Helloooo

Thank you so much for all the sweet comments and emails! I feel so lucky to have such great readers as you!

The entire Weekly Bite family is home from the hospital and we are adjusting to the crazy schedule of a newborn… (cue sleepless nights.) Lucky for me, LeAnne from the Dairy Council of California has written a fabulous guest post! I love her story of how she’s teaching her kids to listen to their tummies. Enjoy

Listening to our Tummies

I’m wrapping up my blog posts for the Dairy Council of California with a three part series “Concrete Steps for Letting Go of Diets.”

In Part I I’ll talk about how to gradually stop counting calories.  Part II I’ll discuss the process of letting go of the ‘cheat day.’ And Part III  is about defining what normal eating means to you.  Part I is already posted on the Dairy Council of California’s website, Part II will be posted on Thursday, and Part III will be posted on Friday.

Each one of these topics are very important to me.  When it comes to letting go of dieting, these three steps are so important.  If you’re knew to the non-dieting concept, the steps I’ve covered may seem overwhelming, even impossible to accomplish at times.  I encourage you to read each post and chime in. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

I’ve truly enjoyed guest posting for the Dairy Council of California.  Their website is a great resource for healthy eating and loads of healthy recipes.

I hope you enjoy the series

Its been many months since I’ve written a post about nutrition.  With the New Year in full swing I thought it was perfect timing for a nutrition post.  If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know my nutrition philosophy.  If you’re new to my blog, here’s a little background info.  I’m an RD with 10 years experience.  Having run my own private practice, I’ve seen just about every nutrition problem that exists.  If I’ve learned anything from my clients, and from myself, its that restrictive diets don’t work.  There’s no such thing as a good or bad food… there is such a thing as a bad portion.  Eating healthy is important but how much we eat is even more important.

As a mother raising a daughter, I’m well aware of the effects my eating has on her.  She will do exactly what I do.  If I eat all day, she wants to eat all day.  Its my job to be a healthy role model for her.  If you’re looking at adopting a healthier lifestyle for the new year, consider a more mindful approach.  Losing weight isn’t rocket science.  Its easy mathematics.  If you eat more than your body needs, you will gain weight.  If you want to lose weight, you need to mindfully do the opposite.  The key word is mindfully.  Its all about having a healthy state of mind.  What ever approach you take towards adopting a healthy lifestyle, be sure to keep a realistic view of it all.

Throughout the month of January, I’ll be blogging over at the Dairy Council of California.  They have a fantastic series call “New Year, New Approach… Kick off the New Year with a renewed passion for healthy eating by letting go of negative feelings about food.”

My first post is Mindful Eating, Satisfaction Guaranteed. Be sure to check it out along with all their other fabulous posts for New Year, New Approach series.

If you’d like to read more about nutrition, check out my nutrition bites page.  There’s all sorts of info there

Question for you…

What’s approach do you take towards living a healthy lifestyle?

How are you? I’m doing pretty good… I do have something on my mind though….

I posted on Monday about my jalapeno pickling experiment. As mentioned on Monday… this is my first time doing this, and after reading some of the comments about food poisoning, I’m a little freaked out. What if I did it wrong? What if I open it up in two months and make everyone sick? Should I stick it in the refrigerator? What do I do?

Is there anyone out there that has any pickling experience? Your advice is greatly appreciated

On another note… I’ve received a few questions for my Nutrition Q & A. As always… the reader who asked the question is left anonymous for privacy reasons.

Q: I know this is really random. You’ve mentioned that you like to run a lot. How much do you run, and do you run with music or without?

A: I love running. I’ve cut back a lot over time, but I’m happy with my current routine. In an ideal week, I like to run six miles 3-4 times per week. On the other days I like to either go to the gym or attend a Hot yoga class. As far as running with music… I HAVE to run with music. Its actually ironic that you ask this because just the other day my trusty ipod shuffle DIED! I think these things are made to only last two years, that way you have to purchase a new one. But to answer your question… I love running with music. I make sure that the volume isn’t to high because I want to be aware of my surroundings.

Q: I follow your blog all the time. I’ve read the book you recommend (intuitive eating) and try very hard to eat sensibly. My problem is that I often find myself mindlessly eating all the time – almost binge eating! I’ve had a lot going on emotionally lately and have just found out that I cannot run (medical reasons) and have gained a lot of weight. I can easily stand to lose 15-20 lbs right now, but I feel like food controls me, not the other way around. What would you suggest to turn the table and get some control over my eating habits and weight? I don’t want to try weight watchers or other diet plans, but I feel like I’m stuck on a downward slope.

A: Thank you for the email. I’m so glad to hear you enjoy my blog

I’m sorry to hear you’re going through some emotional times. I know how hard it can be. I’m an avid runner myself, and know how heartbreaking it can feel for someone to tell you to stop running.
Being in a situation where you feel food controls you is tough. Unfortunately, there’s no easy answer. The most important thing to remember is that “its not about the food.” If you can recognize that, and get to the core reason of why you want to eat when your not hungry, then you will slowly get better and feel more in control. One thing that’s worked for me is forcing myself to wait until I have hunger pangs to eat. Not severe hunger pangs… but that growling of the stomach that tells you its time to eat. This can be incredibly hard to do… especially if you’re going through some emotional issues. It can almost create a little anxiety… but its important to feel that hunger because then you feel like you’re in control again. Does this make any sense?
An exercise I often have my clients do is to go 4-5 hours without eating anything. Just calorie free beverages. The purpose of this is to let them experience what true hunger feels like. This isn’t something that should be practiced on a regular basis. This is just something to do once, so you know what its like to feel hungry, and what its like to feel full. Some clients tell me they felt hungry at the four hour mark and ate then, which is fine. You don’t want to push to extreme hunger… you just want to feel hungry.
I really hope I’ve helped a little.If you need any more advice, feel free to email me.

Q: Is coconut water really as good for me as its advertised? Do you drink coconut water? Love your blog by the way!

A: I love coconut water! And yes… I do drink it What I love the most about it is the ingredient list. “Natural Coconut Water” is the only ingredient! For an 8.5 ounce serving it has 45 calories, 30 mg of sodium, 515 mg of potassium, and 11 gm of carbohydrates. I love to run and I practice hot yoga… hydrating with coconut water is vital for me. You can’t beat that amount of potassium! Coconut water has more potassium and less sugar than your average sports drink.

Q: I’m so confused when it comes to buying bread! There’s hundreds of them! Do you have any guidelines that you go by?

A: A guideline I like to use is to make sure the bread has at least 3-5 grams of fiber and no more than 120 calories per slice. I always make sure its 100% whole wheat. My favorite bread to buy is Martin’s Whole Wheat Potato Bread. It has 4 grams of fiber and 70 calories per slice.

If you have any questions I’m happy to answer them! You ca submit there here

I have a busy day ahead.

On the agenda:

• Hot yoga class
• Finish up some paperwork
• Blog
• Finish Weekly Bite Newsletter
• Conference call at 3pm
• Clean upstairs of house
• Run several errands
• Figure out what to cook for dinner…
• Oh… and take care of a 14 month old all day

This week marks the beginning of MaryAnn’s new series:  Eating Disorder Prevention: 3 Things Every Parent Must Know.  The goal is to provide parents with the information we need to raise children who have a healthy relationship with food and their bodies.  I hope you will join me in reading along with this series and gain valuable information on raising a healthy eater.

This is week 9 of the 12 Weeks No Diets Series.

This week I wanted to talk about letting go of the cheat day.

There are thousands and thousands of diets out there that have a “cheat day”.  We are supposed to follow rigid guidelines all week and then have that one-day where we can eat whatever we want.  What this can do is eventually lead to an all out binge day (trust me, I’ve been there).  We feel we have to eat everything we can’t have during the week on that one-day.  This leads to a last supper mentality where we think to ourselves “tomorrow I’ll start over again”.  The problem is that this mentality can spread to days other than our “cheat day”.  If we go off our diet, it’s so easy to “just call it a cheat day”… which leads to a full on binge, which leads us back to the thinking “tomorrow I’ll start over again”.

Letting Go of the Cheat Day

Another common way of thinking is to eat healthy all week and “splurge” on the weekends.  I definitely went through a phase of thinking this way.  Don’t get me wrong… I enjoy a good splurge every now and again… it’s the quantity of the splurge that matters.  Eating healthy during the week and allowing ourselves to eat out more on the weekend is perfectly healthy, but what we need to watch is the amount of food we splurge on.  We still need to listen to our bodies, listen to our hunger, eat food we truly love, and stop eating when we’ve had enough.  Remember… it’s all about the portion sizes.   If it tastes so good you want to keep on eating, keep in mind that you can take the rest home to enjoy the next day. 

How to Splurge the Right Way

Be realistic in terms of the calorie content of your food.  I’m not going to encourage full on calorie counting, but think of calories in a very loose and realistic way. If we order a dish of fettuccine alfredo, we know that dish has upwards of 1,600 + calories.  Realistically, we do not need to be eating that much food.  Think about the bread, side salad, and wine we’ve already consumed prior to our dish arriving.  This can put us way over a 2,000-calorie dinner.  Have a game plan and assess the menu before you order.  If you really want the fettuccine, you can pass on the bread and/or wine, or, you can order it all and have a small taste of everything, but in reality, you’re not eating much food at all.  It’s the amount of food we eat that matters the most.

Never Deprive Yourself

If we let ourselves eat the foods we love whenever, we don’t need to have a designated day to enjoy them.  Eighty percent of your diet should be healthy, and 20% is whatever else you want (healthy or not).  As long as you are honoring your body, eating when you are truly physically hungry, and being mindful of your portion sizes, you can easily reach and maintain your healthy weight all while allowing yourself you daily “cheats”.

Don’t forget your workout of the week!

Click here for Jessica’s No More Resolutions Workout!

No More Resolutions will run for 12 weeks along with No Diets in the New Year

There are beginner, intermediate, and advanced workouts for everyone!

This week is National Eating Disorder Awareness Week.  Eating disorders are life-threatening illnesses, not choices. Prevention is key in the fight against eating disorders.  Although I’ve never had an eating disorder, I did go through a period of being a little too concerned with what I was eating.  Here is one of my favorite handouts from NEDA.  I love this message in particular.

LISTEN TO YOUR BODY:

Eat what you want, when you are truly hungry. 

Stop when you’re full. 

And eat exactly what appeals to you. 

Do this instead of any diet, and you’re likely to maintain a healthy weight, and avoid eating disorders.

This is where normal eating comes in.  Normal eating is basically eating when you’re hungry and stopping when you’re satisfied.  Do this and you will naturally control your weight while falling into your natural healthy weight.  For a more detailed definition we can go to Registered Dietitian Ellyn Satter:

• Normal eating is going to the table hungry and eating until you are satisfied.
• Normal eating is being able to give some thought to your food selection so you get nutritious food, but not being so wary and restrictive that you miss out on enjoyable food.
• It is leaving some cookies on the plate because you know you can have some again tomorrow, or it is eating more now because they taste so wonderful.
• Normal eating is trusting your body to make up for your mistakes in eating.
• Normal eating takes up some of your time and attention, but keeps its place as only one important area of your life
• In short, normal eating is flexible. It varies in response to your hunger, your schedule, your proximity to food and your feelings.

This is a very good definition of normal eating and sounds relatively easy, but for some, it’s harder than you think.  An article in the New York Time’s Blog addressed normal eating with Ellyn Satter’s definition.  There were over 300 comments.  Everyone’s view of normal eating is different.  Someone’s view of normal eating could be eating fast food only once or twice per day.  It’s really important to clarify that it’s both quantity and quality that matters the most.  Eating healthy is very important, but how much you eat is even more important.  If you want fast food, eat fast food, just don’t order and consume the entire supersized value meal.  Normal eating as mentioned above is “going to the table hungry and eating until you are satisfied.”  This can be difficult for some, but it’s all about having the right attitude.  Food is fun, delicious, and satisfying.  Forget trying to lose weight… carry your head high and your attitude positive.  Let yourself eat what you want when you’re hungry and stop when you stomach isn’t hungry anymore.  Like Ellyn Satter says… “Normal eating takes up some of your time and attention, but keeps it’s place as only one important area of your life.

I leave you with a question… “What is your description of Normal Eating?”  Let me know… I’d love to hear!

We’re past the halfway mark and into week 7. How did we do with the goal last week? Giving ourselves unlimited permission to eat whatever we want can be scary… but it’s so important in order live without dieting.

To recap, these are the goals we’ve covered so far:

1. Eat when you’re hungry, stop when you’re satisfied
2. Make water your beverage of choice
3. Break mindless eating routines
4. Increase fiber intake by increasing fruit and veggie intake
5. Pay close attention to meal timing and portion control
6. Pay attention to your body – focus on eating consciously
7. The importance of meal planning
8. Making Peace With Food

This week we will be focusing on calorie counting… or lack there of. Part of embracing “not dieting” is to stop counting every piece of food that crosses our lips. I know calorie counting works for a lot of individuals. If you can count calories and not let if control your life or become obsessive about it, thats fine… but for most, its very easy to become a slave to this.

When I talk about stop counting, I mean calories, fat, carbs, grams, etc…

When we count, measure, weigh, or calculate food, we’re not listening to our body. We’re letting other factors control how much and when we eat… not our body. How can that be fun? Having to count, weigh, and measure everything can become exhausting and time consuming.

For a life-long food counter, not counting can be scary.

The goal for this week is to start small.

Start with one meal without counting anything. Just listen to your body. Let your body tell you when to start eating and when to stop.

After a few days, try to eat two meals without counting. Continue at your own pace until you’ve stopped counting all together.

The ultimate goal is to start eating in response to your body, not the calories counted in your head.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email me.

*Don’t forget your workout of the week! *

Click here for Jessica’s No More Resolutions Workout!

No More Resolutions will run for 12 weeks along with No Diets in the New Year

There are beginner, intermediate, and advanced workouts for everyone!

I hope you’ve been enjoying reading these posts as much as I love writing them!

To recap, these are goals we’ve covered so far:

1. Eat when you’re hungry, stop when you’re satisfied
2. Make water your beverage of choice
3. Break mindless eating routines
4. Increase fiber intake by increasing fruit and veggie intake
5. Pay close attention to meal timing and portion control
6. Pay attention to your body – focus on eating consciously
7. The importance of meal planning

This week I wanted to talk about making peace with food. The biggest thing I believe in when I talk about not dieting, is the importance of NOT following a restricted eating regimen. The way human nature works… or at least with me… the minute I try to restrict myself from any food, or say I won’t let myself eat a certain food… I instantly want that food.

For example, how long would you last if you vowed to not eat sweets for the next six weeks. I know myself all to well… I would crack.

If we tell ourselves that we can’t or shouldn’t have a particular food, it can often lead to intense feelings of deprivation and uncontrollable cravings. When we finally “give-in” to a “forbidden” food, its often done with such strong intensity that it can result in the Last Supper syndrome where we just eat and eat and eat. Or, it could be followed by extreme guilt.

It’s extremely important to NEVER deprive ourselves of the foods we love. In my book, there is no such thing as a good or bad food, but there is such a thing as an bad portion. Eating healthy is important, but how much we eat is even more important. I’ve mentioned before that I believe in the 80/20 rule. Eighty percent of what I eat is healthy, twenty percent is whatever else I want. There’s no particular order of how this happens either. I’ve had days where I’ve eaten a healthy breakfast, a cheeseburger for lunch, and something small and healthy for dinner. Or, I might have a piece of chocolate after breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It changes everyday.

Goal for this week:

Every day this week, I want for you to think of one food you truly love, and eat it. For example, if you’re craving pizza, there’s no need to eat the entire pizza. Wait until you’re truly physically hungry, and eat a mindful portion. When I say “mindful portion” you want to eat enough until you are satisfied. Not overly full, but satisfied. If you’ve been overly restricted with your diet in the past, this can be challenging. Take your time and slowly start to mindfully incorporate more of the foods you love, or food you thought you loved. When you start to eat them, you may even realize that you don’t like it too much.

I know this can be tough for some, so if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email me

Don’t forget your workout of the week!

Click here for Jessica’s No More Resolutions Workout!

No More Resolutions will run for 12 weeks along with No Diets in the New Year

There are beginner, intermediate, and advanced workouts for everyone!

We’re into week five of 12 Weeks No Diets.

This series is all about not dieting… but just because we’re not dieting doesn’t mean we shouldn’t practice healthy eating habits.

Meal planning is so important. I’m not saying we should write out a weeks worth of controlled menus, but we do need to have some sort of plan to keep us in check. The last thing we need is to feel overly hungry and have nothing healthy around.

To recap – Here are some tips I use for myself and hunger:
*Ask yourself if you’re really hungry, or if you’re satisfying an emotion, bored, or simply eating out of habit. The closer you get to recognizing real, physical hunger, the more control you’ll gain over your eating.

*It’s also important not to let yourself get too hungry. If this happens, you’re more likely to make poor food choices.

*Try not to go more than four to five hours between meals, otherwise your ravenous hunger can result in a binge, and it is usually not a healthy one.

So planning in advance is key, always keep healthy snacks on hand, and schedule snack breaks to energize you and help keep your hands out of the cookie jar.

Planning meals in advance
*Stock your pantry and refrigerator with delicious, nutritious foods. If you want a special treat, go out and enjoy a small portion, but don’t bring it home to tempt you.

*Spend some time each day in quiet meditation — reflecting, breathing, and relaxing.

*Serve meals on pretty luncheon-sized dishes that make portions look larger.

*Package snacks in small bags or containers for portion control.

I really liked this post by Jessica from How Sweet it Is. She has some very practical meal planning tips that I love!

Workout of the week:

Click here for Jessica’s No More Resolutions Workout!

No More Resolutions will run for 12 weeks along with No Diets in the New Year

There are beginner, intermediate, and advanced workouts for everyone! My favorite thing about these workouts is that they can be done at home!

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Question of the Day?

Are you a meal planner? I don’t plan formal structured meals, but I do make sure I have healthy foods in stock. Over the weekend I make a couple of bigger healthy dinners so we have plenty of leftovers throughout the week.

Today we start week two of 12 Weeks No Diets!

To recap, here were last weeks goals.

• Eat when we’re hungry, stop when we’re satisfied
• Drink at least 12 oz of water with each meal, and 8-12 oz between meals.

How did we do?

Like I mentioned in my last post, drinking water is pretty tough for me! I literally felt like I was constantly guzzling water. The first few days felt like work, but after a while I started to feel so much better! As far as eating when I’m hungry… I pretty much do this already, but this time I REALLY focused on it! Before I ate, or wanted to eat I asked myself “Am I REALLY hungry?” Sometimes the answer was yes, but other times it wasn’t. I had moments of boredom where I wanted to eat, but didn’t. I also had moments where those lovely “female hormones” kicked in and made think I wanted food. Boy was this hard work! As frustrating as it was, I waited it out and low and behold, my tummy eventually started growling, hunger pains kicked in, and before I knew it, it was time to eat! I have to say it felt almost like a victory!

Moving forward to this week, I wanted to focus on eating routines and fiber.

Mindful Tip #2

Break Mindless Eating Routines

Do you have any routines where you eat mindlessly? I had/have a couple. Sometimes I like to snack a little while working on the computer… like right now! I’m righting this post from a cute little bakery/coffee shop. There are people all around me working on their computers, sipping coffee, and eating. I smell the yummy quiche that the women sitting next to me is eating, I smell the warm cinnamon roll that the man across from me is eating. I am not the least bit hungry at all… not even a tingle of hunger… but I feel like I should order something because a) I’m working on the computer, and b) because everyone else around me is eating.

Another mindless eating routine I did/do is eating as soon as I get home from work. For the longest time the first thing I would do when getting home from work was eat. I would pull my car into the driveway, get the mail from the mail box, let Shiner (my dog) out, and sift through the mail while eating either pretzels or pita chips. Majority of the time I wasn’t even hungry.

Breaking mindless eating routines takes some time. I had to take a look at my day and identify the routines where I ate mindlessly. Then I had to work on them. I did this my focusing on breaking my routines. It took a conscious effort, but over time, I developed new routines.

Nutrition Tip #2

Eat your Fiber!!

Fiber is good for us. Fiber helps makes us feel full. Fiber comes in the form of whole grains, fruits, and veggies. The daily fiber requirement for women is 25 grams, and for men it’s about 40 grams. Instead of trying to count fiber grams, just try to make better choices. I like to choose bread that has at least 4 grams of fiber per slice. As far as fruits and veggies go, I REALLY need to work on this!!! I don’t know why this is so hard for me, but it is. I can manage to eat a salad most days to get my veggies in, but other than that, I need work. I don’t know why, but when I’m hungry, I rarely go for fruits or veggies.

Goal for this week:

1. Try to identify any mindless eating routines, think of a different behavior/activity to work on changing those routines
2. When hungry, at at least one piece of fruit per day, and include veggies in some form (preferably fresh) for two meals.
   

WORKOUT OF THE WEEK

Click here for Jessica’s No More Resolutions Workout!

No More Resolutions will run for 12 weeks along with No Diets in the New Year

There are beginner, intermediate, and advanced workouts for everyone! My favorite thing about these workouts is that they can be done at home!

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Do you have any questions?

I’m happy to answer any questions you may have. I started a “12 Weeks No Diets” page. Every Mondays post/tip will be on that page.

If you have any workout specific questions, go to Jessica’s Blog at How Sweet It Is.