PraxisFitness

and it’s amazing what damage you can do in a short time!  Over Halloween-Thanksgiving-Christmas, I did not gain any weight…. but a few drinks and too much time waiting on floats to pass by…  suddenly I’ve gained four pounds.  Good thing this is the week to actually do the “eating like I’m on foodstamps”…

Speaking of eating… there was a new study recently talking about dieting.  You know there’s always a new study on that, each one “proving” its author’s diet is the best.  Well, this new study from the Harvard School of Public Health demonstrates that many diets are equally effective for weight loss, with a couple of caveats:

The findings show that would-be dieters should choose the weight-loss program that they are most comfortable with, as long as it is high in fiber and low in calories and saturated fat.

“You can’t go wrong,” Dr. Frank Sacks of the Harvard School of Public Health, whose study appears in the New England Journal of Medicine, said in a telephone interview. “Our bottom line is, choose a diet that is good for your heart and there’s a big range of what you can eat. Then just be reasonable about your intake. If you need to lose weight, eat less.”

This study shows what seems to be obvious… but what is also often lost in the latest diet fads: eating should not be as complicated as a lot of diets are!  Sure, it’s one thing to manipulate your macronutrients (ratios of fat, carbs, and protein) if you have an esthetic goal such as a fitness or bodybuilding competition… but overall - just don’t make it too hard on yourself.

Any opinions out there?

Ok, this is a challenge from Everyday Sensei, to shop and eat for 5 days as if the only money available was what you’d be given if you were on food stamps.  It’s quite a challenge to do this and eat the healthy foods I’m used to grabbing, but I am grateful that I have a slow cooker and a little flexibility with time - for example, I can imagine that some people of food stamps would be working multiple low-paying jobs, leaving them with very little time.  A flexible schedule also allowed me to get various items at different stores, depending what was on sale where.  Even so, it was still difficult!  I am not sure there is enough food there, calorie-wise, and I may need to add oils (which were not included, but I only have 50 cents left!) to help compensate.  Definitely a lean week.    About half the items were store brand, but if all of them were, I could have saved a little more and therefore had a slightly better volume of food.  The volume here is what we would eat to lose a couple of pounds!  No snacking in the evening is going to be pretty tough as well.

Here is what I bought for the week, for two, which allowed $58.70 in total:

• 1 pound carrots @ 0.95/lb = 0.95: total $0.95
• 1.74 pounds apples (4) @ 1.59/lb = 2.77: total $3.72
• 2 ea bell peppers @ 1.89 ea = 3.78; total $7.50
• 1.5 pounds zucchini (5) @ 0.99/lb = 1.49; total $8.98
• 1.87 pounds butternut (1) @ 1.29/lb = 2.41; total $11.39
• 1.28 pounds bananas (3) @ 0.64/lb = 0.82; total $12.21
• 1 head romaine @ 1.89 ea = 1.89; total $14.10
• 1 head red leaf @ 1.69 ea = 1.69; total $15.79
• 1.9 pounds onion @ 0.99/lb = 1.88; total $17.67
• 3.5 pounds yams (6 med) @ 0.99/lb = 3.47; total $21.14
• 0.2 pound garlic (2 heads) @ 2.39/lb =  0.48; total $21.62
• 1 28-oz can diced tomatoes @ 1.73 ea = 1.73; total $23.35
• 4 15-oz cans French green beans @ 0.97 ea = 3.88; total $27.23
• 1 pound bag dry small red beans @ 1.59 ea = 1.59; total $28.82
• 1 pound bag dry lentils @ 0.99 ea = 0.99; total $29.81
• 1 16-oz bottle salsa @ 1.00 =  1.00; total $30.81
• 1 12-oz can tuna @ 2.99 ea = 2.99; total $33.80
• 1 can Tony Chachere’s w/herbs  @ 1.39 ea = 1.39; total $35.19
• 1 half gal skim milk @  3.50 ea = 3.50; total $38.69
• 1 24 oz  lowfat cottage cheese @ 2.99 ea = 2.99; total $41.68
• 1 dozen eggs @ 1.69/dz = 1.69; total $43.37
• 0.78 pound long grain brown rice (2 c) @ 1.49/lb = 1.16; total $44.53
• 0.25 pound pearl barley @ 0.99/lb = 0.25; total $44.78
• 2.17 pounds whole wheat flour (for 1 loaf) @ 0.99/lb =  2.15; total $46.93
• 0.6 pound steel cut oats (1.5 c) @ 1.39/lb = 0.83; total $47.76
• 1 jar natural peanut butter @ 3.39 ea = 3.39; total $51.15
• 1 bottle mustard @ 1.69 ea =1.69; total $52.84
• .22 pound almonds @ 8.99/lb = 1.98; total $54.81
• 1 small jar mayo @ 1.39 ea = 1.39; total $56.20
• 1 pound chicken (2 breasts)  @ 1.99/lb = 1.99; total $58.19

As you can see, the money is extremely close - no wiggle room at all.  From those purchases, here is the plan:

Mon - Fri, breakfast for both: baked oats/barley w/1 apple, 3 c milk, 3 egg whites  (baked once and nuked the rest of the week; it’s much better with a few dried cranberries, a little maple syrup, and a scoop of protein powder, but that was out of the budget)

Mon am snack - me (just me, husband doesn’t snack):  1 hard boiled egg

Mon lunch - me: homemade bread with peanut butter & banana; DH: homemade bread with peanut butter & banana

Mon pm snack - me: 1/3 c cottage cheese, 1/2 banana

Mon dinner - both: lentil soup (lentils, 2 carrots, garlic, Tony’s, 1 bell pepper, 2 zukes, 1/2 can tomatoes, mustard)

Tue am snack - me: 14 almonds (had office meeting and a free slice of King Cake as well)

Tue lunch - me: hard boiled egg sandwich with lettuce & mustard; DH: tuna salad sandwich (3 oz tuna, mayo, zuke, carrot, Tony’s, homemade bread)

Tue pm snack - me: 1/2 apple with peanut butter

Tue dinner - both: butternut stew (butternut, other 1/2 can tomatoes, red beans, Tony’s, 1/2 bell pepper, onion, garlic) (I usually make this with chipotle chilis as well, but that’s out this week)

Wed am snack - me: 1/3 c cottage cheese

Wed lunch - me: leftover lentil soup; DH: leftover butternut stew

Wed pm snack - me: 1 hard boiled egg, a few almonds

Wed dinner - both: frittata (6 eggs, 2 cans green beans, garlic, salsa); salad (greens, vinagrette, diced steamed yams)

Thu am snack - me: 14 almonds

Thu lunch - me: tuna sald (3 oz tuna, mayo, zuke, carrot, Tony’s) over red leaf lettuce; DH: leftover frittata

Thu pm snack - me: 1/3 c cottage cheese, 1/2 banana

Thu dinner - both: chicken with peanut sauce (chicken, peanut butter, milk, Tony’s, garlic) over brown rice, green beans on the side

Fri am snack - me: 1 hard boiled egg

Fri lunch - me: homemade bread with peanut butter, 1/2 apple; DH: homemade bread with peanut butter, 1/2 apple

Fri pm snack - me: 1/2 apple, peanut butter

Fri dinner - both: tuna salad (6 oz tuna, 2 zuke, 2 carrots, almonds, mayo, Tony’s, mustard over remaining lettuces), baked yams

Like Miz said, “ain’t nothin’ new under the sun” (well, she used different words)… but I’m going to write about a few tools anyway. No, not tools as in stupid men or construction equipment, but tools that can help you achieve your fitness goals.

One such tool is the food diary.  Can I just say (actually, yes, I can - it’s my blog, eh?) - I hate keeping a food diary!  It feels tedious and childish, but mostly just tedious.  And I don’t even keep a detailed diary.  You can do it many ways; nutritionists & lots of places on the web often recommend listing the foods, the portions, perhaps even the calories and macronutrients (fat/carbs/protein).  Some people might need to do that, especially if their goals are very dependent on a specific dietary intake, but whoa, baby! Too much work for me.

However, studies show that keeping a food diary increases weight loss, so if that’s your goal, why not try to do it?  Here’s one study from Kaiser Permanente that showed keeping a diary doubled weight loss - that’s some compelling information.

Food journals can work for other reasons too. For example, my goals are more nutrition oriented at the moment:  get in 2 servings of whole grain, 2 servings of legumes, 3 servings of fruit and 4 servings on vegetables per day.  Along with that I try to be sure I have a decent portion of protein in every meal; after working with a nutritionist, I have a good idea of what a serving of protein looks like for me, so I just eyeball it.  These goals are to help me kick a sugar habit - and I’ve found that by only allowing sweets after I get the above in… I’m a lot less likely to want said sweets.  However, without the food journal I’ve not been succeeding at it, so it’s time to dust it off and dig out the pen again. I’ve found this item, picopad, is handy for me because it’s tiny and I can carry it everywhere (and it comes with a pen so I have no excuses).  There are also lots of online diaries, examples being NutritionData, Fit Day, SparkPeople, CalorieKing… I personally like NutritionData but that’s certainly not to say the others aren’t good. Try them and see which works best for you.

PS For those of you more connected (or more willing to spend bucks on a cellphone), there’s also Lose It! for your iPhone…

A couple of months ago I ran across the recipe for the “Ultimate Power Breakfast” from Men’s Health magazine.

Here’s the recipe (copied/pasted directly from the link above):

The Ultimate Power Breakfast
Powerfoods: 8

1 egg
1 cup low-fat milk
3/4 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup mixed berries
1 tablespoon chopped pecans or almonds
1 teaspoon vanilla whey protein powder
1 teaspoon ground flaxseed
1/2 banana, sliced
1 tablespoon plain yogurt

In microwave-safe bowl, mix egg well, then add next 6 ingredients and nuke for 2 minutes. Remove, let cool for a minute or two. Top with sliced banana and yogurt.

Serves 1

Nutritional information, per serving: 590 calories, 30 g protein, 80 g carbs, 17 g total fat, 4 g saturated fat, 193 mg sodium, 12 g fiber

To be honest, I haven’t made it exactly as stated. I use 2 egg whites instead of an egg, and since I don’t have rolled oats (which is what I assume the recipe calls for), I use about half the amount in steel-cut oats. I also add a good shake of cinnamon, as I found the first batch a tiny bit bland. Different berries would improve the oomph too - all I had was some blueberries, which are yummy but not really zingy, if you know what I mean.

Since I only need about 300 calories for my first meal of the day, I eat about half this recipe - it would probably be great as is for a guy. It also works really well if you make most of the recipe ahead and refrigerate it for the work week. Scoop out a bit in the morning, nuke, top with milk, sliced banana and yogurt. Really, really tasty and filling enough to last.