Do The Prepackaged Foods From Most Diet Programs Measure Up in Taste?

Prepackaged Diet Plan foods like those from Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers etc. guarantee sure results in calorie controlled portable and convenient meals, but many times these do not measure up when it comes to taste. Recent research from Consumer Reports found that out of a number of prepackaged meals from the most popular Diet programs available, only five were palpable, all coming from the Jenny Craig program.

Although pre-made, prepackaged diet plan foods as part of an overall weight loss program offer convenience and easy meal planning, it could be argued that the same is so with portion-controlled frozen entrees from the supermarket. There are a wide variety of such entrees to choose from and many of these are generally better tasting and maybe even cheaper when you factor in supermarket sales and coupons.

Therefore many prepackaged diet plan foods could be replaced by store bought frozen entrees. They are just as quick to prepare, convenient, portable, and give much more variety than a Diet plan's pre-set menu items. Plus because of the many brands and varieties of frozen entrees available, it is a wonderful way to break the monotony of daily meals. Add a soup and salad if desired, and you have a more balanced meal.

Some of the healthiest brands to consider include Lean Cuisine, Kashi, Trader Joe's, Healthy Choice, Marie Callender's Fresh Steamer and Pasta Al Dente products, Amy's Kitchen and more. The use of wholesome frozen options can truly offer a little culinary exploration and an easy portion control method.


To Your Enjoyable and Guilt-Free Food Experiences

A Practical and Fun Take on Non-Dieting

As the new year rolls through, I sincerely feel that a greater number of people are opting for more holistic approaches to weight management. Such holistic approaches include clearing the stuff inwardly that is the real source of weight issues, exercising in ways that are enjoyable and pleasing, making peace with food by eating the most wholesome and pure food out there instead of labeling any food as good or bad etc.

Recently I got in my inbox perhaps one of the best examples of why a non-diet approach to weight management is so important, and that lesson comes from a dog! The video is entitled Lessons on Dieting...From a Dog




I feel that this short video brings the point across in a way that words sometimes don't. Well sometimes simplicity is the most effective way to convey a message.


To Your Enjoyable and Guilt-Free Food Experiences

10 Regular Food Habits of The Savvy Non-Dieter™

The Savvy Non-Dieter™ concept is all about redefining the relationship you have with food by transforming the diet mentality which governs so many of our eating experiences. I've found that dieting principles of deprivation, starvation, guilt-driven eating and restrictive meal planning have found their way into our general perception of the way we eat.

So many are using these principles even when not on a diet plan to lose a set amount of pounds. Whether we are aware of it or not, much of our thoughts of food are dictated by a society where there is ongoing and growing food phobia that has been fueled by a dieting culture.

To be a Savvy Non-Dieter™ is to not only question this food culture, but practice regularly a lifestyle which follows a healthier way of eating and cultivates many wonderful food habits. Ten of these are:

1. Often considering Quality and wholesomeness when making food choices.

2. Having no 'cheat' days. All foods are allowed, meaning that there are also less cravings.

3. Enjoying dessert with enthusiasm, appreciation and full engagement.

4. Practicing portion size savviness in a healthy and effective way.

5. Eating without feeling attacked or punished by food.

6. Enjoying ethnic cuisine whenever possible.

7. Having at least one recipe book with lots of colorful pictures on the book shelf (even though you may not cook much). Food is nice to look at!

8. Getting out to eat with family, friends, loved ones without needing to rationalize or justify this indulgence to yourself.

9. Knowing when to take a doggy bag and enjoy the leftovers later.

10. Having a food pantry and fridge with little or no "diet" items. The Savvy Non-Dieter™ (aka you) know that "diet" and other fake, altered foods, which are in the least resemblance to their original wholesome form, are less desirable.

Off course there are many more regular food habits of The Savvy Non-Dieter™, and you can come up with the regular practices most suited to you. The question is how open minded are you willing to be?


To Your Enjoyable and Guilt-Free Food Experiences,

Eat In Moderation Effortlessly

Here's a tool to help you to improve your "portion savviness", if you need greater visuals of food portions to aid you in weight management. Perhaps you feel that portioning food into measured amounts works best for you, but you can't be bothered with scales and measuring cups.

I think that weight management should be simple, straight forward, non-imposing, and accommodating to your lifestyle. Meal Measure, advertised as a "portion control on your plate" solution to weight management, meets all these criteria.

It also meets recommended amounts for starch, veggies, and protein containing separate sections for each. The good thing about this tool is that it allows you to spoon out controlled portions right on the plate. However, I feel that no one should measure food indefinitely regardless of how simple it is.

The best approach I think is to utilize Meal Measure as a teaching tool to provide skills which you can use for the rest of your life. Then once you get used to the food portions, you can go on to make portion control decisions without the aid of any tools.

Check out the Meal Measure to see if it's something that could work for you.


To Your Enjoyable and Guilt-Free Food Experiences:

Overcoming Emotional Eating-Your Main Weight Management Strategy

Diets inevitably lead to weight regain. This is a truth that can be explained not only by physiological factors (ie slowed metabolism), but by the fact that conventional diets do not address the underlying issues behind unwanted weight gain. One of these issues which many who find themselves constantly on diets face is emotional eating. Emotional eating is fueled by psychological hunger over physical hunger.

That is emotional eating is normally brought on by such things as emotional cues,stress, social situations, specific settings, smells, etc. These have nothing to do with a roaring stomach which is signally that you body is ready for food, which constitutes our inate ability to regulate our eating internally without any need for a diet plan. Emotional eating however causes us to no longer be attuned to these signals.

There are two instances of excessive consumption which can arise from emotional factors. The first is when we literally ignore hunger cues, not eating when we really should be or hardly eating enough (aka starvation or deprivation) and then later binging when we are overwhelmed with an insatiable yearning for food. Emotions of guilt and shame from binging will likely cause another such episode in the near future.

The second instance of emotional eating occurs when food is mainly used as a pacifier to make us feel better or allow us to think less about a problem or troubling issue. The ability to sense fullness suffers greatly as no attention is paid to when we've had enough. In both situations it is easy to get lost in eating for as long as we need the food to cope with the emotions.

To begin combating this cycle of emotional eating it is important to do several things:

1. Acknowledge and become aware if you are using food as a pacifier. True freedom begins with awareness. The hold emotional eating can have on you exists through mindless eating; it is almost as if you are in trance. To break the trance you will need to snap yourself out of it by becoming alert and totally conscious.

2. Find non-food related activities to deal with stress and negative emotions. Food is wonderful and should be enjoyed, but there are so many more enjoyable things in life as well. Many other things can relieve stress in the moment it comes about, meaning that you don’t have to leave your house or go through a long preparation to access non-food related pacifiers.

Examples of instant relievers are
• playing with a pet,
• turning the TV to a funny sitcom or uplifting program,
• playing your favorite CD
• or turning on you favorite radio station,
• playing a board game
• connecting with someone online through a social network, IM etc
• doing something else with your hands –whether it involves taking up something to read or observe, completing a task around the house or an errand, engaging in a hobby or opening the door to take a walk down the block if you feel able to.
• Have a cup of herbal tea. Yogi tea is one of the best brands, offering many flavors. And what is also great about the brand is that each box comes with an exercise to help you relax and refocus.

3. Slow down your life a bit. The more we rush, the less time we seem to have and the more exhausted we may feel. If you are an emotional eater, you may not realize it, but food has probably just become another chore on the "to do list" of your multi-tasked life. You may eat while on the phone, while driving to work, while shopping, while doing paperwork at work or at home etc.

Taking a pause during your hectic day and at meal time can go a long way to helping you become more aware.

4. Don’t skip physical activity. Exercise need not feel like a chore. There is such a thing as easy and effortless exercise when it is an element of everyday physical activity. Not only does daily physical engagement keep you fit, it also gives you something else to put your focus on besides food and it relieves stress.


To Your Enjoyable and Guilt-free Food Experiences,


Next time I will providing a short list of resources which can help you to identify and combat emotional eating.

What is Your Approach to Permanent Weight Loss?

We've already discussed at length some key principles of the having a Non-diet mindset. However here's a quick and fun way to get a general assessment of your approach to eating and weight management. It only takes a couple minutes and is quite revealing. You need not put in your name, just simply begin with the "start quiz" button.

What is Your Approach to Permanent Weight Los… » Quiz Question Maker

Hope this assessment tool gave you some greater insight.



To Your Enjoyable and Guilt-free Food Experiences,

Getting Enough Calories and Nutrition

Sufficient daily calorie intake is crucial whether you are on a diet or not. Dieting and skipping meals mean restrictive calorie intake which can ultimately decrease the body’s metabolic rate (the rate at which energy is used by the body). As you give the body less calories to work with it responds by trying to conserve energy to make sure that it is able to support its daily tasks. But the result of all of this is usually fatigue and lethargy. Furthermore, if one were to increase calories significantly, it is likely that they would gain weight because those calories would be burned at a much slower rate. This is why once someone has stopped dieting and begins eating normally they may regain the weight.

The bottom line is that the body needs ample energy and the ability to function at its best. It is able to do this by utilizing Carbohydrates, Protein, Fats and many minerals and vitamins. Carbohydrates' role is primarily to provide a direct source of energy and fuel. Fat also provides energy although the process of extracting energy from fat is more complicated.

There is an interchange of mostly carbs and some fat for energy as needed, but it is ideal to have enough carbs in the diet so that the body isn’t forced to resort to both Fat and Protein in the absence of sufficient Carbohydrates. Protein has many other major functions (e.g. for tissue building and repair) and when the body is forced to use it for energy then this usually means that the body is greatly deprived and starved. So be wary of extreme carb. restriction.

Carbohydrates, Protein and Fats are all essential and need to be consumed in proportion to each other to make sure that they are being utilized in the most efficient way in the body. Although there are variants to the proportions, daily requirements are generally 55% Carbohydrates, 15% Protein, and 30% Fat of total calories consumed for the day. They are each used by the body in very specific ways to complete tasks and maintain an optimal state of health.

A simple way to ensure that you are getting enough energy and nutrition is to consume nutrient-dense foods. This means less processed foods,and foods which have been minimally altered. This would also ensure that you are consuming enough vitamins and minerals which are also needed for generating energy and serving the many other functions of the body. For e.g. at breakfast time, a nutrient dense food like whole grain hot or cold cereal with nuts or whole grain bread with nut butter would provide high quality Carbohydrate, Protein as well as Fat calories, and essential vitamins and minerals.


To Your Enjoyable and Guilt-Free Food Experiences,

Can You Overdo Healthy Eating?

I know you must be asking, How can anyone overdo healthy eating, isn’t healthy to any degree a good thing? Well sometimes you can overdo a good thing. Once the “bad”, unhealthy food has been identified the objective becomes elimination, elimination, elimination.

One common area of overdoing health is with fats and low carbohydrates. In the case of fats and carbohydrates, which are often categorized in the “bad” food category, one would think that these weren’t nutrients required in the diet. Things can quickly get out of hand, to the point where elimination of these targeted foods becomes the dominant energy a person experiences around eating.
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Extreme avoidance of anything that is labeled as “bad” can create anxiety.

-Generally any negative emotions attributed to food whether it is around excessive, emotional eating or avoidance eating leads to guilt and unease.

-Overdoing healthy can also lead to a very unilateral view of foods. For example a food item as a whole is only judged by its absence of the “culprit” ingredient or component. That’s why it can become so easy to overdo foods labeled as “fat-free” for example.

In the case of "fat-free foods, often times, the rest of the nutritional profile of the food, aside from the fat content, is almost overlooked. It is most helpful that the overall nutritional value of a food be considered when your focus is on health. A soda is fat free, but most wouldn’t generally consider it beneficial nutritionally. A cookie might be “fat-free”, but be loaded with fake ingredients.

So it’s important to broaden and open your mind, so that you don’t miss out on nutritionally valuable foods just because they're not fat-free or carbohydrate free, etc. Yes it’s fine to include these in the diet as well, but not exclusively so. And it also must be remembered that these nutrients are needed in certain quantities in the diet to promote good health, energy for the body, and proper functioning of all the organs of the body.

Healthy eating should be more about "What You Can Eat" rather than "What You Cannot Eat”. Food should never create anxiety whether it be about excessive eating or the extreme elimination of foods considered as unhealthy or inclusion only of foods considered healthy. Unless someone truly has a food allergy, there should be some balance, because healthy eating is as much about having wonderful, enjoyable, stress-free eating experiences as it is about the food itself.


To Your Enjoyable and Guilt-Free Food Experiences,


NOTE: Next time I will be discussing getting adequate calories in the diet for optimal health and energy whether you are looking to loose weight or not. Also, remember to sign up for the 10-Part E-course on How Non-Diet Weight Management Can Work for You to gain more insight on making eating guilt free and enjoyable.

Loving Leftovers

Forget what Mother said about finishing everything on your plate! Although you’re a grown-up now you still feel mother hovering over your plate uttering this over and over in your head. Bless your precious mom and even with all her good intentions, what she gave you was a serious guilt trip, and perhaps today you find yourself forcing to consume the excess food on your plate.

In a restaurant we feel no guilt about just getting a doggy bag, so use the same attitude with your home cooking. Leftovers are not just for the monstrous Thanksgiving turkey everyone wants to use up before it spoils. They eliminate the need to cook a meal from scratch or search for food the next day. I promise you that your mom isn’t looking!

It's fun to also cook meals which naturally serve double duty as leftovers the next day. These include foods like eggplant, cold pasta which can be incorporated into a salad, chicken, and beans. Leftover meats can be easily incorporated into a wonderful and enticing new recipe to create an entirely new meal. It only takes some fresh herbs and/or vegetables, various spices, and some other common items in the kitchen to jazz up and help reinvent a leftover meal.

Here's a very useful information page for utilizing a very common leftover meal item Chicken, at Love Food Hate Waste. Make sure to click on "Show imperial Units" under "Ingredients" for the recipe measurement, since this is a British website with a preference for the metric unit system.

Embracing leftovers allows us to enjoy eating free of the ingrained tendency to feel guilt about not eating everything on our plate. It also allows us to avoid wasting food and to save on our food spending.

A Diet For Life?

Like most other people, I am always faced with someone around me looking for the ultimate answer to weight management. Often the answer which most people expect is in some form of diet recommendation or extreme calorie restricted meal plan. For many Nutritionists it’s therefore easy to succumb to the Diet Doctor role, because that’s what people expect and it's where the demand and cash is.

Diets are often geared towards short term weight goals. So they have their purpose. However, in the case where someone gets wonderful results from a diet, there is often that awkward post-diet period where the weight has been lost, but the person doesn’t know how to or is not willing to let go of the diet.Even if there has been no desirable results, the tendency is to get on another diet.

Although, it can be hard to break free of the routine of such structured eating, one has to ask themselves the question “Can I or do I want to be on a Diet for Life or for any extended period of time?” Especially when undergone for extended periods of time I've seen dieting easily lead to Anemia and reduced nourishment in some form or the other. It makes sense with such aggressive elimination and restriction of individual or entire groups of foods, and not to mention the 'laxative' diet teas and questionable 'magic bullet' concoctions. Although diet bars, shakes etc have evolved somewhat they are no substitute for real food.

The Savvy Non-Dieter advocates things like regular meal intake without skipping meals or starving oneself, incorporating the most healthy forms of carbs, protein, fats in the diet, eating mindfully with attention and purpose, portion size awareness, increasing appreciation and understanding of the food we eat (quality and wholesomeness, freshness, sustainability, organic certification status etc.), among other things.

It pays to be a Savvy Non-Dieter, not simply as a type of defiance against all things diet. It’s about being empowered to more often bring quality of life and quality food encounters to the forefront of our eating experiences. It pays to be a Savvy Non-Dieter in a Food Phobic World.

Embracing The Fun Side of Food

Revisiting the foods we enjoyed as children is a simple way to bring pleasure into our everyday eating experiences. For most of us, this is the time when we truly embraced the fun side of food way before many of us adopted a self-inflicted 'whip of condemnation' when it comes to our eating. We can all remember that one or two special meal items which we looked forward to having as a child. Perhaps mom only cooked it for a particular occasion or we had it on a certain day of the week or time of the year, or perhaps it was when the family went out to eat or went to visit the grandparents. Whatever connection that food has for us, chances are that as adults there is still that sense of nostalgia whenever we enjoy the food or even think of it. Most of what are considered ‘comfort foods’ have such an effect on us. It’s not just about the food, for the foods which bring us the most comfort add a warmth to our hearts which cannot be measured.

Many restaurant menus meet this need by providing items which reflect our desire to reconnect with the foods of our childhood which are associated with so many memories. They offer such items as mac & cheese, hot chocolate with mini-marshmallows, grilled cheese sandwiches, creamy mashed potatoes, meatloaf etc. which are commonly labeled as comfort food items. Some restaurants chains have their entire theme based on only one comfort food such as NYC’s S’MAC ( Sarita’s Macaroni & Cheese) Restaurant, The Peanut Butter & Co Sandwich Shop (also in NYC) or Cereality, a national Cereal Bar & Cafe chain. These establishments exist simply because they sell much more than a meal, they sell an experience.

As adults we can at times get so obsessed about being mature, that we feel that we have to justify indulging in the quirky and free child in all of us. Embracing the unpretentious, natural childlike part of us can be very freeing even when it comes to food. We don’t have to explain and validate everything to ourselves or anyone in order to enjoy that well deserved indulgence. Children don’t get into all those complications about a thing, they just do what is in their hearts to do.

It’s not everyday you have that S'mores treat with chocolate oozing out at the sides, or that marshmallow melted on a stick over a camp fire. It’s not everyday you have a PB&J and Fluff sandwich or a huge bowl filled with five different varieties of dry cereal with milk. When we allow ourselves such childlike pleasures, it doesn’t mean we are reverting to being children ourselves, it just means that we are freeing ourselves of our endless list of self-imposed rules. So go frolic for one pleasurable moment with no rationalizing or guilt. There is great value in just enjoying something, such as a treasured and fun meal from childhood, for what it is without over analyzing it too much.

15 Fun Activities of a Savvy Non-Dieter

Being a Savvy Non-Dieter isn’t about a blind love of food. It’s love of food coming from a place of appreciation and awareness, genuinely caring about where your food comes from, and having an enjoyable, guiltless relationship with what you eat.

Additional, it is important to understand that adapting a Non-Dieter Mindset and being a Savvy Non-Dieter is not an issue of defiance, but empowerment and freedom. It's all about everyday practices which define a positive and healthy connection with food in your life.

Do you recognize any of the following practices in your encounters with food? Or perhaps you have some you might like to add.

1. Dining Out

2. Picnic Anyone?

3. Enjoyment of Food Festivals/Shows when possible

4. A Food Magazine Subscription

5. A Well Stocked Pantry

6. Regular visits to the natural/organic food store of the organic section of the supermarket.

7. Regular pampering, relaxation, massages, and other forms of self-indulgence

8. Enjoyable lunch breaks outside the office at a nearby eatery, restaurant, park of public space.

9. A nice collection of cook books or recipe favorites

10. Beautiful and functional plate ware, flatware.

11. Ongoingly striving towards personal growth and advancements in life so that food is not compensating for anything lacking in other areas of your life .

12. Regular weekly viewing of the Food Network…OK, that one is optional.

13. A Diner table with enough space to share a meal with at least 4 people.

14. Allowing the simple indulgence of a sensibly portioned dessert, when appropriate, without guilt. Many restaurants and food manufacturers alike are providing ‘single serving’ dessert choices, and not only are these choices more appropriately sized, but they contain more wholesome ingredients.

15. Always trying new and different food items from the supermarket or food market to add to your pantry.

There are so much more that can involve being a Savvy Non-Dieter. You may have to decide for yourself. I don't believe in "boxed up" concepts or personal labels, so you as a Savvy Non-Dieter is whatever works best for you as long as it leads you to healthful, enjoyable eating experiences.