Using Your Hands for Easy Portion Control!

You hear it all the time. Watch your portion size when looking to eat healthier and manage weight. It seems so simple, but like most "easy" things, is easier said than done for most. To make portion control work, I feel its best to get to the most elementary level possible. How much more elementary can you get than your hands? My hands you ask? Yes your hands, and this time it really is as easy as it looks.

Check out this hand portion control chart to learn more. For instance the chart states one "cupped" hand is equivalent to half a cup of cooked vegetables, pastas, icecream, pudding etc. This tool is not about using your hands as utensils, but it's certainly an easy place to start. It's really all about having a visual in your head of everyday portion sizes so that it becomes second nature. Then you can truly become portion savvy.


To Your Enjoyable and Guilt-Free Food Experiences,

A Case For Taking Small Steps in Your Weight Management Efforts

Often many types of changes associated with weight management and nutrition are expected to be extreme in order to bring about any meaningful results. This can make any efforts to achieve and maintain these changes quite stressful and daunting.

However, recently I was reminded how uncomplicated weight management can be if we just allow ourselves to just start with small steps. When a woman from Australia who lost 150 pounds after deciding to walk around the clothes line in her backyard, she proved how simple fitness can be.

It just shows that any exercise plan is only as good as the internal drive and motivation you have to get results. Many factors off course can impact the latter, but the important thing is that you begin somewhere, and a small first step is often a good place to start.

Find out about how the woman I spoke of earlier made long-term weight loss a reality for her.



To Your Enjoyable and Guilt-Free Food Experiences

Two Healthier Ways to Cut Calories via a Balanced Metabolism

The long accepted 'starvation' and food restriction approach to weight management have defined the weight loss industry.

How easy it is to forget that you have your own efficient, energy/calorie burning system fueled by a well energized body with a healthy metabolism. Metabolism is the process by which the body breaks down food so that its components can be utilized by the body for various functions.

It is therefore very important to pay attention to your metabolism and ensure that it is working at its best to keep your body well energized so that it can burn calories more efficiently.


Two simple practices to jump start your metabolism include:

Eating a Balance Breakfast: A good breakfast to start off the day has been shown to impact metabolism in a positive way and curb overeating latter down in the day. A simple low-sugar cereal with high fiber content with some form of lean protein, whole grain bread and fruit is a good, balanced breakfast choice.

Paying Attention to Hunger Cues: Hunger cues are the body’s way of letting you know what it needs nutritionally. Ignoring your natural hunger cues and skipping meals lead to undereating which lowers your body’s metabolism as it attempts to conserve energy. The result is unwanted weight gain.

Maintaining a balanced metabolism is one of the best ways to manage energy and calories efficiently. Therefore it pays to ensure that your body's metabolism is functioning at its best.


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:

Festive Rice and Vegetable Salad

Adding a little variety to the plain lettuce and tomato salad only takes some inventiveness and a few more items commonly found in the kitchen pantry. Try this simple and colorful salad:




Ingredients:
3/4 C long grain rice, uncooked
1 (10 oz.) pkg. frozen peas, thawed
1 sweet red pepper, chopped
3/4 C green onions, chopped
1/2 C dried cranberries
1/2 C canola oil
1/3 C white wine vinegar
3 T of sugar
1/2 t dill weed
1/4 t salt
1/4 t ground mustard
1/8 t pepper

Instructions:

Cook the rice according to the package directions, cool and place in a large serving bowl.
Add the peas, red pepper, onions and cranberries to the rice and toss to combine.
Pour the canola oil and vinegar into a small mixing bowl.
Add the sugar, dill weed, salt, mustard and pepper.
Whisk until completely combined and the sugar completely dissolves.
Pour the dressing over the salad and toss until the salad ingredients are completely coated.
Cover the salad and refrigerate at least 30 minutes before serving.

Makes 12 servings

This festive rice salad brings color and taste to your Memorial Day feast. To add a little more color use 1/2 of the red pepper and 1/2 of a yellow pepper. Finely shredded carrots may be added as well.

I hope you will enjoy this salad recipe. Even with salads it is possible to have variety each day of the year. Simple salad recipes are off course healthy and quick to put together, so eating your veggies doesn't have to be boring. To start you off, try these 365 Salad Recipes!



To Your Enjoyable and Guilt-free Food Experiences

4 Simple Approaches to Getting Off the Yoyo Dieting Ride

Yoyo dieting is often a lifelong issue and generally does not end unless a decision has been made that diets are not an option anymore. Breaking free from the yoyo dieting roller coaster ride is more challenging than just the intention to do so. Giving diets the boot can only be accomplished when we totally open ourselves to do things completely different as far as our weight loss goals are concerned. It certainly requires an open mind.


Four initial approaches to consider are:


1. You are more likely to succeed in both improving your health and attaining permanent weight loss if you recognize that there are no quick fixes and any diet which promises this is deceiving. The main reason why there is the tendency to go from one diet to the next is because the weight loss desired was not achieved or the weight that was loss was regained. Long term weight management requires patience.

2. Distinguish between psychological hunger vs. physical hunger. Psychological hunger is really not hunger at all, but cravings originating from emotions and stress. True hunger stems from our bodies natural hunger cues in response to it’s physiological and definite need for nourishment. It is important to be able to distinguish the two and become fully intuned to when you’re really hunger vs. when you are seeking pacification from food.

3. Stop fighting hunger. Despite what you’ve heard, hunger is not the enemy. It’s your body’s way of communicating with you a basic and primal need-food. Once you fully understand the difference between true hunger and cravings, you know that your hunger is a kind friend rather than a foe. Therefore, honor it and for goodness sake eat something! Ignoring hunger and putting off eating to cut calories will bring about an insistent response from your body that it needs nourishment for its survival. This response could come as cravings and overeating.

4. Open yourself to and find non-diet approaches to weight management. If you were told that you don't have options, then you won't told the whole story. Like everything in life, their are always choices out there. If there weren't there would be no need for advertising. The non-diet weight management options available fill in crucial elements which most diets leave out.

Remember that its never too late to do something differently. Just because you've always done weight loss the dieting way, that doesn't mean you need to continue doing so. Chances are that, like most, you probably haven't been seeing much success anyway. So perhaps it's time to explore your options.



To Your Enjoyable and Guilt-free Food Experiences,

Eight Non-Diet Tips You Can Apply Right Now

When it comes to weight management, so many people get overwhelmed and stressed. It just seems so complicated. When you put diets into the mix, successful weight management may almost seem impossible. So before you even consider yet another diet, consider rethinking this option. Instead, begin with these simple Non-Diet tips which you can utilize right now to help free you from the dieting roller coaster.


When it comes to weight management:

1. Be in it for the long haul. Do not be discouraged by minor shifts of weight in an undesired direction. Be patient.

2. Be Fiber Conscious. Fiber adds bulk and that’s a good thing, because that fills you up faster and longer. Vegetables, fruits, beans etc.

3. Watch your Liquid Calories especially soda calories and some "energy drinks". These really add up because they are so quickly consumed.

4. Avoid Diets which promise Quick Weight Loss

5. Eat several small meals daily because your body will only metabolize a certain amount of food based on it’s needs and the rest is stored as fat. A smaller meal means that more of the food is likely to be burned out and less stored as fat.

6. Take on a daily relaxation practice. Eg. Meditation, going for a walk, reading a good book, playing with a pet, meeting friends etc. or whatever makes you feel uplifted and less stressed.

7. Set your scale to your desired weight and step on it as minimally as possible after that. Place a note on the scale with your desired weight and make that your motivator. Avoid being a prisoner to it daily.

8. Have a support network. Being amongst like-minded people is one of the fastest ways to achieve a goal.



To Your Enjoyable and Guilt-free Food Experiences,

8 Ways to Cut the Fat Without The “Low Fat” Label

Low fat foods have been the rave for quite some time and for many concerned with weight management, including such foods in their daily meal plan has become essential. Whilst fat reduced or low fat substitutes for regular foods such as milk and cheese and normally decadent treats like cakes and cookies, may do the trick, this doesn’t come without a price.

Besides the obvious upside to low fat eating-losing weight -there are 2 main down sides.

1. There is the perception that eating low fat foods overrides the impact of other foods in the diet. We often feel that because a food is low fat, that is an automatic free pass to eat more of it than its regular counterpart. We forget that fats are not the only calorie contributors in our diet and that we have to look at the total carbohydrate, fat, and protein component of the food, not just the fat.

2. The taste of food can often be compromised with having less of its flavor enhancing fat component present


Although purchasing foods with the “low fat” label is valuable, there are some ways to cut the fat without necessitating this “label”. That means there is the sense of controlling the fat content without needing to mostly zap it out. There are several subtle ways you can manage the fat without needing the physical “low fat” label. Some useful food substitutions include:

1. Cheddar Cheese: Substitute with half the amount called for using Extra Sharp cheese and ½ tsp dry mustard for flavor.

2. Whipped Cream: Substitute with evaporated skimmed milk, chilled until almost frozen, then whip

3. ½ cup oil for baking: Substitute with ¼ oil plus 1/4 cup applesauce or ¼ cup oil + 1/8 cup applesauce and 1/8 cup buttermilk

4. Bacon: Substitute with turkey bacon

5. 1 Whole egg: Substitute with 2 egg whites

6. 1 cup Chocolate chips: Substitute with 2/3 cups chocolate chips

7. Nuts: Reduce amount by substituting with ½ or 1/3 of what is called for

8. Fudge sauce: Substitute with chocolate syrup

Substitution Tips adapted from Kingley Health



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.

Effortless Physical Activity and Weight Loss-Dance

Here's a wonderful article from Daily Om on rediscovering dance as a natural source of effortless movement:

Rediscovering Dance: Healing with Movement


To Your Enjoyable and Guilt-free Food Experiences,

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,