Healthy Tips: Food Combining Diet

I was talking to a coworker who's attempting to lose a bunch of weight and I gave him some advice on limiting the simple carbs in his diet and watching his portion control.  He's been using my tips and has lost 13 pounds in two weeks.  He also mentioned that along with my advice he's using a strategy called food combining.

I was perplexed by this concept until he explained it to me, and it's quite simple.  It's along the same lines as minimizing portions and watching the simple carbs in your diet.

When he eats, he now watches how he combines his food.  He won't eat starches with his meats, instead he'll only eat vegetables with his meats.  If he eats starches, he won't combine them with anything and eat the simple starch alone. 

This got me thinking, now I'm no scientist, but in my twisted mind, it makes perfect sense.  When one chooses to combine the wrong foods, you are actually creating an environment where your body is more likely to store food as fat.

For example, if you were to combine starches with meat, since meat takes longer to digest in your stomach, the starches will then sit in your stomach longer as it's working on the meat.  The longer it sits there, the more likely your body will break it down and store it as fat.  Whereas, if you just consume the starches on it's own, your body breaks down these simple starches very quickly and attempts to use them as energy first before storing them.

I think it's a great way to evaluate your eating, or maybe it's just my inner mad scientist trying to get out?

Healthy Tips: Controlling Food Cravings

We all have cravings for things, whether it's something physical, emotional and especially food.  Satisfying your cravings isn't a bad thing, afterall we have to live and enjoy life.  However, sometimes we go overboard with our cravings and end up adding inches where we wish we didn't.  Here are some tips on keeping those cravings under control.

Set some rules - a key to controlling your cravings is exercising discipline, set some ground rules for yourself when it comes to your treats.  Perhaps you can limit yourself to one treat a day or only allow yourself to have that treat when you've accomplished something in return.  You should try to avoid giving yourself free treats just because you feel like it, this way you can attempt to condition your brain to only reward yourself intermittently.

Portion control - the serving size is probably the most important part of managing your cravings.  You should be eating small amounts, just enough to satisfy that sweet tooth or that savoury tongue.  For example, don't pull out the entire bag of salt and vinegar chips, instead put a few pieces on a plate and leave the bag in the pantry.  This way you're not unconsciously digging your hands into the bag every few minutes.  And when you're out, you get no more.  Again, you'll need to be disciplined.

Eat Better - there are some foods out there that are natural appetite suppressants, so because you won't be hungry, you most likely won't be craving anything.  I tend to have some tea or coffee if I'm trying to shed a few pounds because they can shrink my appetite.  Here's a good article on more natural appetite suppressants.  http://lifestyle.iloveindia.com/lounge/natural-appetite-suppressants-1487.html

Healthy Tip: Potential Caffeine Coffee and Tea Replacements

I was sent this awesome article from another blogger about foods that can replace your coffee.  It's a great read, I am a caffeine addict myself, and I would love to be able to ween myself off of it.  Although double-doubles and Starbucks caramel machiattos are so delicious! 

Enjoy!

Ditch the Coffee: 20 Foods That Give You Energy Naturally

http://www.mastersinnursing.com/ditch-the-coffee-20-foods-that-give-you-energy-naturally/

Healthy Tips: Recipes for a Vegetarian Lifestyle

I was watching TV the other day and they had a program where the host and the guest were both vegans.  They were adamant that they were getting all their essential nutrients from this diet and had both been on it for over a decade and felt better then ever.  So I thought I'd write a post about the different types of vegetarian lifestyles. 

First off, there is a difference between vegetarians and vegans.  Vegans choose not to eat any products that come from animals, so they don't consume dairy or eggs and all of their food comes from fruit or vegetable sources. 
Vegetarians on the other hand, may eat dairy, eggs and even fish products, depending on the type of vegetarianism they choose to follow.  Vegetarians each have their differing reasons for choosing this lifestyle, ranging from the love for animals to health reasons, or they just don't like to eat meat.

I personally don't think that I could become a full fledged vegetarian willingly because I love my rare steaks.  However, it's not out of the question, as I've seen many health benefits from switching to this type of eating.  I do caution that before you start down this path, consult a nutritionist so you don't deprive yourself of some essential nutrients accidentally.  In order to get a balanced, healthy vegetarian/vegan diet, you need to know where you can get specific vitamins and minerals from.  For example, protein and iron are harder to come by through vegetables, so you'll have to include things like tofu and spinach to account for these nutrients.

Fruits and vegetables are good for you since they come directly from the earth, you just have to know which ones to eat to ensure good health.  I think that will be my next challenge, to consume a vegetarian dinner every night for a week and guage the results

Healthy Tips: My Favourite High Protein Foods

Since I often preach about minimizing the processed carbs in your diet, here's a few of my favourite high protein food sources.  These items are staples in my fridge and I always keep the supplies well stocked. 

Eggs

These treats of nature can be cooked up in so many delightful ways, scrambled, poached, fried and many more.  I usually eat them hard-boiled because it's so quick and convenient and I still get a good amount of protein from them.  In fact one large egg contains up to 6 grams of protein, that's a good bang for your buck if you're looking for a quick protein fix, and they're tasty too

Quinoa

I've virtually replaced my white rice intake with this organic goodness. (Except for family dinner at mom's, she'd kill me!)  It's a seed and not a grain so it's protein and fibre content is much higher then regular rice. 

It cooks up just like rice with a two to one liquid to quinoa ratio.  I has a nice nutty flavour about it and has 5 grams of protein per 44 gram serving.  And it's classified as a superfood to boot.

Chocolate Milk

It does do a body good, I love this stuff and drink about half a litre daily.  It tastes good and has about 8 grams of protein per 250ml serving.  If you're looking for a lower carbohydrate alternative, try regular white milk.  I prefer chocolate milk because I get my chocolate fix without hurting the waistline.

My grocery basket isn't complete without these three items, perhaps yours shouldn't be either.

Healthy Tips: Wheatgrass Benefits for Your Health

Wheatgrass, what a wonderful thing.  I'm sure alot of you have heard of this stuff or at least seen it. It's literally grass that you grind down into a juice.  It looks like your elementary school science project, a patch of grass growing in a plastic tray.  It can provide the same amount of vitamins and minerals as one weeks worth of leafy green vegetables with one ounce.

I've heard of people take it for hangovers, skin issues or for just general health.  It's been marketed as tasting like sweet garden peas, but don't let it fool you.  It's grass, and that's exactly what it tastes like.  Now I know what old Bessie tastes while grazing in the pasture.  Think a freshly mowed lawn, yum yum. 

Foul flavour aside, this stuff is good for you.  I try to have a shot every two weeks, especially when I haven't had enough time to get my vegetable intake for the week.  You can buy it frozen from health foods stores, or fresh.  I prefer the Jugo Juice shots, since it's so convenient and less messy if you're grinding it up yourself, but it is more costly.  Give it a try some time, especially if you've been dining out a lot.

Healthy Tips: Healthy Fast Food Myth?

So after long consideration, I have come to the conclusion that there is very little truly healthy fast food out there.  For me, healthy means that it doesn't contain insane amounts of salt, sugars, caffeine, artificial flavours or colors, etc.  Healthy to me means, it comes straight from nature and is essentially served as natural as possible.

If you've read my previous posts where I went on a healthy fast food binge, I never realized how much salt all of these joints put into their foods.  Obviously, it's added to make the food taste more flavourful, but you can achieve the same result by properly marinating your food as well.  I guess that's why it's called fast food and all the care that mom puts into her cooking doesn't apply here.

In my perspective, the only truly healthy fast food I could find were plain salads served with balsamic vinaigrette dressing or some of the Jugo Juice salads.  However, not all salads are created equal, some salads are worse off for you calorie wise then burgers.  So don't just assume that it's healthy because they market it that way, do your own research and arm yourself with knowledge.  I personally think the best alternative is to learn to cook, which is the only true way you can control what goes into your meals.

Paleolithic Lifestyle Diet aka Caveman Diet

I know this diet sounds unappealing, but after it was featured on Dateline, it piqued my interest.  I'm not a big fan of fad diets, but this one is different, I like to compare it to the raw food diet and a vegetarian diet.  It's not really a diet, it's a lifestyle choice.  Not only is it healthy, but it's feasible and probably more economic then your regular grocery list.

The gyst of this is to eat like the caveman, foods that were readily available to them during the Paelolithic era and this food is still available today.  So foods such that include proteins such as beef, fish, shellfish, poultry, pork, lamb, bison, venison including their internals and fats, as well as eggs, vegetables, fruits and nuts.  From my perspective you should able to achieve a well balanced diet with all these choices.

Unfortunately, since the agricultural revolution, our society has become addicted to processed carbohydrates.  Probably because of the taste and the low cost of these staples.  Nowadays, our society is addicted to convenience and so it just compounds the amount of processed foods we eat. 

I don't like to recommend diets, but I do like to recommend lifestyle changes and good habits.  I would consider eating more natural as opposed to processed foods, a good habit.  I think that will be my next challenge to myself, to live a week off of these Paleo food choices, so stay tuned for that. 

I'll leave you to ponder this question....What can you do to challenge and change your lifestyle for the better?

Healthy Fast Food Challenge: Review

I decided to challenge myself to eating healthy fast food for a few days straight to see what I could find outside of salads and what it would do to my body.  So it's been a week and I've eaten healthy fast food four days straight.  I don't think my system agrees with this much eating out because I don't feel the same as when I cook myself. 

Although this food is deemed as healthy, I learnt that most fast foods contain way too much salt.  That would explain why it's so tasty and also explain why I would wake up in the middle of the night dying of thirst.  After this experiment, I personally believe the only major healthy fast foods available are salads because they can't load them with salt.  I also caught a cold this weekend and I don't get sick often, not sure if it's attributed to my eating habits this week, but that's up for debate.

This actually is quite a surprise to me as I always thought that soup and chili was healthy for me, but the salt takes away the healthy factor because salts increase the risk of many diseases.  So if you want to eat healthy while dining at fast food joints, go for the salads and if they don't offer them, try somewhere else.  There are lots of options out there.

Healthy Fast Food Challenge: Day 4: Mcdonalds

 

So it's day four and I felt I was running out of options, so I went to the most well known fast food joint in the world, Mcdonalds.  The only healthy options they have are really just their salads, so that's what I got.  They have a few to choose from and I ended up with the Sweet Chili Chicken salad.  I opted for the grilled chicken version and first impressions weren't good.

The chicken was drowning in sauce and I thought it was a bit too sweet for me.  I did like the chili though as it added a spicy punch to the meat.  Overall, it was alright, I've had much better salads and I'm still choked they got rid of the Mediterranean one, as that was my favourite. 

I have managed to eat this supposed healthy fast food diet for a few days now and I'll have my final thoughts posted tomorrow.  It was an interesting experiment, stay tuned.

Healthy Fast Food Challenge: Day 3 - Tim Hortons

I've decided to challenge myself to have fast food for dinner every night, however, unlike Super Size Me, I'm going to attempt to find healthier fast food instead of the artery clogging kind.

After running bootcamp class I decided I'd try one of Canada's favourites, Tim Hortons, aka Timmy Ho's.  Although this place is known for it's coffee and donuts, they also offer sandwiches and soups.  That's what I chose to eat today.  Soup!

I actually ordered three servings:  Chicken Noodle, Barley with Portabello Mushrooms and Tomato Medley.  Like Goldilocks trying the three bear's soups, I delved into my liquid dinner.  The tomato medley was overly sour, the barley and portabello tasted like dirty socks, but the chicken noodle was juuuuust right!  

Again I checked the nutritional information on their website and low and behold, low in calories, high in salt.  I think this is a trend at fast food joints, so they are "healthy" but high in salt, so is that really healthy? 

There isn't much to the soups and I really didn't feel satisfied, so I'll leave it at that and go rummage through my fridge for something with more substance

Healthy Fast Food Challenge: Day 2 - Wendy's

I'm on day two of my fast food challenge where I'm attempting to find healthy alternatives at different fast food joints around the city and share my findings at the end of the week. 

I chose to go to Wendy's today after my workout and have been thinking all day about what I'm going to eat.  I'm trying to find items other then salads as those are the obvious choices when somebody thinks about healthy food. 

Today, I chose to have a large chili with a side salad, as I always try to have some veggies at each meal.  I've always thought that the chili was a healthy alternative, but after looking up the nutrition facts I was appalled by the amount of salt that goes into a serving.  I knew that processed foods contained lots of salt, but had no idea that warm chili goodness was victim of the same fate.

The protein content and caloric content of the chili were pretty good, but the salt was way too much.  So if your doctor has told you to avoid salts, I wouldn't have the chili, but have a salad instead.  It's true that we learn something new every day, and I'll never look at their chili the same again.

Healthy Fast Food Challenge: Day 1 - Christy's Rotisserie Chicken

The long weekend is over and I've decided to challenge myself to eat fast food every day for dinner for the next five days.  My goal is to show you that you almost always have healthy options even if you're eating at a fast food joint.

Today was day one, thought I would have one of my favourite's, Christy's Rotisserie Chicken, it's not a big chain and I think it's only located here in Calgary, but it's one of the best chicken joints in the city.  I ordered their quarter chicken combo which comes with two side items.  For my sides, I decided to have a double serving of their marinated vegetable salad (I like this salad so much I made my own copycat version).

They've got a few locations throughout the city, Marlborough Mall food courts (that's where I ate), Market Mall food court, Lancaster Centre foodcourt (downtown) and they have a restaurant on 32 Ave and 27 Street NE.  If you've never had their chicken, give it a try and try not to eat the cornbread.

Low on processed carbs, high on protein, a meal fit for a trainer.  They make some of the best roast chicken ever, now if only I could get that recipe.  That's one day down, just four more to go!

Healthy Tips: Weight Loss Diet with Vegetables

If you're having trouble shedding the pounds perhaps you can try this technique?  I have had many clients  have success losing weight trying this simple technique.  They basically cut out starchy carbohydrates from their diets such as pasta, rice, bread, noodles, potatoes and replaced them with hearty vegetables such as broccoli, asparagus, green beans, spinach, etc.

Next time you are thinking about trying the newest fad diet, try this one instead.  It could be an inexpensive, healthy and natural way to lose weight.  The best way to motivate yourself is with actual results, so before you start this eating regimine, try to take some initial measurements.

• Weigh yourself
• Take a body fat percentage measurement if possible
• Measure your chest, waist, hips and butt.  When taking measurements, ensure the measuring tape is tight and you have a point of reference.  For example, whenever I measure client's waists, I use their belly button as a reference point.  That way, you maintain consistency and accuracy when taking pre and post measurements.
• Make sure to write all this information down so that you have something to compare to at the end of the week

After you've recorded your measurements, you can start the eating portion.  The idea is to replace your refined simple carbohydrates with vegetables instead.  Here are some suggestions I've given clients on what to eat.

Breakfast: Omelettes with diced vegetables, freshly squeezed juices/smoothies (sweeten with natural yogurt), yogurt with granola

Lunch: Salads, Veggies and dip, Stuffed mushrooms, Sashimi

Dinner: Steak with asparagus, Chicken with green beans, Pork Chops with grilled zucchini

Snacks: Snap peas, baby carrots, celery sticks

At the end of the week, take your measurements again.  Most of my clients have noticed an average of five pounds lost, just from changing their eating habits.  Combine this with exercise and the results could be even better.  There is a reason why your parents told you to eat your vegetables.  Not only are they good for you since they contain oodles of vitamins and minerals, but they really can help keep you thin. 

I'd love to hear from anybody who's attempted this type of eating along with the results.

Healthy Fast Food: Opa Souvlaki

There is such thing as healthy fast food believe it or not.  Most restaurants have healthier options that you can choose from.  I had a rushed dinner at Opa today and this was what I had.  See my healthy fast food article for more details.

It was actually called the low carb plate and it was delicious.  Basically it was just their classic greek salad with a chicken skewer.  No processed carbs, low in fat and mighty tasty.  How can you go wrong? 

P.S.  I like to add some jalapenos to the salad for some added kick!  Spicy foods can moderately increase metabolism (I personally think it's from the sweating)

The Importance of Bed and Breakfast

We’ve all heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.  But many of us choose to ignore this fact and skip out on food in the mornings.  Skipping brekky can be a vicious cycle and can actually compound weight issues.

When you sleep you're actually starving your body so your body's natural response is to fight back by storing fat.  Since the average person sleeps eight hours a night, it's important to eat breakfast so you don't prolong the starvation.     

Here’s a conversation that your brain has with your stomach when this happens:

Brain:  I need food

Stomach:  Sorry bud, I’m still empty, you’re out of luck

Brain (talking to itself):  If Stomach keeps doing this to me, I’m going to die!  I’ll have to start storing as much as I can as fat rations to survive this famine. I’m not going down without a fight you evil prick! 

Stomach:  Grumble grumble

So prevent your brain from hashing out this evil plan and start eating breakfast everyday.  Afterall, the word breakfast is derived from Breaking the Fast.

Healthy Tips: New Years Resolutions

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday filled with friends family and wonderful food.  Now that 2011 has arrived most of you have probably made a few resolutions and I bet quite a few of them are related to health and weight loss.  Hopefully I've inspired you reach your health and fitness goals and here's my top ten tips to help you stick to your healthy resolution:

1. Food Diary - keep track of things that you're eating just to give you an idea of how many actual calories you are consuming daily
2. Exercise Diary - similar to a food diary, it keeps track of your training regimine to make sure you're constanly making progress with your training.  Whether it's running for an extra five minutes each day or lifting five more pounds every week.
3. Portion Control - focus on portions no bigger then a deck of standard playing cards
4. Sleep - make sure to get a good's night rest every night, it's recommended adults sleep for at least 8 hours a night
5. Water - drink lots of H20, the recommended daily intake is 8-10 glasses a day, so start guzzling
6. Vices - try to keep your vices to once a week.  We all have them, but let's try to hold off on the sweets, alcohol and junk food until the weekend.
7. Remind yourself - most of us spend most of our time at our jobs, so it's important that even during busy working days, we stay on track with our goals.  Keep a reminder that's always visible such as a poster, picture or inspiration at your workspace
8. Support network - surround yourself with those who have similar goals as yourself.  There really is power in numbers and this support group can help motivate and push you towards your goal
9. Schedule - stick to a  regular training schedule that is flexible and challenging
10. Smile - try to keep on smiling as it naturally improves your mood, and if you're in a better mood, you're more likely going to eat the right thing or force yourself to do some exercise

Healthy Tips: Keeping a Food Diary

Some people are blessed with "skinny" genes, but the majority are not.  We actually have to put some effort into our lifestyle in order to keep the bulging to a minimum.  A neat way to keep track of what you're eating is to use a food diary.  All you need is a notebook of some sort where you record what you've eaten throughout the day.

It's a good way to keep track of where those unknown calories are coming from, but you have to be honest and record everything you consume, from that one piece of chocolate to the cups of water you've drank.  Plus, it can act as a deterrant to snacking because you would rather not eat it over the chore of recording it in your diary, thus minimizing the bad snacking throughout the day.  At the end of the week, review that you've consumed and try to record the calories as well.  Here's a good calorie counting website: http://caloriecount.about.com/ .  You'll be surprised at how much excess we consume without even knowing it. 

This simple task of using a food diary has helped many of my clients realize what they're putting into their mouths and confront the calories head on.  Give it a try, it's just another little thing you can do to get yourself into the best shape of your life.

My Recipes for Moist Chicken Breast

Okay, so the title fooled you, this isn't actually a recipe post since I posted one yesterday.  But everyone knows that chicken breast can be such a dry piece of meat sometimes.  I eat alot of it and it's hard to cook it so that it stays moist unless it's swimming in a sauce.  So here's what I do to make my protein packed poultry more bearable:

Vegetables:  Add some veggies to it like a braised tomato or some asparagus, anything that will add some moisture to your mouth.  I didn't need my parents to force me to eat my veggies, I ate them so I wouldn't gag from the dryness of the chicken breast they were serving me.

Pickles:  Try serving it with something sour, foods like pickles tend to get you salivating, and helps the chicken breast go down that much easier.

Stuff it:  You could always stuff the chicken with something like a spinach and cheese mixture or anything to add some moisture to the meat.

Don't get me wrong, chicken breast is packed with protein goodness, but sometimes it can be hard to put down.  I'd love to hear about how you keep your chicken breasts moist and cooked, without risking salmonella poisoning.

Healthy Fast Food from A&W

I always eat after my workout in an attempt to give my body as much nutrients as possible to grow and heal my muscles.  I left the gym a bit later tonight, and as a result the only places open that were close to home was A&W.  Normally, I am disciplined enough to go home and have eggs or chicken breast, but today I thought I would cheat a little bit.  See my health fast food article for more details

Now even though I was at a fast food joint, I attempted to make this meal as healthy and lean as possible, so here's what I ordered:

Grilled Chicken Deluxe Sandwich - It's on a multigrain bun and it's got a big piece of seasoned grilled chicken breast in it.  The worst part was the ranch sauce, but it's necessary as the breast can get a bit dry.

Milk - I substituted 2% milk for the pop. 

Salad - Had a salad instead of the french fries, that was a tough decision because I love their fries and gravy!

Overall, it was a good meal, balanced for a fast food joint and it hit the spot nicely.  Remember, you can always eat healthy, it's all about the choices you make.  Here's a previous healthy fast food post if you want to read more.