July Goals Recap and August Goals

So I totally forgot I even made this post. Hah. Well, I remembered the goals part but not the posting part. 

July Goals

1.) Boot camp x 12. 

I didn't realize this when posting, but Mr. Trainer took a week off over the 4th. I would like to say I still did a lot of weights and circuit training...but I didn't. I think I ran 3x that week. Oops! Otherwise, I went to each class that was offered : ) So I'm counting this one a success! 

2.) 2.) Running 2 x per week on non-boot camp days. 

Um, no. It is more like 1x/week. I pretty much only run so that I can run at bootcamp! I'm a pretty crappy runner to be honest, but it is a thousand times worse after say doing 30 mins of burpees/squats/push-ups. I have nothing left! I will never, ever be fast but I'm still out there trying. 

3.) More water. Less Diet Coke.

Yeah, not even a little. I drank more water, but I don't think I actually drank less Coke. 

4.) More focus on diet.

Somewhat successful, but I could do loads better. 

August Goals

Goals 1-4 are still on my list. I think these are kind of on-going goals. 

5.) Related to diet: more fruits and vegetables, less processed food. I'm a snacker. I like convenience foods, unfortunately. Oh processed carbs, you had me at hello. I'm making a bigger effort to eat real, whole foods. Just like a proper dietitian!

6.) Blog about things other than boot camp! 

I like to post more 'academic' things that are educational, but then I think no one actually reads them. 

I think I may be one of the few blog readers who wants more words, fewer pictures. That said, I do need to actually take some pictures b/c it is looking boring around here, and I know  y'all are desperate to see more pictures of my adorable self. 

7.) Work more on strengthening my back/pelvis/core 

We do some of this at boot camp, but I need to do more of it on my own. I have terrible, awful ligaments that barely hold my joints together, so I need those kind of supporting muscles to be stronger. 

 

 

I also need to go see my back doctor which I have been putting off for ages. 

Do you  have any goals for August? Or just in general? Have any ideas for blog topics?!?

Pre-workout Food

After vacation last week, I'm clearly in need of getting back on the healthy eating wagon! Totally worth it, though : )

I went to boot camp last Friday after we got back, and it was terrible. I woke up late and didn't have time to eat a good breakfast beforehand-just a granola bar in the car. Dear readers: don't be as dumb as me. I bonked hard. Usually the workout is tough. I'm sweating, sometimes a little light headed, and I'm breathing hard struggling to finish the exercises. Friday was just...wrong. Vision going black, sweating yet freezing cold, nauseous. I had to sit with my head b/t my legs for most of it b/c I was so dizzy. I'm super prone to head rushes (orthostatic hypotension: that dizziness, blurry vision that occurs sometimes if you stand up too quickly and your blood pressure falls.) I get these alllllll the time. It felt like that the entire time. Usually he is checking in with us, making sure we are ok and helps get us through the last reps or dig deeper. He looked at me and just said are you ok? Me: blank look, shaking my head. Him: dude. you look awful. go sit down.


 So today's topic is Eating Before Exercise!

Before boot camp I usually eat a piece of bread with some peanut butter, or a banana with yogurt, or something like that. A bit of quick carbs with a little protein. I can't eat too much or I feel like I will throw up. I am not much of a morning person, so I have to make myself eat something. If you exercise late in the day it isn't so much of a concern.


Some people advocate working out on an empty stomach. The theory behind this is that without glucose, your body has to start using fat for fuel. A fun little process called glycolysis. This is an unusual and inefficient process-so usually it slows you down quite a bit. The argument is that if you continually exercise and your body has to go into glycolysis 1) who doesn't want to burn fat? and 2) your body becomes more efficient at it eventually won't slow you down as much. That is also a very quick and dirty explanation of how low carb diets work.


I admit that I don't know enough about this topic and haven't read much research on it. Bad dietitian, bad! Instead I thought I would ask you lovely people.

--Do you workout on an empty stomach if you work out in the morning? Do you think it makes a difference? 

--Do you have a pre-workout snack? What is it? 

--Do you have an opinion on running/working out with a bit of glucose/glycogen depletion?


And as a survey note to my tens of readers: do you read posts like this that are kind of wordy and a tiny bit more educational? I would like this blog to be somewhat informative, but I don't really know how much people want to actually read ; ) So weigh in and tell me!

Food Plate

The big news in the nutrition world is the changing of the Food Pyramid to the Choose My Plate model. It is all over social media with everyone weighing in on it. So of course, I'm jumping on that bandwagon.

 

Pretty! 

The Good

-Easy to understand.

-Practical-gives visual representation of portions

-Half is fruit/veggies

-I actually like that it is labeled "protein" vs "meat" for people who are vegetarian/vegan

The Bad

-Where are the fats and sugars? Especially the healthy un/mono-saturated ones? The guidelines don't really differentiate b/t healthy fats and unhealthy fats.

-Lean protein? Low fat dairy? this is addressed in the guidelines, but not the plate icon.

-I think the serving sizes is ambiguous.

-I wish it addressed what NOT to eat more.

-It doesn't emphasize whole grains. And I think most people are counting cakes/cookies/chips as grains. 

-Do we need that much dairy? Calcium-yes. But you can get calcium from other sources. Should dairy count as a protein? 

Overall, it isn't bad. It is a start. I don't think this new icon will have a huge impact on the way people eat though, unfortunately. I wish I knew what would motivate everyone to make better choices. Right now, our nutrition as a country is so broken that even just getting people to eat like this plate, with its flaws, would make a huge impact. While I think it could be better, it is going to be a process of baby steps to fix our nation's health. It is aimed at the people with the vastly unhealthy lives, not regular people who have a basic understanding of nutrition. I thought most nutrition info was common sense and well known to all. That is not the case.

I just wish there was an answer. Bad nutrition seems so cyclical to me. Parents don't make healthy choices for themselves or the child. The child grows up eating processed, fatty foods and both gains a taste for these foods and a jacked up metabolism. The child becomes a parent and teaches their child the same thing. Somewhere, somehow we have to break that cycle. I don't think a new icon is going to change most peoples' eating patterns.

My school nutrition rotations were spent in Birmingham Public Schools-this is a very poor (financially-80-90% were on free/reduced lunches) school system populated by largely African American kids. It is the definition of an urban setting where kids aren't necessarily safe playing outside; kids live in an area with fewer parks and sidewalks; they are living in a food desert where the produce selection is terrible; and they honestly have not been exposed to nutrition knowledge or many nutritious foods-and those foods seem weird. School lunches are always under fire for being over processed, fries count as veggies, the meats aren't lean, too much pizza, etc. And this is true. But, when we served new salads with more and better veggies-the kids won't eat it. They have to have a certain number of veggies on their plate; they can't refuse them. When we tried different, non-starch veggies-the kids won't eat them. They would rather eat nothing and throw food away than eat some of these more nutritious items. So, yes, we should revamp school lunches, but if they aren't getting a healthy message at home it doesn't seem like it would make much of an impact. Not to even touch on how little money schools have for these meals.

As a dietitian, one of our major goals is to motivate people to make a change in their diet. Whether that is a gluten free, or a renal , or just a basic healthy diet, our job is to convince the patient to eat that way. It seems easy, but it is actually one of the most challenging aspects of this job. You would think telling someone "You are diabetic. Your blood sugar is 679. If you keep eating like you have been, you are going to be really sick and then die. The end." would be motivating, but apparently not based on the frequency of return patients. Many of my patients just thought diabetes/heart disease/early death were just inevitable. All their friends and family have died youngish from complications. That is just what happens in a person's life. They don't think they can change, or that the change would be worth it. I'm very interested in what that spark is, that convinces someone to buy into what you are saying and motivate themselves to do it.  How can I change your motivation from extrinsic (I have to do this b/c my MD/RD is making me) to intrinsic (I have to do this so that I can be healthy and watch my kids grow up.) What can we do? What can we say? What can we use to convince someone that they *have* to make changes? Dietitians do our best, but I have left patients' rooms knowing they aren't going to do anything I say.

So I'm glad there is a new, hopefully easy to interpret graphic. Will it change anything? We will have to see. I don't think the disconnect is that people don't know what to eat. They just would rather not eat the healthy foods. But, we have to start somewhere. And we have to start now. 

What are your thoughts? Love it or hate the plate? If you have made a change in your eating, what was your motivating factor? How did you move from contemplation to action? What do you think needs to be done to correct the terrifying health path we are currently on? 

Cheater

A millions years ago I asked for questions and am just now getting around to answering them. I am nothing if not consistent in my procrastination.


Rose asked:   How bad are occasional (less than once a week) cheat meals for health?

My short answer is: I don't know. Helpful! I mean, I don't know if there is a way to quantifiably measure that, and I'm sure it varies from person to person. It also depends on what is defined as "health". Is it weight loss, healthy cholesterol/TGs, etc. There is evidence that even one meal high in saturated fat can affect the anti-inflammatory properties of HDL cholesterol and hinder blood vessels expansion-which would create higher blood pressure as quickly as 3 hours later.

Your cholesterol and triglyceride levels fluctuate with each meal-this is why you have to fast before having a lipid profile done. Saturated and trans fats (found primarily in whole-milk dairy products, fatty meats, poultry, partially hydrogenated vegetable oils) are the are the main dietary contributers to increasing LDL cholesterol (LDL=Less Healthy) and decreasing HDL. (HDL=Healthy) The American Heart Association recommends no more than 7% of your daily calories come from sat/trans fats. So from a cardiovascular standpoint, yes, cheats can negatively affect your health. If your eating is otherwise good, this can net out a bit. The problem comes from too many cheats and not enough good days. If you want to cheat, try to cheat with foods that are low in saturated fats. When you are good, try to have a diet high in poly- and monounstaturated fats (Poly: safflower, sesame, soy, corn and sunflower-seed oils, nuts and seeds. Mono: olive, canola and peanut oils, avocados) as these foods increase the good cholesterol and help negate some of the damage from the cheat days.

In terms of weight loss: I advocate occasional cheating. Long term, maintainable changes to diet and exercise are what pretty much every health professional recommends. Diets high in fruits and vegetables, whole grains, lean dairy, etc.  But honestly, I don't want to live a life where I don't have cake at a birthday party. Or a margarita on the beach. Or cheeseburgers. Something I try to do is identify when it is really worth it. If it is a unique food that I love, but don't have it regularly. My aunt's key lime pie on vacation (which is smack your momma good and I could eat every day!) is a "better" cheat to me than say pizza. I can have pizza anytime. I just remind myself-this is not the last time you will ever see pizza. You can have it again. Just not much tonight (guess who is going to a picnic with pizza tonight.) No one can maintain a super strict, all healthy diet every single moment of the day. Except my father in law, but he isn't a lot of fun. A planned or structured cheating plan can help some people better commit to the healthy diet the rest of the time. Just the psychological feeling of "I can have this thing I'm dying for on Friday. I can make it til then!" can be hugely beneficial to your mental health.

For me, when I'm trying to lose weight, I have to have a long run of eating well. Like a month of calorie deficits before my body gets the idea of what's happening and starts dropping weight. Even if I have a 1 lb decrease in calories in a week, having a big meal or big cheat seems to cancel it completely out. Mathematically, I know this should not be the case but I promise this is just how my body works. Weight loss is both an art and a science. Science says expend more calories than you take in and you will lose weight. But, it isn't always that easy. Stupid biochemistry.

Once I kind of get over that block and start losing weight, I can be a little more liberal with cheats. Many people find that a cheat can break them out of a weight loss plateau-it kind of confuses the body . And sometimes when you have been at that plateau for a long time, you just need a mental break and then recommitment.

In my opinion it really comes down to what are you doing 80-90% of the time. Is the majority of your intake healthy, or is every meal a cheat meal? What do you do after the cheat? I can definitely get caught up in the "oh, well today is totally screwed already so I might as well eat everything. For the next 8 days. " Better to brush it off, really really enjoy that cheat and make sure to spend it on something you truly love, and then get back to it even stronger.

I hope that answered your question, Rose, in a very long winded way!

What do you guys think? Cheat days: good or bad? How often do you splurge on food? Is it difficult for you to reign yourself back in? Have any other questions? Come talk to me so I don't feel like I'm talking to myself!

Also, check out Jen in Training's great giveaway. But don't enter it b/c I want to win.  

http://jenintraining.blogspot.com/

Its National Nutrition Month!

12 Ways to Enjoy More Fruits, Vegetables, Whole Grains and Dairy

1. Have fun using vegetables as pizza topping. Try broccoli, spinach, fresh basil, tomatoes, mushrooms, zucchini, and squash.

2. Mix up a breakfast smoothie with low-fat milk and any combination of frozen fruit: strawberries, blueberries, peaches, raspberries, pineapple, and a banana.

3. Make a veggie wrap with roasted vegetables and cheese rolled in a whole-wheat tortilla.

4. Try raw crunchy vegetables instead of chips with your favorite dip. 

5. Grill colorful vegetable kabobs packed with tomatoes, green and red peppers, mushrooms, squash, zucchini,  and onions.

6. Stuff an omelet with vegetables. Turn an omelet into a meal with broccoli, squash, carrots, peppers, tomatoes or onions with cheddar cheese.

7. Sandwich in fruits and vegetables. Add pizzazz to sandwiches with sliced pineapple, apple, peppers, cucumbers and tomato as fillings.

8. Make a habit of adding fruit to your morning oatmeal, ready-to-eat cereal, yogurt or toaster waffle.

9. Top a baked potato with beans, salsa,  or broccoli and low-fat cheese.

11. Sneak in some vegetables. Add grated, shredded or chopped vegetables such as zucchini, spinach and carrots to lasagna, meat loaf, mashed potatoes, pasta sauce and rice dishes.

12. Make your main dish a salad of dark, leafy greens and other colorful vegetables, fruit, and nuts. Mandarin oranges, cranberries, blueberries are great on salads. Add some almonds or walnuts for extra healthy fats.

 *adapted/stolen from: eatright.org


Yes, I know it is March 2 but I had a traumatizing  day yesterday b/t going to the dentist and then falling dramatically down my outside stairs onto the driveway. Let's just pretend yesterday didn't exist, shall we?