Category: Food and Drink (Page 10 of 10)

The Challenge of Choices: December’s Eating and Work Out Plan

December 17, 2018 / Chris Brown / 2 Comments

The Challenge of Choices I got all thrown off my eating plan the last few days. It was a combination of December gifts, a baby shower and going out to eat twice in one day. My work-outs have been light too.

In the 11 years since I’ve been working on getting more healthy and fit, I find this is a very normal occurrence in December. The trick is to get back on the plan and not say “Oh just forget it!! I’ll just start again in January.”

That’s the thought that used to get me in trouble. What does work for me is jumping back into my December plan. I’ve found that if I can restart again several times in December, my work in January is more like maintenance, not like starting over.

Here’s what happened:

On Friday, I had lunch with a friend and I made a reasonably healthy choice with a tabouli and hummus grilled pita wrap. After several hours of sitting in a work meeting, she and I walked around the town. It felt good to stretch my legs and it was good for the soul to enjoy the holiday decorations and festive lights. Special booths were set up where vendors displayed beautiful home made gifts. I indulged in some delicious gingerbread cookies with thick icing. German cookies, I forget their name (maybe Lebkuchen?) but the taste was very intense. I’m sure pretty sure the recipe had molasses in it. I know it had brown sugar for sure and powdered sugar in the icing. I’ll pretend they were 200 calories each, but they tasted incredible.

Later that evening, after walking the track at the gym before dinner, I enjoyed a beer and split a Ruben sandwich with my husband for a Friday night date. Between the cookies, beer and grilled sandwich with corned beef/sourkraut, I was not surprised when I woke up Saturday morning with my finger joints feeling very swollen and very stiff.

On Saturday, my sister held a luncheon baby shower for my niece at her house. I brought the salad (spinach, feta and a variety of chopped veggies) to go with all the goodies she offered (pizza, jo-jo’s and beautifully decorated cupcakes!) Bonus – I loved that she had a huge tray of beautiful fruit for dessert as well as her lovely cupcakes.

When it was time to eat, I remembered some of the holiday party tips that Jill and I shared on the most recent podcast “Live Well to Eat Well” and navigated the tempting foods without guilt. Seconds on salad and fruit helped, but I enjoyed the pizza and jo-jo’s as well. There are definitely some challenges of choices, especially when there is fun and family involved.

A few hours later, I was back in the car for the hour ride back home. Between all the driving and party, I did a lot of sitting, but managed to get 13 flights of stairs in during the shower by offering to take the coats up to the bedroom. Without my FitBit I wouldn’t have realized that I did manage to add that to my exercise for the day.

Getting back to my plan:

After two days of indulging in foods that I usually don’t eat, I got back on track for my regular eating plan on Sunday and was happy to get a workout day in as well.

My workout was twenty minutes of strength training with weights with some other exercises, followed by an hour and fifteen minutes of gentle yoga, and several laps of walking the track.

The 20-minute workout looked like this:

20 kettle bell swings
20 KB squats
20 KB push press
20 KB dead lifts
wall sits
leg lift machine

Between each exercise, I rested about 20-30 seconds to get my heart rate down. It wasn’t a “huge, go-for-it” work out but a “get the muscles moving” work out. I find these are better to keep me coming back for more and not ending up with too sore or pulled muscles.

Sunday afternoon I prepared my food prep for the coming week: crock pot chicken cooked in olive oil and steamed/sauted vegetables (cabbage, carrots, celery, and onions) in chicken stock. I have plenty of go-to lunch or dinner starters by preparing this. Sticking to the plan during the next three or four days should be easier and that will help set me up for next week.

Next week will be an off plan week, since the gym will be closed for some of the days and there will be lots of family food, meeting friends out at restaurants and celebrations during Christmas week. I’m already thinking of ways to get more water, walking and work outs tucked into the week so I can start the new year in good shape.

How about you? What choices have you made this month? Do you modify your eating plan and workout plan for December?

Meal Prep: The Secret to No Weight Gain During December

December 2, 2018 / Chris Brown / 0 Comments

Weekend Meal Prep

One of the best tools I know of to keep me from gaining weight during the holidays, is a simple one. It’s not hard, if I do it right and it’s amazing how helpful it can be.

Weekend Meal Prep is no secret, actually. I think we all know that meal prep makes a huge difference in maintaining a weight loss. I find that it is especially true during one of the most challenging months – December!

This weekend I prepped three dishes: lemon chicken in the crock pot, roasted sweet potatoes fries and a protein filled quinoa salad with veggies.

During the winter I also like to make veggie soups. Having a nice big bowl of soup to start dinner is a great way to get extra liquid and vegetables into my daily meal without much work. It is a win win win: filling, good for me and easy.

The most important keys for meal prep:

Before I start to prep: Probably most important for me is to do the prepping when I am NOT hungry. Just after breakfast or lunch is the perfect time for me. It’s kinda like that other non negotiable – don’t grocery shop on an empty stomach.

Secondly, it’s really important that I need to love the food. (Which is why it’s so important for me not to try to prepare the meal prep when I’m hungry!)

Obviously before I can do meal prep, I have to have an idea of what I’d like to have waiting for you in the fridge or freezer. Making something “too” healthy or “too” hard is not a good idea for me. I usually fall back to something that I know I love. A soup or salad already made up, the kind that if I see it in the refrigerator, I want it.

Super healthy somethings, are a no-no. They just don’t do it for me. I was on a morning green smoothy kick for a while but found out it is too healthy for me too early. So when you’re deciding what to make, figure out something that keeps pretty well. I not only wasted all the ingredients by setting out all my smoothies ahead of time, I wasted my time. So when you’re choosing what to make, select something that looks good several days later, that you’ll actually want to eat.

Smoothies just don’t keep that well. They tend to separate or taste too watery to me.

It does need to be more on the healthy side however. I did meal prep before I lost the weight too. It wasn’t always the healthiest. And I didn’t pack my lunch. Back when the kids were little, I made 10 PB&J’s and put them in the freezer on Sunday night. It made it super easy to pack their lunches for day care or school so I would just add yogurt, veggie sticks and a drink into their paper bags before heading out the door in the morning.

If I didn’t meal prep back in those days, I’d be making bad choices all the way around.

For me, it is easier to make a bunch of one dish that can be frozen and/or refrigerated. Most things only last 4 days max in the refrigerator.

Containers are the other stumbling block for me. My container cupboard ends up like my sock drawer – lots of miss matched pieces. Periodically I have to do a purge and replace.

I start by pulling out all the containers ahead of time. Lids and bottoms. The type of container varies – sometimes I use glass jars, sometimes plastic with lids, depending on the meal and if it needs to be reheated or if it might leak. I spread the containers out on the counter ready to be filled helps me start with the end in mind.

Depending on what I have to do in the week ahead, I like to have them in containers that can be transported, so that I can bring them with me if I’m away from home at lunch time or dinner time. These days I’ve been traveling to my parent’s home quite a bit and its invaluable for me to have a healthy, easy and yummy choice available.

The fries and the chicken work for evening dinners, but I will use the salad (with maybe some tuna stirred in) as my lunches during this upcoming week.

What is your favorite dish for meal prep? Do you use just pre-cut the peppers, onions and celery for the week – or do you go all out and make full meals? I’d love to hear your ideas!

Becoming More Healthy by Eating Healthy Fats

November 24, 2018 / Chris Brown / 0 Comments

Healthy Fats and Non-Healthy Fats

I am on a bend, trying to learn more about nutrition and healthy fats in particular. I am seriously trying to learn more about the role of fat in my diet. There is a lot to it.

For most of my life, I lumped all of the different kinds of fat together — things like belly fat, saturated fat, and Omega-3 fats. Most of my eating plans would revolve around calorie counting. I have a better handle on it now, but I’m still learning about nutrition, macros (protein, carbohydrates and fat) and how to be more healthy as I work on maintaining my weight loss. Note: I am not a dietitian or nutritionist, just someone trying to sort it all out.

Today is the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Although it has been about 12 years since I gave up baking hundreds of Christmas cookies, that I would allegedly give away to friends and family or to have available if someone dropped by, I still remember pulling cans of Crisco shortening, sticks of butter and bags of sugar in preparation for this baking tradition.

Now, I have replaced this activity by pulling out the lights and putting Santa decorations on the mantle instead!

I guess my lack of knowledge had me just figuring that anything with a lot of fat in it would probably make me fat. I didn’t actually know that there were so many types of fats.

Of course, I’m still learning. Jill and I named this Becoming Elli because we are still learning and working at it. However, now my cupboard is stocked with a big can of Extra Virgin Olive Oil, a jar of coconut oil and stack of sardine cans. I haven’t bought corn oil for a very long time. Crisco is a distant memory.

It wasn’t until about 10 years ago that I bought my first avocado. Now during my visits to the grocery store, I’m always giving the avocados the squeeze test to find the best ripe, but not too ripe, ones. I’ve really developed a taste for sardines too.

I have learned that there are a lot of good reasons to add healthy fats into my food plan. I’d rather eat my healthy fats than take a pill. Taking a gel tab from my big jar of fish oil gel tablets tend to make me burp.

Good to know facts about healthy fats and oils

Perhaps you already know these facts about fat. I’m probably late to the party. It is still relatively new information to me, as I wasn’t brought up knowing this and have been learning it as I go.

- Certain fats (omega-3) helps your brain think – Psychology Today – Have you fed your brain today? “Omega-3 fatty acids are great for mental clarity, concentration, and focus.”
- Low fat isn’t always a good thing. Lots of times something that is low fat has been changed to taste better by adding in lots of sugar. Too much sugar in your system ends up with extra fat being stored because it cannot be processed. Your body processes sugar first, then fat. But it won’t get to the fat if there is too much sugar.
- Certain fats help you feel full and satiate those hunger urges. (Sugar causes the hunger urge in me.)
- Some fats help to regulate hormones which helps regulate body weight. I think the hormone is called leptin but there is still some mystery around how that all works.
- Healthy fats protect you against some diseases – diabetes, cancer, heart disease.

The word fat is a bit deceiving to me. I know that I don’t want to be fat, or at least I don’t want to have too much body fat. The word fat is used different ways and not always for describing the same thing. Fat, floating on a soup or the top of a gravy, is pretty unappealing. Fat hanging over my blue jeans isn’t good either, but healthy fats keep you thinking, satiated and protect against some diseases.

I know I can’t trust my taste buds anymore. “It tastes too good to be healthy.” That’s not always true either. I love the taste of avocado. Things that taste delicious are sometimes very good for health and that is the case with avocados for sure.

Healthy Fats

Like most things, in many cases healthy fats are a matter of degree.

Eggs, a wonderful source of fat and protein that I consider a staple, used to be considered a potential cholesterol-raising food. We’ve now had the all-clear on eating eggs. Apparently cholesterol in our bodies does not really come from the cholesterol in our food. I have 11 chickens laying eggs, so you know how I feel about eggs!

Omega3 fats are important for us to eat and most of us don’t get nearly enough of them to eat. That’s why I have sardines to my diet. Oily fish like salmon and sardines are great sources of omega 3 fats.

I’ve heard people argue about coconut oil, which turns to a solid under 76 degrees. Some say that cooking with coconut oil when using higher temperatures is the way to go. Others say that coconut oil has the most saturated fat of any fat. People are arguing over saturated fat now. Some say we need it; others still insist it’s bad for you. Here’s the reason people like to use coconut oil. Some of the fats in it are what’s called medium chain triglycerides. These types of fat go straight to the liver and are used for energy rather than being converted into body fat. You’ll have to make up your own mind about coconut oil because many of the food experts advice against using it, while many others recommend it.

Of course, there have been much discussion about the virtues of dark chocolate. I gather the darker the chocolate, the less sugar and the better it is for you. I’ve seen recommendations for dark chocolate with at least 70% cocoa and others as high as 85%. The darker the chocolate, the less sweet it is but if you give yourself some time, you’ll get used to it and really think of dark chocolate as a treat.

Unhealthy Fats

I am still skeptical about “smart balance” and “healthy choice” brands. While many foods are under discussion, I think we can all agree that trans fats are bad.

Trans fats were found in fried foods, fast food and certain baked goods… or at least they used to be. Trans fats raised the bad cholesterol and lowered the good cholesterol. In 2015, the US government passed a ban on all trans fats, which had 3 years to take effect (June 15, 2018, almost 6 months ago!) So, in theory, they are gone.

Trans fats (partially hydrogenated fats) had a very weird chemical bond. It is where hydrogen was during a manufacturing process to make a liquid oil into a solid.

It can still be confusing about which are healthy fats and which are not. Saturated and unsaturated fats are on the spectrum, with saturated fats being on the bad side, and unsaturated fats on the better side.

I figured I could just go to a chart (put out by the USA government) and it would be clear to me which fats are the right ones. Ha ha! Not so fast!

Healthy Fats chart from the health.gov website

Courtesy page 26 of the PDF on the Health.GOV website. Click for full 144 page report.

See the chart about common fats and oils shown on page 26 of this 2015-2020 PDF from the US government.

What is the difference? (Here is where my eyes start to get glazed over, as the memories of high school chemistry class come back.) It has to do with the bonds, double bonds versus single bonds and if it has been manufactured. I’ll spare you the diagrams.

Saturated fat are usually a solid at room temperature… in general saturated fat is a solid or a liquid, depending on the temperature. like butter, cheese and animal fats.

Some, if not many, people think saturated fat is linked to heart disease and high cholesterol. Saturated fat is “packed tighter” than unsaturated fat.

Others say we should avoid most vegetable oils except for a few oils like olive oil and avocado oil. They recommend using butter, coconut oil, and other oils high in saturated fat. Not to be wishy-washy, but this can become a bit confusing.

I’ve seen articles saying – “choose” soft butter (processed?) or choose choose “low-fat” ice cream (more sugar?). I’m not convinced that either is right. These may be worse. (Editor’s note: I do tend to drink light beer, but most beer drinkers scoff and wonder why someone would drink any beer if it is light. But I digress, as beer doesn’t have fat in it and that’s the subject at hand.)

So now, leave a message below with your take on the healthy fats. Which do you eat? Which do you avoid? Do you disagree with my take on the situation?

Time for me to go decorate the mantle and put on some Christmas music.

Coffee with Cream or Butter or Coconut Milk or What?

November 8, 2018 / Jill McCauslin / 11 Comments

What do you drink in coffee? Do you drink coffee with cream? Or coffee with butter and coconut oil? Hard to believe this is an issue but it’s a question that I’ve been pondering.

I used to drink my coffee with cream and sugar. Then my doctor at the Trim Life program at the Cleveland Clinic told us to cut out the sugar from the coffee. She said in three days you’ll be over it. And she was right. I quit adding sugar to my coffee and very quickly adjusted to the change in flavor. I haven’t put sugar in my coffee in a long time but I do, however, still put half and half in my coffee.

The standard light cream for coffee in the United States is called half and half. It’s as you might think, a combination of milk and cream. It runs about 12 to 18 percent milk fat. Apparently in the UK, this is called half cream.

Cream in coffee is so tasty because the fat interacts with the coffee and gives it a better “mouth feel.” In other words, it makes it a bit thicker and smoother. The proteins in the cream softens the bitterness of coffee.

The reason I refuse to use skim milk in my coffee is that there’s no fat in skim milk. That means it has much fewer calories but it does nothing for the coffee but turn it an ugly mud color.

Now that I’ve written this, I realize why I abandoned sugar in my coffee without much difficulty but really struggle to move to drinking my coffee black. I like that smooth taste that I get with coffee with cream.

So, here’s the dilemma I’m pondering. Everyone is down on half and half in coffee (and I mean that in the way that 50+ people mean down—it’s not considered to be good.)

The keto people say don’t use half and half because it has too many carbs from the milk. Instead, switch to heavy whipping cream (HWC). HWC is about 36 percent milk fat, still has protein, but apparently has fewer carbs.

Dave Asprey, the inventor of Bulletproof Coffee, suggests that we abandon all dairy products except for grass-fed butter. So, he makes coffee with grass-fed butter and MCT oil. If you look online, you’ll find many variations on this coffee but almost always made with butter and coconut oil. I’ve tried this coffee and I admit, it’s pretty tasty. The fat in this gives you that good “mouth feel” and it’s filling. You can’t drink multiple cups of this stuff all day long. Well, if you did, you’d be consuming huge amounts of calories and even if you’re not a calorie-counting kind of person, trust me, it wouldn’t be good.

Oh, there are the non-dairy flavored creamers, like hazelnut and French Vanilla creamers. I don’t drink these because they’re usually full of sugar and the kinds of fats that I avoid. They are just not particularly good for you.

A lot of the functional medicine doctors suggest we move away from dairy and those flavored creamers so they often suggest using coconut milk or almond milk in coffee. I think almond milk doesn’t do much to enhance coffee. In my mind, it’s the skim milk of non-dairy creamers. Coconut milk isn’t too bad but it does have an odd taste for coffee.

Vegan coffee tends also to be almond milk, coconut milk, or soy milk. A lot of the manufacturers of these milks make thicker versions that they sell as creamers. You have to be sure to check the ingredients of these to make sure that the sweeteners and thickening agents are things you want to consume.

So, I’ve tried all of these different creamers. Heavy whipping cream overwhelms the taste of coffee. The almond and coconut creamers are expensive and don’t really cut it. They don’t have the same flavor or “mouth feel” for me. Adding butter and coconut oil to coffee actually tastes ok but it’s more work than I like when it’s first thing in the morning. To be honest, nothing beats regular half and half cream so that’s what I use.

My mother who always drinks her coffee black used to tell me, “it’s a lot easier to drink black coffee.” As usual, my mother was right.

Feel free to let me know how you drink your coffee. Coffee with cream? Black? I’d really love to know how someone went from drinking coffee with cream to drinking it black.