Archive for the ‘calories’ Category
Again, a picture’s worth a thousand words!
This morning on Good Morning America: What a Fatty Meal Does to Your Insides! Yuck.
Notice that’s one fatty meal, not five!
You couldn’t have paid me enough to take that assignment!
Thanks, Anne! I think….
Bring on the Fries!
I particularly liked the visual comparisons she used. Ouch!
Check this out: Summer Foods That Fool!
A two thousand calorie day
Happy Father’s Day! In my family, Father’s Day means that Daddy gets to pick. Luckily, my diet plan recommends that every once and a while, I break 2,000 calories, just to make sure my metabolism doesn’t stall. The last time it happened was June 6th. I think today may be another one of those days.
I overslept and instead of going for a walk (grumble), my mother and I took my father to IHop (a/k/a International House of Pancakes). Fortunately, they do have nutritional information available on line (and some on their menu). I preselected the buckwheat pancakes at 110 calories each. Of course, when we got there, all they were offering that were even close were the Harvest Nut and Grain pancakes, at 180 calories each. Unfortunately, they only came in stacks of four or in two, accompanied by two eggs and two pieces of sausage.
When I hesitated while ordering the waitress, in an unusual moment of insight, said, “You can get a half order if you want.”
Hallelujah! How she knew that I only wanted two (because if they were there I would have eaten them) is beyond me. But I left her a very generous tip! I had them hold the butter and to bring the maple syrup in a dish on the side. This way, I dipped the corner of each bit into the syrup, only using about a 16th of what they actually brought me. It was great.
We then went on the road — I packed a bag of baby carrots and a couple of apples, because I knew that I would be hungry after eating an all carb breakfast (despite that walnuts and oats in the pancakes). And for lunch, we landed at another one of my dad’s favorite hangouts: Rudy’s Bar-B-Que.
Between the three of us, we ordered a pound of lean brisket (which is not so lean unfortunately, weighing in at a whopping 1232 calories per pound) and a half pound of sliced turkey (which yielded a much more modest 226 calories). Thank god there were leftovers, but I definitely ate more than my fair share. We also had corn on the cob, three bean salad, and coleslaw (nutrients available on menu). Maybe it was being into such propinquity of a large number of pieces of pig themed art that did it. Anyway, it was very good. But not only was it a highly caloric expenditure, it was not even properly combined! All and all, an abysmal diet choice, but a great Father’s Day experience for my Dad (especially because the U.S. Open was on as background).
Before I came home, I had been very concerned about my parents’ reactions to my new physique (they have actually been quite complimentary [though my Dad liken me to a quail wing]). I was also worried about the food challenges, but so far so good. And while I’ve been careful during the entire trip, I have done my best to not be annoying. Today, however, I decided that I’d do what they wanted to do with no complaints. It’s his day, not mine. It’s only one day. And, on occasion, the social connection is worth the calories.
Dinner is supposed to be a light meal of wine and cheese; I think I’ll stick with hummus, tabouli, and my favorite lavash (that I had shipped to my parents’ beforehand)!
And as soon as the temperature dips below 90, I’m going for a long, brisk walk!
Days three and four with the folks!
Yesterday was another awesome exercise and food day; though my power walk has become less powerful as the humidity is climbing nearer the air temp!
I had my normal breakfast and lunch (spinach salad and tabouli) and then for dinner we went to a pizza place, where my dad had a $50 gift certificate. My mother and I half and halfed a medium pie (she had a Maui Magic and I had a Mediterranean, hold the mozzarella and light on the feta). According the alkaline diet, feta made from goat’s milk is a lot better for you than mozzarella or any cheese made from cow’s milk. I started with a dinner salad, had two pieces and took the other two home. With the olive oil and garlic glaze on thin crust pizza, it tasted more like a flat bread and felt reasonably virtuous. Yum.
Today was a little more challenging. It started off okay. I went for my walk, which was a little slower than it was the day before and I had my shake. Yea! But for lunch, I had a carnitas quesadilla (the whole thing, but light on the cheese) and guacamole. In my defense, I didn’t have a margarita, but it was a close thing. The scary thing is that the nutrition guide for this particular restaurant isn’t on-line and I’ve seen calorie counts for restaurant carnita quesadillas ranging from 500 to 1300! Since I had them hold the cheese and the sour cream, I’m hoping it’s closer to the former than the latter! However, I am not holding my breath, so I’ve tried to make adjustments elsewhere in my daily food plan.
For dinner, I had another big spinach salad and the last two pieces of my Mediterranean pizza.
A friend of mine was also having a garage sale today. I always liked her clothing style, but she was always a lot smaller than me. Given my new physique, however, I actually cleaned up big. I bought a lot of winter stuff — including a super cute little coat — that I am leaving with with mother to give me for Christmas! It was like my own personal consignment shop. I even got a couple of accessories! This is a win-win for me and my mother; I’m certain to get something I like and she won’t have to look for it! Additionally, I bought a very fitted pair of pants that I am also leaving here. That will motivate me to make sure I don’t gain any weight until Christmas!
You know, if it wasn’t for the scorching heat, summers in the south may not be so bad after all!
Best fast food nutrition guide EVER!
I tend to be pretty down on fast food chains — even those that are only semi-fast food — in terms of providing customers with good nutrition information.
The other day, however, I was heading to Boloco’s and I just happened to check on-line to see whether they had nutritional information available. Unlike other comparable restaurants that have a static pdf (which, granted, is 3,000 times better than those that have nothing) Boloco offers an interactive nutrition guide. The nutrient values change as you decide what kind of wrap you want, the size, whether its on whole wheat, spinach or white, or if you’d like chicken (dark or white meat), beef, or tofu! Whether you want broccoli, carrots, or even cilantro.
It’s great!
If you have a Boloco near you, I recommend you check it out before heading off to lunch! And if you don’t have a Boloco near you, you should check it out anyway, just because it’s so friggin’ cool! If nothing else, you’ll see how quickly calories multiply when moving something from a regular to a large!
Good job, Boloco! You guys are definitely on the lunch list!
Eating out
No matter where I go out for a “nice” dinner, I tend to end up eating about a 1,000 calories. You’re probably thinking, ‘Wow, that’s a lot of calories.’ But you’d be surprised.
When eating out, the question is never, are you really going to sit down and eat 1,000 calories at one setting, because — again — if you’re going out for a nice meal, the answer is always yes.
So a better question to ask yourself is, how are you going to spend those 1,000 calories?
Your three potential culprits can be broken down into three groups: food (real food, that is, such as appetizers and entrees), dessert (which one could not so wrongly class as poison) or alcohol (which, no doubt about it, is poison, at least as far as weight release is concerned).
Ironically, I’ll almost always go for the poison — either in terms of alcohol or dessert. Probably because I tend not to have these things at home.
Some people will go for the meal itself and leave off the alcohol or dessert. I wish I was more like them, but I obviously don’t wish it enough to change my behavior!
The key is figuring out which part of the meal is least important to you (or is least congruent with the occasion, place or the people) and let it go. In other words, splurge on the parts of the meal that matter to you most and cut back in the places where it doesn’t.
“But what if it’s all important?” you ask.
Then prioritize, but try to keep it within 1,000 calories.
Yesterday, for example, I went out for a long leisurely lunch with friends. I hadn’t seen them for a while. In fact, the woman was someone with whom I’ve been friends for 9 years, who recently got married. However, because we live in different states and I was unable to attend her wedding, this was the first time that I’d met her husband. In other words, it was a fairly big deal.
MJ and I were hosting, so we took them to a fabulous French Country Restaurant about an hour south of our house. They like wine, so I knew that there would be alcohol involved, probably more rather than less. And the restaurant itself is known for it’s chocolate, so I knew that dessert was all but inevitable.
We started with a bottle of Jelu Malbec, an Argentinan red, and french bread. Delicious. (280 calories, more or less)
Appetizer: Beet Salad with Chevre (150 calories, more or less)
So far so good — as I’d had a light breakfast and burned 475 calories on the NordicTrac, while my friend and her husband had gone for a run.
Just to be clear, everything on the menu looked/sounded amazing — you know you’re in trouble when they’ve managed to even make the calf liver sound good! Sidestepping the scallops, the roasted chicken, the skirt steak, the Irish stew, the homemade pork/veal sausage, the trout, and the salmon, I ordered the Chef’s Selection of Local Vegetables. I even lied when the waitress asked if I liked risotto and just told her to hit me with some extra veggies!
The plate, when it arrived, was gorgeous. In fact, in some ways, it was the most aesthetically beautiful plate on the table. Fresh peas, broccoli rabe, fingerling potatoes, lightly steamed bok choy, asparagus, and a wedge of deep fried tofu topped with a light citrus/ginger/honey sauce. Yum! (200 calories; again, I’m guessing, but it all tasted very clean and the tofu was quite small).
Dessert: A single chocolate madeline (70 calories), another glass of wine (120) and bites others’ desserts: 100 (for a total of 290 calories)
Then there were the chocolate samples in the shop next door: 100 calories, easy.
Grand total: 1020. And that’s with the vegetable plate, the salad appetizer, and the smallest, least fattening dessert available.
Granted, I could have skipped the second glass of wine and the chocolate samples, but it wouldn’t have fit the mood — of the occasion, of the day, of the place, nor certainly of the people. It was a great meal. It was a great day.
I’m not saying that you should never eat out. But I am saying that you shouldn’t feel compelled to go all out on every part of the meal just because it’s there. Make choices. And if you really want the quarter chicken, roasted and two cups of mashed potatoes — and you’re not running a half marathon the next day, as I wasn’t but my friend was — then maybe you should reconsider the wine.
K-Bell Total Body Blast – Review
As noted previously, I purchased the latest trendy exercise program, K-bells (with “Master Instructor” Michelle Khai) and actually liked it.
I had worked through the introductory package, which has a lot of good instructional material as well as one decent cardio workout and one 50 minute circuit training DVD.
Despite that I liked the idea of a k-bell exercise program, the flowing movements, the knowledge that I was working out micro-muscles, the workout itself, and the instructor, I realized that I just wasn’t doing this workout. Whenever I made a decision about what type of exercise I was going to do, I would go to the gym and hit the Step Mill (which my massage therapist lovingly calls “The Gauntlet”), the Tread Climber, Spinning, or if I stayed at home, I’d more often than not jump on the Nordic Track or do Yoga. So what was going on? If I liked the program, why wasn’t I doing it?
It boiled down to this — the premise of the workout is that you get your heart rate up and you do the bell work and this combination “blasts” the fat from your body!!! Sound good? Sure it does. But there’s only one problem: it was physically impossible for me to get my heart rate up into my fat burning zone doing this workout alone. Thus, I wasn’t burning any calories. It’s not Michelle’s fault, nor is it the fault of the k-bell program. In fact, I have the exact same problem with all of Jillian Michael’s home workout DVDs. I also have the same problem with Tony Horton’s Kenpo X (the kickboxing segment of P90X) and Cardio X. And, for that matter, Billy Blanks Tae-Bo the last time I did it. Essentially, it’s not them; it’s me. They may actually work in terms of toning and building muscle, but psychologically, I feel like I’m wasting my time.
And it’s not that I’m not trying, it’s just that after teaching spinning for 4 years, I have a super low resting heart rate: it’s about 42 first thing in the morning and around 56-60 after I’ve been up a while. It takes a lot of umph to get from 60 to 130 (which is the low end of my target training zone) in a 30 – 45 minute work out tape.
However, I really wanted to do the KB Total Body Blast and I really want to be able to incorporate it into my summer routine without feeling like I’m wasting time. It’s fun; she’s doing a lot of really interesting moves. I can feel the little micro-muscles doing their thing. I feel like my balance will improve if I keep it up. I like the momentum generated by the bell as I swing it across my body. And unlike a lot of newer cardio blast programs, there isn’t a lot of jumping. There is hopping, but that doesn’t bother my knee the way that other more plyo-centric programs do.
So, determined to get a good workout and do KB Total Body Blast, I got up this morning, put on U2′s, “No Line on the Horizon” and jumped on the Nordic Track. This album is a good choice for getting into and staying right in my target zone (between 130-145 beats per minutes) as it has a good mix of fast and slow songs. Also, there is a good mix of tight (or short) notes and loose (or long) notes, lending itself to intervals. It’s also relatively short, clocking in at only 54 minutes. That’s 15 warm-up, 30 minutes in the zone, and the last two songs are slow, which starts a pseudo-cooling off period.
Then, with my heart rate at 100 (instead of 58!) I immediately jumped into KB Total Body Blast — which is only 30 minutes — and it was perfect. I stayed in the zone almost the entire time. I was tired when I was done. I actually worked up a sweat! I only burned 204 calories doing it, but it was only 30 minutes (and when I’d done it without raising my heart rate first, I had only burned 157)!
However, add that to the cardio that I’d done on the Nordic Track (400!), I burned 604 calories. Not to shabby for a leisurely Sunday morning at home. Especially since 1 hour out of that 1 hour and 24 minutes was in my target training zone!
So, bottom line: if you are already fit and you find home workouts to be a waste of time, do something else first to get your heart rate up. I really think that KB Total Body Blast is going to be worth it. Besides that, it’s a lot of fun! This is also going to encourage me to shake the dust off of some of my other programs and give them another go!
A 1,200 calorie day in my world
Filed under: calories, food, maintenance, recipes, weight loss |
Leave a Comment Over the last few days, I have found myself being asked: Well, what do you eat?
My very simple weight loss pan (now maintenance plan), was to lose five pounds — eating 1,200 calories a day and exercising moderately. When I lost the five, I would gradually increase my calories to 1,500 – 2,000 a day, trying to ascertain the point at which I stated to gain weight. When I gained three pounds, I would drop down to 1,200 a day until I lost another five, and so on.
Whenever I tell people this, their first question is usually: Can it be 1,200 calories of anything? Mmm, probably not — especially if you want it to be sustainable.
So, just to provide an example, here is my typical 1,200 calorie day:
March 24, 2009 (taken from my food diary):
Breakfast:
Shake, 270 calories
Snack:
Apple, 80 calories
Lunch:
Pita Bread & Hummus, 130 calories
Salad, 65 calories
Tabouli, 100 calories
Snack:
Orange, 64 calories
1/2 cup soup, 39 calories
Dinner:
1 cup Brown Basmati Rice, 150 calories
Lentil Dal, 173 (recipe)
Dessert:
1/2 cup Soy Ice Cream, 130 calories
Total : 1201 calories
As you can see, I’m a healthy grazer. I eat about every two to three hours. Not bad work if you can get it!
Why a calorie isn’t just a calorie
Another great tip from my colleague! Thanks, Misagh!
Getting Real About Calories
As I have been talking with various people about diet and weight loss, I’ve come to realize that most people have no idea how many calories that they’re eating in a meal, let alone in a day. So it seems to me that the number one thing that people need to do is get aware of what (and how much) they’re putting in their mouth and how much effort at the gym (or wherever) it’s going to take to get it off their hips!
There have been a number of studies lately about how good people are at estimating the number of calories things have in them; and guess what? It depends! But some interesting trends are apparent. Thin people tend to be more accurate when estimating the number of calories in a meal, whereas overweight people tend to underestimate them. Interesting? Well, it gets better. As it turns out, this really has nothing to do with body weight, but rather that people (regardless of weight) tend to be better at estimating small meals rather than large meals. And overweight people tend to eat larger meals than thinner people. So, hidden tip: Eat smaller meals!
So, how does one go about getting real about calories?
I recently stumbled across this website, where someone had taken photographs of everything in their kitchen that amounted to 200 calories, just to get an idea of what 200 calories actually looked like. Notice the tiny blob of my personal favorite–peanut butter–compared to the platter of kiwi!!
Another way is to simply keep a detailed food diary (meaning amounts as well as items) and to do a quick calorie count. There are a ton of calorie counting websites out there. My personal favorites are Calorie King, Calorie Count, and the Daily Plate. Though sometimes I just type in the words “beets calories” –that is, I’m eating beets–and Google will take me right where I need to be.
My personal strategy is to create an excel book with three worksheets.
The first sheet is the things that I tend to eat over and over (or things I make by recipe). I got the calorie counts for these all in one setting, because I know that I will be entering them over and over.
The second sheet is titled, Food and Exercise. This is where I do the calories in and the calories out.
On the third worksheet, Daily Totals, I add the calories burned in daily exercise to my personal BMR x 1.1 (because I have a relatively sedentary lifestyle) and subtract the calories I consume. On this page, I also keep track of my weigh-ins and my measurements.
Although I hated keeping a traditional food diary when I was in Weight Watchers, I get a tremendous amount of pleasure with my excel sheet. Maybe it’s the little kid in me that used to sit around and play with the adding machine!
Now, Michael is not a fan of the excel sheet; he’s much more techie than I am! He’s got an iPhone and he is a huge fan of the app, Lose-It. Unfortunate name, but a marvelous tracking device. Not only does it keep track of your calories, it also keeps track of your nutrients! Besides that, it’s super easy to use and it gives you an excuse to whip out your iPhone at dinner, which in most men’s worlds, is always a plus!
Now notice that I keep track of my calories burned just as I do the calories consumed. This is essential. Because there’s nothing more sobering than getting off a spinning bike after an hour of hard work and realizing, wow, all that effort and I just barely worked off that impulse scone from Panera.
Once you get real about about calories–that is, how easy it is to eat them and how much effort it takes to use them–it’s easier to make choices that support your goals instead of those that undermine them!
The Office Candy Jar
Most of us have them; they’re typically perched on a desk in the main thruway. I must walk by ours every day at least two dozen times. In the good old days, I used to grab a piece (or two, or three). Luckily, we have hard candy now (as opposed to the mini-Hershey bars that I used to delude myself about) and it’s easier to resist. But I still would pick up my requisite handful (some days one at a time, sometimes two at a time).
I started thinking about it and ran a couple of quick calculations.
The candy in our office candy bowl has approximately 24 calories per piece. Not so bad, right?
If you had one piece of hard candy every work day (252 work days a year), you’re consuming 6,048 calories of refined sugar a year; that’s 1.73 lbs.
But who just eats one? Two pieces a day is 12,096 calories a year: 3.47 lbs.
And my personal favorite (and I’ll stop here)–four pieces a day: 6.91 lbs a year! And that’s from the hard candy–butterscotch, peppermint, cinnamon disk variety that no one really likes. That’s all from stuff that you eat just because it’s there!
I cringe when I think about the years that we had mini-snickers, for example.
Again, let’s look at the numbers for those:
1 a day: 3.24 lbs a year
2 a day: 6.48 lbs a year
4 a day (because they’re really not that big, right?): 12.96 lbs a year!
I’m not saying that you shouldn’t eat them, but just think about it before you pop one into your mouth!
A Little History
Filed under: calories, exercise, weight loss, Weight Watchers |
Leave a Comment When I was fifteen years old, I joined Weight Watchers for the first and only time. I weighed in at 232.5. I was 5’7″ and my only form of regular exercise was trying to wiggle out of P.E. class. It was difficult to walk up stairs and I remember walking up a slight incline from the high school parking lot and being completely (and embarrassingly) out of breath.
Over the course of a year, I had lost 90 pounds. I went from a size 40 (purchased at Catherine’s Stout shop) to a size 7/8.
During my Weight Watcher’s career, I hit my first big plateau at 165. I hit another at 156. My goal weight was 140 and I left Weight Watchers when my weight was 142.5. The reasons that I left were complicated. Suffice it to say that I never hit goal and, somewhere along the line, developed the limiting beliefs that I would never hit goal and–more importantly–that I couldn’t. Last year, at age 37, I got to 141.5 and promptly gained six pounds. I was close, but not close enough. And though I looked and felt great, I ended up reinforcing the belief that I couldn’t do it.
In the 23 years since my decision to leave Weight Watchers, I have fluctuated between 155-165, with a few spikes to 175 and fewer dips into the 140s. I currently weigh 146.8 And most of that maintenance was achieved not by diet, but by exercise.
So I lost the weight originally by diet alone (this was before Weight Watchers promoted exercise as a supplement to weight loss) and I kept it off (more or less) with exercise.
Over the last two years (following the biggest weight gain I’d seen), I started losing weight the old way: by counting calories and combining diet and exercise. But before I could even start, I realized that I was missing some key information. First, I had no idea how many calories I really needed! I originally found this information in Jillian Michael’s book, Winning By Losing. But the short version is this: your BMR x 1.1 (if you have sedentary life style like most Americans). You can figure out your BMR here.
My BMR x 1.1 = 1561 (so I should eat 1561 calories to sustain my current body weight)
Essentially, I can eat 1561 calories and not gain weight.
My next problem was that I didn’t know how many calories I burn a day in exercise. My sister remedied that! I love my polar watch; not only does it make sure that I’m exercising within my range, it also keeps track of my daily, weekly, and monthly burns. It’s great. I refuse to exercise without it! Thanks Laura!
So, I knew how many calories I could consume in order to sustain my weight and I could figure out how many I need to burn if I wanted to lose weight.
A pound is 3500 calories, so when I wanted to lose two pounds a week, I burned 1,000 more a day than I consumed.
Now that want to lose a pound a week, I burn 500 a day more than I consume.
Because you NEVER want to eat less than 1,200 day (if you are a woman), this means that I typically try to burn 500 calories on the days that I exercise, in exercise.
There are obviously a number of ways to exercise (and to count calories); I’ll return to both of these topics in depth later.
