Notes From Today's Nutritional Lessons 12-08-13

If you're new to my nutritional lesson posts, then here's a quick explanation. I'm enrolled in an intensive program that is teaching me the nuts and bolts of nutrition and fitness. Every week is a new lesson, and I take notes from those lessons. I post my notes here on my blog, mostly so I can find them again to review later. If, in the meantime, you find information that is helpful to you on your journey ...more the better. Enjoy!

An adult stomach can hold a volume of about 1 liter. Once you hit that mark, your stomach is full, no matter what you are eating or how hungry you feel. Your stomach can only hold so much. When it comes to stomach capacity, filling up on potato chips or filling up on steamed broccoli is all the same; however, there is a big difference between stomach capacity and nutrition! 

We’ve talked about caloric density, and the fact that many unhealthy foods are calorically dense. In contrast, a good measure of healthy foods is their nutrient density. Nutrients go beyond just providing energy to the body. They are the vitamins and minerals necessary for growth, repair, and health maintenance. To say a food is nutritious means that it packs a lot of nutrients into each calorie. 

Research suggests that eating a lower-calorie, nutrient-dense diet full of foods like fruits and vegetables is likely the most effective and healthiest way to lose weight and keep it off long-term.

Fiber is a tissue in plants that provides structure, shape, and texture. It’s found naturally in the skin and flesh of fruits and vegetables, and is also abundant in beans, legumes, nuts, and grains. As you know, fiber will slow down sugar absorption and contribute to fullness. Research shows it can also lower bad cholesterol. Not bad for simple plant tissue!

When it comes to fiber, there’s a big difference between processed foods and unprocessed foods. In grains, for example, most of the fiber is in the outer layers (the bran and the germ), which are removed during the refining process. White rice and white flour are simply brown rice and whole wheat that have been stripped of that outer casing.

An analysis of several major studies showed that people who ate an extra two servings of whole grains a day decreased their risk of having type 2 diabetes by 21%.

Unrefined foods that still have all their original fiber are sometimes called whole foods, since nothing has been taken away. Additionally, whole foods are generally not processed to add salt, fat, or sugar. Whole grains and fresh fruits and vegetables are the main examples of whole foods. They still have all their original fiber and the health benefits that come along with it. Experts agree that most men should have between 30 and 38 grams of fiber per day, and most women should have between 21 and 25 grams. The single best way to get this fiber is to skip processing and include plenty of whole foods in your meals and snacks every day.

The Healthy Plate Method: Picture an empty dinner plate, about 9 inches across. Then, visualize a line dividing your plate in half. Last, divide one of those halves in half again. You now have three plate sections. The largest is for fruits and vegetables, and the two smaller sections are for whole grains and healthy protein.Skip potatoes and French fries for the veggie half of your plate, though. Potatoes are very high in starch, a carbohydrate that your body doesn't have to process, so it converts almost immediately to sugar during digestion. To lose weight and keep your blood sugar levels from spiking, eat starchy foods only occasionally.

On the other side of your Healthy Plate, you’ll find lean protein and whole grains. Beans, tofu, lentils, and lean poultry or fish are excellent choices for the protein quarter. All protein should be cooked with lower-fat methods like broiling, stir-frying, steaming, or baking – never deep-fry.

High-fiber whole grains are the best choice for the final quarter of your plate. You can choose whole wheat bread, whole grain tortillas, brown rice, and whole grain pasta, or get adventurous with grains like quinoa, couscous, or millet. Just make sure the first ingredient on any packaged item you choose is 100% whole grain.

Balance is an important eating habit, but a balanced meal alone won’t cause you to lose weight. You also have to be aware of your portion sizes to make sure you are not overeating. To improve your chances of eating a healthy amount of food, always start eating when you are hungry (not starving) and stop eating when you are satisfied (not stuffed). 

Next time you serve your plate, start by taking smaller portions than usual, and give yourself twenty minutes to feel full before going back for more. If you use smaller dishes, you’ll be more likely to serve yourself smaller portions. And if you’re still not satisfied at the end of a meal, choose extra servings of high-volume, low-calorie foods to fill you up.

While planning healthy portions, though, remember one more thing. It might sound strange, but an important part of losing weight is ensuring you get enough food. Eat three balanced meals a day, and add healthy snacks to keep you satisfied in-between. This will boost your metabolism and keep you from getting so hungry that you lose control over unhealthy temptations.

Becoming healthier doesn’t mean following a deprivation diet! Instead, focus on consuming high-quality foods that you’ll enjoy for the long term.

Statistics show that only 5% of people who lose weight by dieting are able to keep it off after a few years. Diets don't work, but long-term, healthy lifestyle choices do.

Diets fail for a number of reasons, but the biggest may be that restrictive eating is not sustainable over time. Classic diets that rely on deprivation lead to yo-yo weight loss and negative side effects. These diets can overly limit calorie intake, leaving you hungry and uncomfortable. Such restriction actually slows down your metabolism, making it harder for you to lose weight. Highly restricted diets are actually quite unhealthy, because they lack variety and don’t include enough foods to provide proper nutrition. And enjoying food becomes impossible when everything is off-limits. Classic restrictive diets are doomed to fail, because they rely on extreme, temporary changes without teaching the long-lasting skills needed to make healthy choices for life.

If you want healthy changes to last, you need to build habits you can live with. No one can live with daily food misery.

To be successful, eat a varied balance of healthy, delicious foods that provide the nutrition you need while allowing you to feel satisfied and happy with your choices. If you want something, eat it sensibly. Choose the healthiest possible response to your cravings instead of denying them, and consider not just what you eat, but how much.  The bottom line is to balance enjoyment and health with each food choice so you can sustain healthy habits for life. 

It’s time to develop a plan for a full day of healthy eating. Planning ahead is key to making great choices, so let’s practice. What could you change about tomorrow's meal plan to live out your new healthier eating skills for an entire day? 

Pull out a sheet of paper or open a computer document now, and write down what you would eat and drink during your ideal food day, from breakfast through dinner. Remember to think about nutrition, balance, portions, and enjoyment.

Breakfast: For a healthy start, a breakfast pastry, bagel, or muffin is no longer an option. Do you prefer savory food in the morning? Try a hard-boiled egg with salsa and avocado slices, a scramble with veggies and tofu, or a breakfast burrito with black beans, lettuce, and tomato in a whole grain tortilla. Make it balanced with a serving of fruit. If you prefer cereal, try oatmeal with banana slices and cinnamon. You'll be surprised how sweet the banana tastes if you cook it in. If you don't like bananas, add raisins or applesauce instead. Balance the grains with a half-cup of protein-rich plain yogurt.

Lunch: Lunch can be tricky because it often takes place at work or on the go, and can include eating out with friends or colleagues. But that doesn't mean you can't find healthy options. Rather than eating a hamburger or fish and chips, think about soups and salads. Choose broth-based and vegetarian soups, like minestrone, black bean, lentil, mixed vegetable, or bean chili. If you go for a salad, top it with ingredients that you really like, so you don’t get tired of it before you finish. A great complement to a salad is a small sandwich. Try cucumber, lettuce and tomato on rye bread with Dijon mustard, or hummus on whole-wheat pita with grated carrots and sprouts. Or, make a wrap with mashed black beans, bell pepper, tomato slices, and lettuce in a whole-wheat tortilla. If you like meat in your sandwich, pick lean turkey breast and skip salami and other high-fat, high-sodium meats.

Dinner: Many people tend to eat big dinners and go to bed stuffed, but it’s much healthier to eat a smaller dinner, go to bed satisfied, and wake up hungry. Dinner can start with a tall glass of water and a healthy soup or salad, similar to lunch. Add a serving of whole grain pasta with fresh tomato sauce, broccoli, and spinach, and 3 ounces of baked salmon. Whole-wheat tortillas with beans, avocado, lettuce, tomato, and salsa make delicious soft tacos. Or, try a chicken and vegetable stir-fry over brown rice.

Snacks: When you find yourself hungry and looking for junk food to snack on, it is a good defensive strategy to have healthy options immediately available. Veggie sticks dipped in hummus, air-popped popcorn, a handful of almonds, and easy-to-eat fruit like apples and oranges are all good options. And when you’re really in dire straits, a square of dark chocolate is a decent way to take the edge off your sugar cravings.

The color of your food is a great mark of the nutrients it contains. Fresh, raw fruits and vegetables come in a host of colors – dark green, yellow, red, orange, and even blue-violet. These naturally occurring colors indicate the presence of particular vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients that your body needs.Grapefruit, kiwifruit, oranges, berries, melons, and green apples are particularly good fruit choices for people with prediabetes, because they are lower in sugar than other fruits.

To eat more whole foods every day, start by planning the fruits-and-veggies half of your Healthy Plate. You want this side of your plate to be very colorful. Choose dark green, leafy veggies like spinach and mixed lettuces, then add bell peppers, cauliflower, cucumbers, mushrooms, and tomato. The goal of colorful eating is variety. The more color you have on your plate, the wider the range of nutrients you will consume.

Also, surround yourself with colorful whole foods at home and at work. Put baskets of fresh fruit and vegetables on display so you can easily reach for these delicious options when you are hungry. Fresh foods aren’t the only source of colorful nutrition. Keep airtight jars filled with split peas, lentils, black beans, or other beans you like on the shelves in your pantry. Surrounding yourself with beautiful, healthy whole foods is a great reminder that your new path to health doesn’t include depriving yourself of the joys of food.

You’ve just read a lot about how to make healthy food choices. Try not to get overwhelmed - just take it in stride, and keep making steady, small changes that fit your life and your personal strategy for health.Keep up the low-calorie, high-fiber choices, and feel confident that when you eat this way, you get great nutrition to support all your body’s functions. Add balance and portion control to your toolbox by following the Healthy Plate Method at mealtimes. Remember to keep your own happiness in mind as you make changes, by making sure you change in ways you can live with for the long term. Finally, when you just need an easy answer, choose something colorful!

Notes From Today's Nutritional Lessons 12-2-13

This week was very educational for me. It inspired my husband and I to go shopping for the week's groceries and to follow these guidelines closely. I can't tell you how satisfying it feels to feed my babies good food, free of the processed crap I was feeding them. And I feel like I have so much more energy, myself. I don't feel sick when I eat. I don't crash after an hour. I don't crave junk. And the week's only started! Read on to see what I've been learning:

While many behaviors affect your health, good food choices have the biggest influence on weight loss for most people, which makes them a top priority for meeting your goals.

Two important guidelines will help you succeed: eat less fat and eat fewer processed carbs.

Fat contains more than twice the calories of the same amount of sugar, starch, or protein, so cutting back fat will greatly impact your weight loss.

Diets tend to focus on the quantity of fat, but it’s equally important to know the types of fats you consume. While monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats are healthy and even helpful in small quantities, saturated fats and trans fats are harmful. These fats, which are found in many packaged foods, are the two kinds you should especially avoid.

Saturated fats occur naturally in animal products like meat, butter, and cream. They are also found in some vegetable oils, like palm kernel oil and cocoa butter. Because saturated fat occurs naturally, you might think it is a good thing to eat. It is not! Your body actually produces all the saturated fat it needs on its own. Every gram of saturated fat that you get from eating is excessive, and can lead to health problems like high cholesterol and cardiovascular disease.

Trans fat is rarely found in nature. It is generally manmade for the purpose of increasing shelf life and flavor stability in packaged food products. Originally developed to be a healthier substitute for saturated fats, trans fats are now recognized to be even worse. Things like shortening, doughnuts, French fries, and margarine are high in trans fat.

Have you ever heard of partially hydrogenated vegetable oil? The word "vegetable" may lead you to believe that this oil is healthy, but it’s actually just another term for trans fat. An accumulation of trans fat can increase your risk of diabetes and heart disease. In fact, trans fat is so unhealthy that the American Heart Association recommends never eating more than 2 grams in a day.

Practice tracking your saturated and trans fat intake for a few days, as your weight changes, so will your goal.

Trans fat is found in prepared foods, but it’s also used as a means to prepare the foods! Some restaurants cook things like French fries in trans fatty oil. Watch out--that serving of fries might contain up to 5 grams of harmful trans fat (more than you should eat in over 2 days)!

You probably know that added sugars are an unhealthy choice, but processed carbs are just as bad. Processed or refined carbs include foods like white rice, white bread, bagels, cold cereals, potato chips, and many sweets and crackers. They have been stripped of their fiber and processed for longer shelf life. When you eat refined carbs, your body breaks them down into sugar molecules that rapidly enter your bloodstream. The next time you’re eating white bread, imagine you’re eating pure sugar, because there’s just not enough fiber to make a big difference.

Cattle aren't fed highly refined grains. Farmers take special care to crack the grains enough to aid digestion, but they include the original unprocessed fiber to slow down absorption. They've learned that processing the food too much makes cattle sick.

Processed foods are typically found in convenience stores and the middle aisles of supermarkets. Because they’re not whole foods, they keep without refrigeration. Watch out for packaged foods that are easy to store in your pantry for a long time! Refined carbs also tend to be lower in nutrients and higher in calories, which is the opposite of what you want.

Focus instead on choosing healthy sources of carbs. There are so many available! Start with whole grains, beans, nuts and seeds, and fiber-rich fruits and vegetables. Switch to whole grains in every way that you can, including bread, crackers, tortillas, and pasta. Choose apple slices and almonds instead of cheese and crackers for a snack. Include fruit and vegetables at every meal.

The fewer packaged foods and sugary beverages you consume, the better. Even if you miss some of your old favorites at first, your tastes will change over time, and soon, you will love your new choices.

The first step to eating less fat and processed carbs is to find them! Unfortunately, they can be tricky to spot. Some of the foods we assume are healthy aren't very healthy at all. Most cold cereals are loaded with added sugars, even the ones that are branded as good for you. In fact, some "healthy" cereals are worse than the obviously sugary ones! Canned soups and packaged chips or crackers are typically high in fat and salt. And you already know that even 100% juice is particularly unhealthy.

Begin by reading the nutritional labels on the food you buy and checking for high fat and high carbs without fiber. To be a great source of fiber, a food should have at least 5 grams per serving.

Any package with a Nutrition Facts label will also list its ingredients. Seek whole grains, and watch out for oils and added sweeteners. Stick with ingredients that you recognize and that you can pronounce. You can also look at the length of the list to estimate how much processing the food has gone through.

Breakfast is often described as the most important meal of the day. If you have prediabetes, that is even more true, since a good breakfast (high-protein, high-fiber) will help stabilize your blood sugar levels all day long. So don’t skip it! Always plan to eat within one hour of waking up.

Instead of succumbing to a pattern of indulging, anticipate and head off the snack attack. Eat an apple during your commute home, before you feel starving. Drink two glasses of water right when you walk in the door. Or, get outside for a soothing stroll to relax your mind instead of eating or drinking anything.

Shop healthy to live healthy. Make a complete shopping list before going to the store. Make sure your list includes plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, along with the whole grains and lean proteins needed to make a meal. Once you get to the store, buy only what you put on the list ahead of time. And never go grocery shopping when you’re hungry!

Once you have a healthy snack and enter the store with your list, start shopping the perimeter. The store edges are home to most fresh foods like produce, dairy, and whole grains. The less time you spend in the center aisles, the healthier your purchases will be. Make it a habit to do a lap around the edges of the grocery store first, picking up the majority of your groceries before heading into the aisles. Once you are in the center aisles, buy only what you have on your list!

Make healthier versions of prepared foods you want to avoid. Canned beans and tomatoes make a low-fat and low-sodium base for soups and chili. Frozen fruits are the start of blended smoothies, a great substitute for more sugary frozen desserts. Instead of fatty prepared salad dressing, make your own with herbs, spices, vinegar, and olive oil that you buy separately.

Notes From Today's Nutritional Lessons

Today started Week 2 of the health program I'm enrolled in. I wanted to record some of the notes I took while reading the lesson here so I could find them again easily. And of course, I'm hoping you may learn something new and be inspired as well. 

~ Don’t consume sugar without fiber. Doing so sends the sugar straight into your bloodstream. Fiber is the antidote to the sugar and slows your bodie's absorption of the sugar. Super important!

~ There are three macronutrients in calories - fat, protein & carbs. In one gram of protein and carbs there are 4 calories. And in one gram of fat there’s 9 calories. That’s twice as much!

~ Caloric density - some foods have a high caloric density. That’s a lot of calories in a little bit of food. Think cheesecake. In order to fill your stomach you'd have to eat enough cheesecake to surpass your daily caloric requirements. You want to eat foods that have a low caloric density - lot of food with little calories. Like spinach and lettuce.

~ A quick guide to determine whether a food item is low or high in a particular nutrient: Scan the nutritional label and look at the information in the "% Daily Value" section. Anything reading 5 percent and below is low, while 20 percent and above is high. When it comes to fat, cholesterol, and sodium, aim for low!

~ Make sure you’re considering serving sizes when reading the nutrition facts on a label. For example, bread serving sizes are often listed as one slice. But sandwiches take two slices, so you really have to double the facts given. A lot of food can be deceiving with the nutritioal facts provided because the serving size isn’t always the same as the average portion size a person would consume.

~ Nutrition labels contain a lot of information, but when you’re in a hurry, you can make a fairly good decision by looking at just fat and fiber. Avoid foods that are high in fat, because you get less food for more calories. Aim for at least 5 grams of dietary fiber per serving when buying foods. Aim for about 30 grams total of dietary fiber each day.

~ Trans fat increases risk of coronary disease because it has the bad kind of cholesterol.

~ Beware packaging gimmicks that say “heart healthy” or “made with real fruit” or similar things. These are typically gimmicks. For example, the term “all natural” has no legal definition when it comes to packaged foods - anyone can say it! A so-called “healthy cereal” may say it’s “98% fat free” but still have 15 grams of sugar or carbs and almost no fiber in it. Rely on the nutritional label and ingredients list instead of gimmicks on the box to decide what’s best to buy.

~ A good way to visualize calories when making food choices: consider how much fat is in the food you're about to eat. A McDonald's Big Mac has about 30 grams of fat in it. Well, a teaspoon of Crisco contains 4 grams of fat, so this means that a Big Mac contains the equivalent fat of almost eight spoonfuls of Crisco! For comparison, a regular glazed doughnut would have about three spoonfuls of Crisco, and large fries would pack over six spoonfuls. Next time you crave something like a Big Mac, chew on this--do you really want to put eight whole teaspoons of Crisco into your body?

Sugar content can also paint a vivid picture. For quick reference, simply remember that there are 4 grams of sugar in one sugar cube. That 20-oz. bottle of Coke in the vending machine has 65 grams of sugar, which is like eating over 16 sugar cubes! Even more surprising, one 16-oz. bottle of Odwalla Superfood fruit juice has 50 grams of sugar. That totals nearly 14 sugar cubes, and, because all the fruit has been liquefied and stripped of fiber, the sugar content will hit your bloodstream quickly.

~ Once you take time to think about what drives you toward health, stop to surround yourself with that motivation before change begins and before challenges arise. At home, write your motivations down and tape them to the refrigerator, front door, or bathroom mirror.

MY MOTIVATION FOR GETTING HEALTHY - I want to wear clothes that are beautiful and tailored. I want my skin and my hair and my looks to reflect the joy I feel inside. I want to make my husband proud to walk into a room with me on his arm. I want my body to stop hurting and my heart to be strong. I want to teach my daughter how to stand tall and proud in life and to not let things like her weight to keep her from living to the fullest. And I've earned this. I've spent years caring for everyone else and just slathering myself with sugars and fats just to get by. I want it over. I want to be human again. I want to know what a size 6 dress feels like. I want to wear a bikini on the beach in Bora Bora. I want to blow minds with the whole beautiful person that I am, inside and out.

Healthy Lunch: Spicy Veggie Soup

As a part of my change in lifestyle I've been trying to come up with healthy recipes for meals. This is the first one I came up with. It's a spicy soup. I made it spicy because it makes me eat the soup slower so that I feel full once I'm finished eating. And the molecules that make it spicy are good for blood vessels and a myriad of other health benefits.

What's in it?

Chicken broth, garlic, pepper, shredded carrots, jalapeno pepper, onion, yellow squash, wide egg noodles, mushrooms and spinach.

How did it taste? 

Amazing! The baby liked it so much she ate it with me. Even with the kick of spice, it was a very pleasant lunch. I feel full and satiated.

Health, Fitness & Weight Loss

I've considered this decision long and hard. Initially my vision for this blog was purely a beauty product review and tutorial site. It's where my passions lay and what I wanted to chat with the beauty community about.

However, I've just signed up for an intense 16-week long health and wellness course through my health insurance. As much as I'd like to stick my head in the sand and hope for the best, the truth is that I'm getting older. I'm getting more and more out of shape and starting to feel the cumulative unwellness of a less-than-stellar lifestyle.

I'm on the precipice of starting a new, healthy and cleansing chapter in my life. I'm going to be learning a lot of information on how to live well, which I'm so excited about! I want to pass all of that down to my children and I want my family to rally together and take this journey together.

When I started the blog, I envisioned my audience as my daughter in ten or twenty or even thirty years. Reading my words, and standing on my shoulders into her own journey with beauty. And good health, like a face primer beneath a foundation, is the core of beauty.

In addition to the usual product reviews, makeup tutorials, beauty epiphanies and random happy moments I'll be sharing with you ...from now on I'll be also sharing tidbits from my journey into knowledge, self-love, self-actualization and good health.

To follow my journey along this path to a sustained, life-long healthy lifestyle you can click on the "Health, Fitness & Weight Loss" tab on the right-hand side of the blog. I've set up the labels to make navigating the various facets of the blog much easier for you.

And if you'd rather stick to pure beauty-related posts, I'll still have that covered as well.

I hope you're as excited as I am. This is something I should have done a long time ago. And honestly, it's a prayer answered. Because I need a little hand-holding and guidance along the way.

"Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh the thinks you can think up if only you try."
- Dr. Seuss