Tag Archives: healthy weight loss

image_pdfimage_print

How To Motivate Your Weight Loss Success

Posted on by

The strongest motivation is internal.  That drive comes from within yourself.  Unless you want to make the necessary changes in your eating and exercise habits, they won’t happen!  But sometimes, despite that strength from within, you need a little push, or pull, from outside of yourself.  You know how it is – you planned to start exercising last Thursday, but something came up so you’ll plan to start it next week or so.  For most of us, it’s all too easy to let things slip.  That’s why external motivation almost always plays a role in a successful weight loss program.

Here are some external sources of motivation that seem to work:

  • Identify a support person before you start and share with them your plan and a firm start date. Give them permission to nag you if need be.
  • If possible, join others trying to lose weight to encourage each other and track your individual progress.
  • If available, consider joining a weight loss competition where you can win prizes based upon your weight loss success.
  • Put some “skin in the game.” Some competitions require an entry fee.  You could also buy some new clothes in your target size based upon your goal weight.  You’ll be so proud of yourself when you reach your weight goal and can wear them comfortably!

What are some other sources of motivation that you’ve used?  Share them in a comment.

For Your Health! – Dr. Bob

Nutrition Basics – Healthy Servings & Portions

Posted on by

Just How Much Is A Serving?

The key to healthy eating is learning the size of a serving for each of the foods you eat and eating the recommended amounts each day. This next table gives you some examples for each Food Group.

Food   Group

1   Serving
Grains 1 slice bread
1 oz dry cereal
1/2 cup cooked rice, pasta, or cereal
Vegetables 1 cup raw leafy vegetable
1/2 cup cut-up raw or cooked vegetable
1/2 cup vegetable juice
Fruits ½ cup fruit juice
1 medium fruit
¼ cup dried fruit
½ cup fresh, frozen, or canned fruit
Fat-free or low fat milk and equivalent milk products 1 cup fat-free or low-fat milk
1 cup fat-free or low-fat yogurt
1½ oz fat-free, low-fat, or reduced fat cheese
Lean meats, poultry and fish 3 oz cooked meat, poultry, or fish (1 oz meat = 1 egg) (Limit egg yolk intake   to no more than 4 per week due to high cholesterol in yolks.)
Nuts, seeds and legumes ⅓ cup or 1½ oz nuts
2 Tbsp peanut butter
2 Tbsp or ½ oz seeds
½ cup cooked dry beans or peas

So, if you are planning to have 4 servings of fruit today, you can attain that by eating 1.25 cups of dried fruit.  Since a serving of lean meat, poultry or fish is 3 ounces, you should eat no more than 6 ounces a day of any of them if your healthy meal plan is 2000 total calories a day.

 Portion vs. Serving

These terms are often used interchangeably, but I tend to use “portion” to refer to the amount of a Food Group that is served for a specific meal, and serving refers to the amount appropriate for the day.  So, the 6 oz. of meat for the day is the daily serving that can be eaten in one 6 oz. portion at dinner, two 3 oz. portions at lunch and dinner, three 2 oz. portions at breakfast, lunch and dinner or some other combination.  Most of us in the United States do not think in terms of these daily serving sizes or meal portion sizes.  Thanks to our experience eating out, we typically over-estimate what a portion should be.  Taking the time to weigh and measure your food until you can better judge the quantity you’re eating is an important step to eating healthy.

 What do you think?  Tell us about your experiences with portion control.

For Your Health – Dr. Bob

Nutrition Basics – The Food Pyramid & MyPlate

Posted on by

The Food Pyramid

Until recently, the National Institute of Health (NIH) had talked about a practical system to help Americans eat healthier which they called the Food Pyramid. They divided foods into six Food Groups and recommended the number of daily servings for each of the Food Groups. The macronutrients we described in previous posts, Carbohydrates, Fats & Proteins, are contained within these Food Groups. The following table was taken from the NIH website. It tells you how many servings of a specific Food Group you should eat per day.  The Food Pyramid approach has been replaced by the MyPlate concept which is explained below.

Food   Group

Daily Servings For 2000 Calorie Meal Plan
Grains

6 – 8
Vegetables

4 – 5
Fruits

4 – 5
Fat-free or low fat milk and equivalent milk products

2 – 3
Lean meats, poultry and fish

2 or less
Nuts, seeds and legumes

4 – 5 per week

ChooseMyPlate.gov

Recently the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) replaced the Food Pyramid system with this easier approach to help people more easily focus on these tips for healthy eating:

  • Make half your plate fruits and vegetables
  • Make at least half your grains whole grains
  • Switch to fat-free or low-fat (1%) milk
  • Enjoy your food, but eat less
  • Avoid over-sized portions
  • Drink water instead of sugary drinks

While this is helpful, many people want to know from a nutritional viewpoint how large is a serving of a specific food.  That’s what I’ll cover in the next post.  Check out the Learning Center at www.InsightsForHealth.com for more information.  Meanwhile, please leave any comments for discussion.

For Your Health – Dr. Bob

More Basic Nutrition – Fats & Proteins

Posted on by

Last time I wrote about Carbohydrates.  Today, I want to share some basic nutritional information about Fats & Proteins.

Fats are made up of glycerol and fatty acids and due to this complexity, take the longest time to release their energy. Since they hold the most energy per gram of any other macronutrient, the body stores most of its excess energy as fat. In addition, fats are important components of the walls of cells and other structures of the body.

Fats are classified by the degree of “saturation” of their chemical bonds. Those likely to raise levels of the bad cholesterol, LDL, are the saturated and trans fats. Therefore, you should try to eat more monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats and avoid trans-fats and saturated fats.

Proteins are made up of chains of amino acids and are literally the building blocks of the body and form the enzymes & hormones that control its chemical reactions. Proteins are found in meat, poultry, fish, meat substitutes, cheese, milk, legumes, nuts and in smaller quantities in starchy foods and vegetables. The body breaks proteins down into their amino acids to reuse them. The body can make most of the amino acids it needs from other substances, but there are some, the essential amino acids, that it must get from food. All the necessary essential amino acids can be obtained from meat protein. However, not all the essential amino acids can be found in plant protein. When a person increases their amount of exercise it is important that they have enough protein to build muscle and prevent its breakdown. Many people ordinarily eat inadequate amounts of protein, so they either need to eat more protein-rich foods or take protein supplements.

In the next post I’ll talk about portion size.  By the way, this information and more can be found at the Learning Center on www.InsightsForHealth.com.  Check it out sometime.  Meanwhile, please leave your comments.

For Your Health – Dr. Bob

Don’t Let Snacks Weigh You Down!

Posted on by

For many of us, unhealthy snacking can quickly sabotage our weight loss plans.  While writing this post, my mind kept wandering to the kitchen thinking what I could eat.  We often reach for a bag of chips or cookies when watching television or surfing the web.  Many experts view this as a byproduct of our more sedentary lifestyle.  Not only do we not exercise and burn calories, but we add to the problem by consuming more.

If you need help with your snacking, schedule some Health-e Texts on www.InsightsForHealth.com to help you resist the temptations.  You can schedule them to remind you to stick to your healthy meal plan just when you’ll need the help.

How Do You Schedule Them?

That’s very simple:

  1. You need to go to www.InsightsForHealth.com and Register to become a member. That is absolutely free at this time. Make sure that you correctly enter your cell phone number, select your cell phone carrier and click OK to give us permission to send you text messages. Remember, applicable text message charges from your cell phone carrier will apply.
  2. Once registered, Log In to the Members Only section.
  3. Then select Health-e Texts from the menu on top. You’ll be taken to a page that describes the service and has a list of the various kinds of Health-e Texts you can send yourself on the left.
  4. Choose one of the Snack options from the list on the left & just select the start & stop dates, the time you want to receive your daily text and your time zone. Click Save & you’re done. You’ll start getting your snacking Health-e Texts on the day you chose.

View Your Health-e Text Schedule or Change Your Mind

You’ll also notice two selections at the bottom of the menu bar at the left, one will let you view your schedule of Health-e Texts and the other will allow you to delete any you choose. You’re in control.

I hope you try these out and I’ll be looking for your feedback!

For Your Health – Dr. Bob