by kelsey | Nov 14, 2018 | Diet, Weight Management, Wellness/Health
Looking to trim your waistline without going on a crazy fad diet?! These tips below don’t require huge changes, however will give you great results…and they are tips you can stick with long term!
- Downsize Your Dishes. Use smaller plates and bowls to help you eat less. We tend to fill up the dish we’re using and then eat it all. Our brains also think we are getting more when the same amount of food is placed in a smaller dish.
- Savor Your Meals. Eating slowly helps you consume only what your body needs to feel satisfied. Eating too quickly, in less than 20 to 30 minutes, leads to overeating and feeling uncomfortably full afterwards.
- Leave Some Food on Your Plate. This is especially important if you grew up in the “clean plate club.” By leaving even a few bites, you can focus more on your internal signals of satisfaction and less on eating food just because it is there.
- Don’t Eat Out of a Bag or Box. When you eat out of a package, you are likely to keep eating until it’s all gone – no matter how many servings the package actually contains. Pour one serving into a small bowl.
- Choose Your Glass Wisely. Here’s another place where our eyes play tricks on us. When glasses are short and wide, we tend to fill them with more fluid and to drink more. Use a slender glass for any beverage except water.
- Rethink Your Drinks. High-calorie beverages like soft drinks, juice drinks, energy drinks, specialty coffees and alcohol add calories just like solid foods. Whenever possible, replace these drinks with plenty of water.
-Kelsey
by kelsey | Nov 13, 2018 | Diet, Food, Weight Management, Wellness/Health
Hard to believe Thanksgiving is already a week away! The Thanksgiving holiday is always a fun one enjoyed by all as we stuff ourselves and then resort to the couch to watch football or the start of the holiday tv shows. Here are some tips for you to get through the holiday without putting on all those undesired extra pounds.
- Survey the entire table before you take any food. Decide what foods are worth eating and what can be ignored, and then stick to that decision. Why waste calories on foods that don’t bring you pleasure?
- Eat a snack before you leave home. If you arrive at a party starving, you’ll be more likely to overindulge.
- Eat your calories instead of drinking them. Stick to lower calorie or calorie-free drinks (diet sodas, water, light beer, or wine spritzer) instead of punches, eggnogs, and mixed drinks that can have up to 500 calories per cup.
- Sip a large glass of water between every alcoholic drink or non-alcoholic punch or eggnog. This will help keep you hydrated and you’ll drink fewer calories by the end of the night.
- When you are the host or hostess, include nutritious and lower-calorie foods like fruits, vegetables, and lean meats on the menu. When you are a guest, bring along a lower-calorie dish to share.
- Try not to hang out near the food. Find a comfortable spot across the room and focus on people instead of eating.
- Watch your portion sizes. Don’t cover your plate completely with food. In most cases, especially when it comes to holiday sweets and alcoholic beverages, less is better. Use a smaller plate or bowl and have just a sliver of pie like the picture shows.
- Drop out of the “clean plate club”. Leave a few bites behind every time you eat, especially if you are eating something you don’t really care for.
- Enjoy your favorite holiday treats but take a small portion, eat slowly, and savor the taste and texture of the wonderful foods of the season.
- Skip the pie crust and go for the filling.
- Choose light meat over dark meat.
- Use home-made cranberry sauce over canned cranberries that are jam packed with added sugars.
- In soups, sauces, puddings, and desserts: Replace whole milk or cream with low-fat milk, evaporated fat-free milk, or nonfat dry milk.
Lighten up your recipes:
- To make dips and toppings: Use low-fat or nonfat cottage cheese or sour cream, or non-fat Greek yogurt.
- To make salad dressings: Use nonfat Greek yogurt or low-fat buttermilk.
- In place of 1 whole egg in recipes: Use 2 egg whites or 1/4 cup egg substitute.
- In place of regular cheese: Use fat-free or reduced-fat cheese.
- In place of full sugar: replace half with Splenda or reduce half completely.
- In place of fats: use unsweetened applesauce or oil (1-1 replacement), or prune puree (1 cup of fat=1/2 cup puree).
More importantly is ENJOY your family and friends and all that have to the THANKful for!
-Kelsey
by Dan | Nov 11, 2018 | Exercise, Family, Goals, Motivation, Wellness/Health
Last week I wrote about my training partner and friend, Tom. This week it is time to talk about some other training partners/friends. It was a busy week this past week for several members of our run club. Erika and Jill went with Amanda to New York City where Amanda was registered to run the NYC Marathon! She was going to run as a representative for Team FARA…Friedreich’s Ataxia Research Alliance. Many of us did the Twin Cities Marathon a year ago where 21 of us from Watertown were running for Team FARA. Several people have FA in Watertown, and were raising money for them. I have written several times on this in the past. But this time, Amanda was going to run alone.
Several of us were in Denver several weeks prior to that running the Rock n Roll Half Marathon representing Team FARA. It was a great time, and a great way to run a race together. But again, Amanda was going to run the marathon on her own.
Jill and Erika were helping her to get fired up for this. It is a challenge running a race, much less a marathon, on your own. There is no question it is great having people cheer along the way, but it gets tough keeping the concentration with running that far on your own. She was getting into it though!
She was running mainly to represent and raise money for Team FARA, and here she is posting her wish on the wall.
Here is a close-up. I have to laugh as well…of course she added world peace to her list as well! Keep the faith Amanda!
She not only did a great job raising money and awareness for Team FARA, but she also ran a personal record…on her own…and qualified for the Boston Marathon with her time of 3:31:17! For those of you who don’t know, the Boston Marathon is a goal all of us runners would dream of running in. You have to have a qualifying time to do this, meaning somewhere you had to run a marathon fast enough to achieve this. Personally, I have tried 16 times, and have not gotten a qualifying time. It takes a lot of work, dedication, concentration, and I think, incredible effort. Not only did she run this on her own, but qualified for Boston! I am still in awe Amanda! It is incredible beyond words. You accomplished your goal of representing Team FARA, and topped it off with your long term goal of being able to go to the Boston Marathon. You ran 18 minutes faster than your previous best marathon! Incredible! Our run club is a close group here. We were all cheering and following you from back here, besides Jill and Erika being in New York with you following, and waiting at the finish line for you!
Our run club had our signs up that morning cheering you on. But what sums up that concept I talked about last week about training partners…friends…was Jill waiting for her at the finish!
This one needs no words to describe! No words to describe the friendship that comes from our running group. We are all there for each other. A memory for a lifetime! Another member of our run club, Cory, ran the Twin Cities Marathon last month, on his own. We were all cheering from back here, and following along. He ran a personal best as well, and the rest of us could not have been happier for him! We all run together…train together…spend time together. The emotions that go along with all of this is hard to describe unless you are part of it. Anybody is always welcome to join us as well. Lifelong exercise…lifelong friends…lifelong memories! What are your goals? What memories do you want to make? It truly is up to you! Keep moving everybody!
Dr. Dan
Consecutive Exercise Day #: 4064
by kelsey | Nov 8, 2018 | Cooking Tips, Diet, Food, Weight Management, Wellness/Health
Breakfast is one of the most important meals of the day! Yes, you have probably heard this before, but are you a breakfast eater!? Having a good breakfast is a great way to start out the day. It’s not only important for our body, but our mind too. Many times we’ll have excuses such as I was running late, I didn’t feel like eating, I’m not hungry in the morning, and this actually accounts for about a 1/4 to a 1/3 of the population! Starting the day without breakfast is like driving your car on a low tank of gas. We know we can’t go on forever on a low tank of gas, so we shouldn’t do that to our bodies either! Those that skip breakfast tend to snack more on high fat and lower nutritious foods…and are more likely to overeat at lunch because they are over-hungry. Studies have also shown that those working on weight loss are more successful when they eat breakfast as this really jump starts their metabolism and starts their day off right. In addition, eating a healthy breakfast helps our kids excel in school as it helps fuel the brain!
So what should you eat for breakfast? It’s important to get a balance at your meals and especially include a source of protein and a whole grain as these provide satiety. Here are some examples for you:
- Ready-to-eat cereal (>3g fiber, <2-3g fat, a ratio of greater than 4 g carbohydrate:1 g sugar)
- Hot cereal (oatmeal)
- Bagel with low-fat cream cheese or peanut butter
- Yogurt Parfait
- Fruit and yogurt smoothie
- Peanut butter or hummus on whole-wheat toast
- Breakfast quesadilla with low-fat cream cheese and sliced fruit
- Breakfast burrito or taco
- Toasted whole-wheat English muffin with lean ham and low-fat cheese
- Toasted pita with scrambled egg and low-fat cheese
- Low-fat milk and 100% fruit
If you are one who is not a fan of breakfast but understands the importance of it, I encourage you to try a variety of these options and see which one works best for you. I also encourage you to plan ahead. You may need to wake up 5 minutes earlier to fit breakfast in or make your smoothie the night before so all you have to do it pull the bottle or container out of the freezer or fridge in the morning and drink it on your way to work. Starting your day with a full tank will provide long lasting benefits to you and your body!
-Kelsey
by kelsey | Nov 6, 2018 | Diabetes, Diet, Food, Weight Management, Wellness/Health
There’s a lot of buzz about carbohydrates….are they good? Are they bad? How much should you have? , etc etc etc. In celebration of National Diabetes Month, I thought it would be appropriate to discuss carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are the main (and best) source of energy for your brain and central nervous system. Carbohydrates are essential for energy; however they raise your blood sugar levels higher and faster than any other kind of food. Carbohydrates are essential for your body to be able to sustain energy, so just like a car needs the right type of fuel (gas) to run, you need the right kind of fuel (food) to function and be healthy. To sustain energy, your body needs adequate carbohydrates: 50% of your total calories should come from carbohydrates. Cutting out all carbs can be very detrimental to our body, especially our brain, central nervous system, liver, kidneys, and heart. Because they are an excellent source of energy, but they do raise blood sugars, it’s important to recognize the types of carbohydrates and how to count them in efforts of controlling your blood sugars while still maintaining good health and adequate energy..
Carbohydrates are found in the following:
Starches: found in grains, some vegetables, and beans.
•Grains: bread, pasta, cereal, tortillas, rice
•Starchy Vegetables: potatoes, peas, corn, yams, squash
•Beans: kidney beans, pinto beans, black beans, garbanzo beans, and lentils
•**The best and recommended sources of starches are whole grains…choose them over the white, refined grains!
Sugars: found naturally in foods or added to foods.
•Natural Sugars: fruits, fruit juices, dairy products, honey, and molasses.
•Added Sugars: desserts, processed foods, candy, regular soda, and fruit drinks.
•**Natural sugars are better than added sugars, but large quantities of them can still raise your blood sugars…we recommend getting at 2-3 fruits and 3 servings of veggies/day. Anytime you can limit or eliminate the added sugars, do so!
To aid in ideal blood sugar control, we recommend a moderate intake of carbohydrates which means about 45-60g/meal and 15-30g/snack with several small meals and snacks throughout the day. I visit with patients daily about finding the right balance in their intake. If you would like help managing your blood sugars, to learn more about diabetes self care, or a personalized nutrition plan, be sure to contact me for further help!
-Kelsey
