance, the report calls for the strategic implementation of the ACA, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, and other federal and state policy changes to help prevent and control obesity in America.”

Please take notice.  To see more recommendations and to read the full report click here.

The post How Obesity Threatens Our Future appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

An infographic courtesy of Healthy Meal Experts.

Learn more about Healthy Meals

The post Why Are Americans Getting Fat??? appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

Info You Can Use About Hunger

• Hunger is somewhat unpredictable.  Your actual hunger levels are not the same every day and can be affected by what your body needs and does — like activity, hormone levels, sickness, and other things.

• Hunger doesn’t necessarily follow a time schedule.  You can adjust the types and amounts of your meals and snacks to influence the next time you will be hungry.  Eating just because the hands of the clock are at noon or 6PM – even though you’re not hungry – can lead to weight gain and unhealthy eating habits.

• What you eat affects your hunger level.  Carbs, fat, and protein are digested at different rates.  Simple, refined carbs like soda and candy are digested rapidly. They give you quick energy from a surge in your blood sugar – which is followed by a rapid drop in your energy.  Protein foods give you the most sustained blood sugar levels and satiety without the blood sugar spikes.  Eating food that has a balance of nutrients is probably the best way to satisfy your hunger, keep you feeling fuller longer, and give your body the fuel it needs.

• How much you ate at your last meal affects you hunger levels since larger meals take longer to digest.  Haven’t you ever eaten so much for dinner that you’re not hungry until lunch the next day?

• You can put off eating for a while –occasionally ignoring your hunger won’t cause a long-term or significant drop in your metabolism. If you do postpone your hunger the urge to eat will come back and may be stronger when it does return.

• Your stomach is about the size of your fist and can be filled by a palm full of food.  Of course, since your stomach is a muscle, it can also stretch.  When you stretch it out by putting in too much food you probably don’t feel so great (like overly stuffed at Thanksgiving).  When you eat small meals you’ll get hungry more often and perhaps fuel your body more efficiently.  This is the rationale for 5 or 6 small meals a day rather than two or three larger ones.

• Your body is smart.  Have you noticed that sometimes you are hungry for a specific food?  It might be your body’s way of letting you know that it needs a particular nutrient.  Careful:  sometimes that hunger is head or emotional hunger that popped up because you just passed a bakery and the smell of just-baked chocolate chip cookies is acting like a trigger!

• All kinds of foods can play a role in satisfying your hunger. Labeling food good or bad puts the food in charge. Depriving yourself of a particular food or attaching special meaning to it can set you up for cravings and overeating.  It gives the food power over you rather than vice versa. Allowing yourself to make good choices from all foods; eating when you’re hungry; and eating portions that satisfy and not stuff you, put you, not the food, in charge.

Next post

When Should I Eat:  a numbered scale to help you figure out how hungry you are and when to eat.

The post Can You Train And Tame Your Hunger? appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

Fortunately, for them, they have knowledge and their skill in the kitchen at their disposal to make food more flavorful, perhaps downright delicious, while cutting back on the use of sugar, fat, and salt.

What The Slimmed Down Chefs Do

According to an article in The Daily News, what they do is:

• Reengineer their palates:  Richard Blais of Top Chef fame followed a vegan diet for 30 days to jump start his 60 pound weight loss.  He says it was a palate cleanser that made him aware of how sweet, fatty, and salty his food was.  Art Smith, Oprah’s former chef, lost 95 pounds by changing the way he ate – incorporating more whole foods, eating six meals a day, and making uncomplicated food, often following the same menu most days of the week.

• Eat smaller portions:  Aside from eating smaller meals more frequently, some chefs like Houston’s Ronnie Killen, who lost 215 pounds, eats four ounces of a 16 ounce steak and saves the rest for another meal.

• Find new ways to add flavor and devise new ways to add taste but not tons of calories:  New York City’s Michael Psilakis poaches garlic in olive oil and then adds the garlic to various foods to really punch up the flavor of lower calorie items like mussels and gigante beans.  Many of the chefs use onion, garlic, and many herbs and spices for flavor.

• Indulge occasionally (or have a planned cheat day):  Many of the chefs, like Art Smith, build in a cheat day or leave room in their calorie budget for the occasional indulgence by eating lighter meals and fewer calories in anticipation of the indulgence.

• Exercise:  almost all of the chefs move around more than they did.  New York’s Rocco Dispirito became a triathlete, but Art Smith, who has a rigorous workout routine, says he sometimes just blasts music and dances.

The Bottom Line

Whatever routine a chef follows, they all seem to have become aware of  portion sizes.  They’ve learned about calories and the overabundance of sugar, fat, and salt in many recipes.  And, they move more.  They do not deprive themselves.  They may restrict the amount of food that they eat – but they are eating whole food with good flavor and they’re making room for the occasional, not daily, indulgence.

Art Smith cautions that dessert is a treat. As he says, “If you have dessert every day, then it’s no longer a treat.”

Try following their strategies when you’re cooking at home – or even when ordering in a restaurant.

If we could just get more chefs to offer smaller portions of delicious and healthy whole foods in their restaurants and food companies to do the same with their prepared products it would be a whole lot easier to lose and/or maintain weight and to be mindful of portion size.

The post Have You Noticed That Some Well-Known Chefs Are Shrinking? appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

One whole side of the subway car I was in was filled with posters for New York City’s “Are You Pouring On The Pounds” campaign — aimed at teaching people to reduce their sugar intake (and lose or keep off weight) by cutting down on sugary drinks. It also encourages New Yorkers to drink water, seltzer or low-fat milk instead of the sweet stuff.

The posters are filled with liquid pouring out of bottles of soda, “sports” drinks or sweetened iced tea and turning into blobs of fat as it reaches the glass. Large graphics leave you with no doubt about the number of teaspoons or packets of sugar in each drink — or the total amount of liquid sugar that you could drink daily – as shown in the photo above.

For example: a 20 ounce bottle of soda is equivalent to 16 packets of sugar and a 32 ounce gigantic size cup – the kind so popular in movie theaters, gas stations, and arenas — contains the equivalent of 26 packets of sugar.

Do You Forget To Count The Calories You Drink?

It’s hard to overeat without noticing it. But, many people who gain weight — and can’t figure out why — forget to include the calories in what they drink.  Sugary drinks can add hundreds of calories and they don’t even make you feel full.

On average, Americans now consume 200 to 300 more calories each day than 30 years ago, with nearly half of those calories coming from sugar-sweetened drinks. A survey of adult New Yorkers shows that more than 2 million drink at least one sugar sweetened soda or other sweetened beverage each day – often at 250 calories a pop. Teenagers who drink sugary beverages get an average of 360 calories from them each day.  (They’d have to walk 70 city blocks to use up that many calories.)

Some Facts

A teaspoon of sugar weighs about four grams and each gram of sugar has four calories – or about 16 calories per teaspoon of sugar. On average, Americans consume about 22 teaspoons of added sugar a day – the equivalent of around 350 calories.  (Added sugar refers to the extra, empty calorie, added sweeteners, not the sugar that naturally occurs in foods like fruit and milk.)

The quickest way to decrease some of that sugar is to cut down on soda and sweetened drinks.   Sugary drinks, including sweetened tea or sweetened water that claims to be healthy, account for about one-third of added sugars.

Eating large quantities of sugar can lead to obesity and health problems like diabetes and heart disease. The American Heart Association recommends a daily max of six teaspoons of added sugar for women and nine teaspoons for men.  That’s quite a bit less than 22 teaspoons Americans generally average.  Too many spoonfuls of sugar may create the need for medicine rather than making it easily go down!

The post A Healthy Eating Lesson On The Subway appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

Diet, not a word I usually use, implies deprivation and a way of life that is not easy, comforting, and fun.  So no wonder there are tons of excuses and reasons not to start.

Does This Sound Familiar?

You’ve decided that you want to lose weight.  Do any of these thoughts and actions seem familiar:

• “I’ll wait until Monday to start” – and then you eat enough over the weekend to gain more weight.
• “Wow, it’s Monday, but so and so’s birthday is Wednesday and we’re going out to dinner and then there will be 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 is that?).
• “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

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

Try A Different Way Of Thinking

Diets don’t work.  Maybe they do for the short-term for some of you, but it’s rare to have long lasting weight loss from 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 all trying to obstruct his or her way?  The athlete just keeps looking for an opening – an opportunity.  The choice might be unconventional and require lateral movement or some pulling back before surging forward, but without some kind of move nothing’s going to happen  — no momentum will be gained.

Look for your opening and take it – stop waiting for that elusive perfect moment or the perfect time to lose weight.  You can keep telling yourself that you’ll start tomorrow — but will tomorrow ever come?

The post Are You Waiting For The Perfect Time To Start Your Diet? appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

In the past few weeks I have heard two well-respected interviewers ask some well-known people questions like “How much weight have you lost?” or, “What do you weigh?”

The interviewers, Barbara Walters and Ann Curry, are excellent at their craft; highly intelligent; two people I admire; and thin, thin, thin. Neither of them looks like she has ever struggled – really struggled (I don’t mean losing five pounds to look better) with her weight.  I’m talking about the kind of weight that makes your health care professional describe you as obese or morbidly obese and start waving red flags.

In both cases, the person being interviewed (Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey in Ms. Curry’s interview, Carrie Fisher in Ms. Walters’) declined to give a number – but rather said that s/he’s on the right path, feels better, and is dedicated to losing weight for his/her health.  (Carrie Fisher is a paid spokesperson for Jenny Craig).

Good for them!  No, a stand-up round of applause for them!  I get it – both personally and professionally, that people who have never really had weight challenges don’t understand the difficulties associated with losing weight – real weight, not vanity weight.  There are legions of completed and ongoing research studies that have looked and are looking for answers to why some people gain – and cannot easily lose – weight, even though their caloric intake and energy expenditure should allow them to do so.

Inherent in the question, “How much weight have you lost?” is the implication that there is a formula, an algorithm, and if it is just applied weight will fly off and stay off.  Yea, right.  Don’t we wish!  Do people trying to lose weight function in a controlled space where all of the influences from the outside world coupled with their own unique physiology allow a predictable weight loss — a weight loss that can be easily sustained after it occurs?  If that’s the case, my education has misled me and I’m lying to my clients.  (On the record, I respect my education and I love working with my clients.)

So, here’s the thing.  If someone you know – or have occasion to talk to – is in the process of losing weight, don’t ask him or her to put a number on it.  Quite honestly, this could have a counterproductive effect because frequently people will lose inches, feel better, and have better clinical numbers (lipids, blood sugar) that may not initially be reflected in pounds lost.

Asking that dreaded question, “How much,” might just make the person think that a lack of significant change in numbers means that they are not succeeding.  If they want you to know, they’ll tell you.  Anyway, why do you need to know?

Losing weight is a long-term process.  Healthy habits need to be created that will facilitate weight loss and then keep it off.  Some people will never be slim – but they will be a whole lot healthier at a higher number on the scale if they are eating well and moving around.

Keep the number questions to yourself – just encourage and applaud the effort.

The post What Not to Ask: How Much Weight Have You Lost? appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.