You ever get behind when you know you shouldn’t?
That’s been the story of my life over the past few weeks/months. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining – far from it. I’m having a ball designing new programs, writing 2 books (damn), and coming up with a proposal to take to a few companies here in Lincoln revolving around a weight loss competition.
Good times…but mucho busy times (like the insertion of the Spanish?).
On to my point… Read More→
In case you don’t receive L Magazine, or haven’t had a chance to read my column from the October ’09 issue…
L Magazine
Let’s play “The Suppose” game.
Let’s suppose you decide to lose weight.
Let’s now suppose that in order to lose that weight you’re going to exercise.
Let’s also suppose you’re going to “watch what you eat” in order to lose that extra flubber.
Can we also suppose you’ll go to the gym, hire a trainer or buy a diet book? Will you join a boot camp (hint, hint)?
Okay, now that we’ve “supposed” all those things, let me twist things around and make you think.
What is your first priority in this journey?
Is your first priority doing things the quickest way just to reach your goal?
Maybe your first priority is fitting into your clothes from high school and everything else be damned.
Is that right? Are those good priorities?
Nope.
Sure they might get you to your goal and you might get there quickly, but you won’t stay there long.
You’ll revert back to your old self in no time and you’ll hate yourself in the process.
Now that I’ve painted that gloomy picture, I suppose I should tell you what your first priority should be.
Your first priority, whether you want to lose weight, get stronger, get rid of your gut, be “healthier”, or whatever else, should be your body.
Sounds simple, right?
But do you know what that actually means?
It doesn’t mean you should become a narcissist.
It also doesn’t mean you can flex your muscles in front of every mirror, ask random people to feel your “guns” or fix your hair and make-up every time you see your reflection.
Don’t get me wrong; wanting to look better is a great goal. It’s always near the top of my list, but you need more than that.
Making your body your first priority means listening to and understanding what your body NEEDS and WANTS.
You have to understand that in order to successfully achieve and maintain your weight loss goals, your body needs more than to just “look good.”
Your body has certain nutrition and dietary needs that you should listen to.
Your body NEEDS a lot of fruits and vegetables, and other real foods like seeds and nuts in order to perform at its peak while also cutting out the processed junk that leaves you with inflamed joints, a whacked out digestive system, poor skin and hair health and a flabby gut.
Your body also NEEDS to move. You have muscles for a reason – movement – and you don’t do near enough moving as you should.
Sitting for prolonged periods is the worst thing you can do for your body. It hates sitting that long and it tries to tell you by giving you back problems, hip problems and a weak stomach.
Listen to your body and fix those problems.
You need to make your body your first priority. If you do that, everything else will fall into place, including the “look better” goals, and you’ll be a much happier and healthier person.
Be A Superhero Today!!
Cupcakes with green frosting are NOT healthy snacks
If you’ve gone through raising a child, you know how difficult it is to get your kids to eat healthy snacks – it’s about as difficult as me getting you to eat healthy snacks.
They want the “sweet treats” as Maren calls them. Or they want the Scoobie Snacks, or other cracker-esque snacks found at the grocery store (which is a good reason to keep the kids at home come shopping time, that way you don’t have to hear “I need that!”).
We try to keep Maren’s snacks as healthy as possible, and usually find that if we eat the same thing she does, she’s much more likely to eat healthy snacks – and to be quite honest, kids have fewer hang-ups about eating fruits than we think. We come pre-programmed to enjoy real foods and we screw that up as we age.
Anyway, here’s a quick list of some of my favorite weight loss snack foods both for home and “on the go”. They’re easy, nutritious and will help you lose fat and keep it off.
At home:
1. Broccoli and hummus – This is actually a snack I was just eating with Maren at her tea party table. Broccoli is one of the BEST foods you can eat, whether it’s a snack or an side-dish for lunch or dinner. It’s loaded with fiber, “good” carbohydrates and vitamins and minerals. You absolutely have to add broccoli to your daily diet if you want to lose weight and be healthy.
The hummus is loaded with healthy fats, protein and fiber, not to mention being loaded with vitamins and minerals. It is a very powerful food and makes a great vegetable dip so the next time you’re thinking of adding ranch dressing to your veggie tray give hummus a try.
2. Apple slices and natural peanut butter – The key to this one is the Natural Peanut Butter. The kind of peanut butter you’re probably used to is
I guess there's a couple advantages to eating horribly...built in cupholders being one
loaded with sugar and has the healthy fats removed. Natural peanut butter is a rich source of protein, healthy fats and vitamins and minerals – but be careful because it still packs a calorie punch…don’t go crazy with the dipping.
3. Homemade granola (or a good store bought kind) and strawberries – I have told you countless times that I’m not a chef, so I won’t give you a granola recipe (Google is great for that), but Andrea has made it in the past and it’s quite tasty.
As a side note, if you’re looking for a healthy alternative to store-bought breakfast cereals, try a homemade granola recipe and mix it with some fruit slices and yogurt – it tastes awesome and is a great way to start your day.
If you find yourself constantly on the go and need to have a snack that’s a little more convenient, here are a few great snacks to have while at the office or in the car:
1. Almonds and a Pear – Pears are pretty similar to apples in their vitamin content and they’re loaded with fiber – just like my favorite fruit (apple) and you should know by now the pedestal I put almonds on for a killer on-the-go snack (I eat them daily).
2. Organic string cheese and carrots – Just like the natural peanut butter, the key here is organic cheese, or at the very least skim (no fat).
You probably know that carrots are loaded with Vitamin A, but they’ve also got lots of other vitamins plus they’re low in calories and have a decent amount of fiber.
3. Low-fat, no sugar added Yogurt (although not so great in the car) and red grapes – Yogurt is a great on-the-go snack because it’s easy to transport, high in protein, low in sugar (if you get the no sugar added variety) and adding the red grapes gets you lots of vitamins and cancer-fighting phytonutrients (plus you can get rid of your excuse to have that daily bottle of vino…)
4. Cashews and Green tea – Most people overlook the good ol’ cashew when it comes to adding healthy nuts to their snack list, but they’re a great nut. I love cashews. They’re high in healthy fats, protein and magnesium (which is important for bone health). They don’t have as much fiber as almonds, but they’ve still got some, which is better than most snack foods.
If you’re afraid of eating cashews, or other nuts, because of their calorie punch (190 calories per ¼ cup), you should know that a recent study published in the journal Obesity showed that people who ate nuts at least twice a week were much less likely to gain weight than those who almost never ate nuts.
There you go. There’s a great list of healthy, fat fighting snacks that are easy to make (if they take any preparation at all) and easy to take with you.
As usual, if you have any questions, comments or want to add your own healthy snack leave it in the comments below.
Have a great day!
Ed
If there’s one thing that really ticks me off it’s diet scams, supplement scams, or any other health/fitness scam. They prey on your desires for weight loss or a quick and easy fix and laugh their way to the bank.
Like scams? You'll love this one.
The internet and TV infomercials are flooded with the things and they rake in billions every year.
I’ve been hearing more and more about a diet scam (HCG Diet) being sold by doctors that I thought went away long ago because it’s been shown – by the FTC no less – to be a scam and consumers have been warned about it for years.
In case you’ve never heard of it, here’s the rundown on the HCG diet.
Human Chorionic Gonadotrophin (HCG) is a hormone that’s only found in the urine of pregnant women. Read that again – a hormone found in the URINE of pregnant women.
Around 50 years ago a British doctor came up with the idea that HCG injections would allow dieters to get by on a 500-calorie a day diet.
Yes, you read that right…500 calories a day.
He claimed that the HCG would rid your body of unwanted fat, suppress your appetite and move the fat around your body, thus getting it away from your hips, stomach and thighs.
Let’s look at this from a monetary standpoint from the doctor’s point of view. If someone wants to go on this diet, they have to see a physician because it’s injected and the government doesn’t allow Biff The Muscleman down at GNC to give injections (thank God).
Not only that, but they have to come in regularly – monthly or weekly – to get their injections and, more often than not, there are meetings, either private or group, for the social support of going on this ridiculous diet.
Cha-ching!!! Very smart from a business standpoint, especially given that there are no insurance papers to fill out, not having to worry if Medicare or Medicaid will reimburse, etc. because it’s all a cash business.
The only problem is that this diet has no basis in reality. I take that back…losing weight on a 500-calorie a day diet is very real.
If you only consume 500 calories a day it is impossible for you NOT to lose weight – you’ll lose so much weight that you’ll look skeletal, lose muscle mass, be tired all the time, mess up your hormones, mess up your menstrual cycle (or stop it completely), get a little dumber (the brain runs off carbohydrates and needs a lot of ‘em to function) and just be a pain in the a$$ to everyone around you.
Back in 1976 (yes, 1976), the FTC ordered a bunch of medical clinics to stop claiming their HCG programs were safe and/or effective.
They could still sell it and inject folks, but they had to give their patients the following statement:
“These weight reduction treatments include the injection of HCG, a drug which has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration as safe and effective in the treatment of obesity or weight control. There is no substantial evidence that HCG increases weight loss beyond that resulting from caloric restriction, that it causes a more attractive or “normal” distribution of fat, or that it decreases the hunger and discomfort associated with calorie restrictive diets.”
She must've been on the HCG Diet
To boil that down to “normal people speak”, that said these docs are giving you a compound that has no basis in reality and is not proven to do a damn thing for you in the arena of weight loss and will not help you lose weight in any form other than via the whacked out super-restrictive 500 calorie diet they put you on.
Luckily the use of HCG-based diets is not widespread here in Lincoln, but there are a couple docs advertising it.
So to sum up…
HCG-based diets are ridiculous. They’re not based in reality and the only reason anyone loses weight with one is that they stick you on a 500-calorie a day diet – but ANYONE who consumes that amount of calories WILL lose weight. It’s impossible not to.
It’s silly and it’s dangerous and these doctors should be ashamed of themselves for preying on people’s emotions and desires like this. They are stealing money and could be doing some major harm to their patients – all in the name of weight loss.
It sickens me actually.
I feel dirty just having had to do research on that stupid diet. I need to go eat an apple and film some videos – and lucky for me I’m not on that diet otherwise I couldn’t eat anymore than my normal 6 pieces of fruit a day (that’s roughly 500 calories).
I hope you have a great day…and remember this article anytime you hear your friends say they’re going to give this whacked out diet a try.
Talk to you soon!
Ed
Last Saturday night Andrea and I left The Munchkin at home with my niece so we could head out for some good times.
By good times I mean eating dinner, having ice cream, shopping for underwear, then being so bored we just go home and watch a movie.
Yes, we are quite boring and yes we should have gone golfing instead.
I made up my mind earlier in the day to have a salad for dinner and that’s exactly what I did.
Salads at restaurants are never as healthy or waist-line friendly as they seem, but the one I decided on seemed OK from the description.
To put it bluntly, it was just plain gross.
I had a bad salad...but not quite this bad
Loaded with dressing, the chicken was mostly the “throw backs” and I have no idea if the greens were good because the dressing weighed everything down and gave me “Bitter Beer Face” with every bite.
So how do you know if the salad you’re getting at a restaurant is going to be okay?
First, do what I overlooked and always ask for the dressing on the side.
Now that I got that formality out of the way, let’s move on to the real tips.
Look at the type of meat listed.
I would steer clear of the words “chunks of …” because that can mean they used the “throw back” chunks that get discarded from other entrees. They’re usually all gristle and fat, but disguised to seem healthy.
Look for the words “strips” or “whole” in terms of chicken, steak or fish.
If it’s a big chunk, they can’t hide anything because it’s staring you in the face.
Always make sure the salad includes other greens, fruits and/or veggies. Things like tomato, cucumber, green beans, broccoli, peas, apples, etc. If there are a lot of things like croutons, garlic bread, or other processed foods in it, don’t get it.
Avoid any variation of the word “creamy.”
Creamy means you might as well slap the thing to your sides because that’s where it’s going.
Creamy means fat plain and simple.
And this one shouldn’t have to be said, but I know it does…
…don’t get a salad with chunks of fried chicken in it. Just because it’s chicken and just because it’s a salad doesn’t negate the fact that you’re eating something deep-fried.
If you do decide to poo-poo anything I just told you, at least remember this. Get a half-order. Some salads at restaurants can be over 1000 calories – I’m not kidding, I’ve seen the numbers.
Have a great day!
Ed
Do you have any other salad survival tips? Don’t keep them to yourself. Share them with everyone by leaving a comment.
The first thing you need to understand about me is that I believe ALL parents are superheroes...some just have a little too much flabby goo covering their Superhero Body. To learn more about The Fit Dad's story, Click here