Have you found it difficult to balance a healthy diet with increased exercise or training?
Midtown Chicago’s Registered Dietitian, Jenny Maloney, is back to tell you how.
Spring is training season for many members. If you have a marathon, triathlon, 5K, or other athletic competition on the calendar, you’re likely exercising more and getting hungrier as well.
There is a fine line between fueling for your exercise or sport and overeating, which can result in weight gain despite an increased caloric burn.
The tendency after a hard workout is to eat twice as much as you normally would, and this can get you into trouble, so ensure that you are eating an overall healthy and balanced diet. Are you consuming enough fruits and vegetables? Are you choosing whole grain versions of foods and lean protein?
Once you are eating a variety of healthy foods, then you can start to think about fueling for exercise. Instead of eating two desserts after a hard workout, add an extra serving of fruit, vegetables, or protein, or add an extra healthy snack. For example, if your dinner is a chicken stir fry, add another ½ cup of brown rice and an extra ounce of chicken. If you are still hungry after dinner, you can always have a snack.
Make sure to eat before and after exercise so you are not starving when you are done. During the off-season or taper periods, cut down your portions but continue to eat healthfully. When you are in training or exercising more, you can eat more but make sure the food is still healthy.
What race(s) are you training for this spring?
As the obesity epidemic grows in scope, so too does the “blame game.” Lack of exercise, over-consumption of food, sedentary work environments, lifestyle choices, biological predispositions, genes…the list of possible culprits for America’s fatness goes on.
Fast food is a common target. Earlier this month, an advocacy group launched a campaign petitioning 26 hospitals across the country to remove a major fast food restaurant from their cafeterias with the aim of sending a “better message” to consumers.
Some of the reasoning behind the group’s initiative comes from a 2006 study published in the journal Pediatrics that concluded that allowing fast food centers to operate in hospitals not only affects guests’ consumption of fast food on the day of their visit, but also unintentionally boosts the perception of the “healthfulness” of fast food in general. Here’s more research that supports the initiative:
Courtesy of wagnerfpa.wordpress.com.
So being near to fast food increases the likelihood of obesity, but will removing fast food from hospitals (and other institutions and neighborhoods) help solve the problem?
Consider this:
Blaming fast food restaurants for obesity can place us on a slippery slope. Should we remove buses from our streets to force people to choose the less convenient, but “healthier” walking or biking options? After all, sitting for long periods of time is correlated with obesity, and most adults do not get the recommended level of exercise.
Similarly, while we should limit consumption of fast food, we can’t eliminate it from the American diet as long as there is a demand for convenient, inexpensive, and (arguably) tasty food. We need to improve health through education and develop incentives that encourage healthy lifestyle decisions, proper nutrition, and exercise.
Perhaps a partnership between hospitals and Weight Watchers (or other proven commercial weight loss programs), or the establishment of walking groups or active events within hospital walls, could promote lasting change.
We won’t make any progress in the fight against obesity by playing the blame game at the expense of taking responsibility for our health into our own hands.
Courtesy of www.topnews.in.
What do you think? Will restricting fast food lead to a decrease in obesity? How can we as individuals, families, and institutions promote a healthier America?
Courtesy of eatright.org.
March is National Nutrition Month, and this year, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics is urging Americans to “Get Your Plate In Shape.” With the help of the “My Plate” model, which replaced the Food Pyramid in June 2011, the experts are giving us a reminder of the healthy nutrition goals we have heard before:
According to Vegetarian Times, approximately 7.3 million Americans consider themselves “vegetarians” and 22.8 million more
say they follow a vegetarian-inclined diet. The American Dietetic Association supports this diet, citing appropriately planned vegetarian diets as healthful, nutritionally sound, and helpful in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases.
Think vegetarianism isn’t for you? It’s not as difficult as you might think, and the health benefits are significant.
Vegetarian diets are plant-based and consist of vegetables, fruit, grains, beans, nuts, and seeds. The diet is absent of animal products, including meat, poultry, seafood, fish (and sometimes dairy). While there are many varieties of this diet, these are its main categories:
Most vegetarians eat healthfully, which makes weight control easier for them. Doctors have long advocated that a healthy weight lowers the risk for disease. This diet is also known to promote more physical activity and exercise, which also actively lowers the risk for disease.
A vegetarian diet includes colorful fruits and veggies, which are loaded with antioxidants, known to prevent many types of cancers. Because it’s nutrient-dense and high in fiber, the diet lowers the “bad cholesterol” that causes heart disease. The diet is also low in cholesterol and saturated fat, which helps to control blood lipid levels, an indicator of heart disease. What’s more, the plant-based protein in the diet lowers the risk of kidney dysfunction, kidney stones, and osteoporosis. Osteoporosis occurs when calcium is excreted in the urine from excessive protein.
Many vegetarians worry that they may not get enough of certain nutrients, but truth be told, meat-eaters miss many of these same nutrients, too. Healthy options for a vegetarian include fruits, veggies, whole grains, beans, essential fats like olive oil, flax seeds, nuts and seeds, avocado, peanut and other nut butters.
The Vegetarian Food Pyramid can offer some guidance for those new to the plant-based diet.
People often become vegetarians to lose weight and eat “healthier.” Keep in mind, however, that one can still eat unhealthily on a vegetarian diet, so it’s worth taking the time and effort to reap its rewards.
What’s your favorite vegetarian recipe? We’d love to read it!
It’s hard to exaggerate the important of heart health when almost 600,000 million Americans die of heart disease every year. Even individuals who are apparently fit and healthy can be caught unawares by a diagnosis, so let’s take a look at the steps you can take today to give yourself the best chance at a healthy heart now and in the future.
Courtesy of hometestingblog.testcountry.com
Step 1 – Know your numbers and risk profile: Schedule a doctor’s appointment and a blood test to learn the important numbers (risk factors) for heart disease, such as your blood pressure, cholesterol level, fasting blood glucose level, and BMI.
Having multiple factors for heart disease increases your risk exponentially, and some factors, such as age, gender, family history, and race, can’t be controlled. However, knowing where you stand on the others will help you take the appropriate action; according Dr. Philip A. Ades of Eating Well, treating any one risk factor effectively halves your likelihood of developing heart disease.
Step 2 – Quit smoking (or better yet, don’t start): It’s easy for non-smokers to cite all of the negative effects of this habit as reasons to “just stop,” but they may not understand the seriousness of the lifestyle change required to quit. If it’s been a while since you have reviewed the risks associated with smoking, check them out here, and work with your doctor to develop a plan to quit.
The importance of the remaining steps cannot be understated, as they directly impact all of the remaining heart disease risk factors:
Step 3 – Adjust your diet if necessary: Making a conscious effort to reduce intake of saturated and trans fats, added sugars and sodium, and excess calories in general greatly reduces your risk for heart disease.
Some of the best ways to do that? Eat less heavily processed and refined food and substitute with more whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and lean proteins (including fish, nuts, beans, and lean meats). Keep a close eye on portion sizes of snacks and meals to lower your chances of overeating, and drink alcohol in moderation. For more healthy diet and nutrition tips from Midtown, click here.
Step 4 – Exercise more (or at the very least, sit less): Losing weight (or lowering BMI) is just one potential benefit of regular exercise. Consistent daily and weekly efforts to get up and move will help you become healthier, stronger, and more energized, and just 10 minutes of activity here and there can make a big difference.
Courtesy of www.bbc.co.uk
Once you begin consciously moving more, try adding more traditional exercise to your routine a few days per week for just a few weeks. Experiment with different activities until you settle on one that works for you. Your body and mind may not react positively right away, but if you don’t give exercise a real chance (which means a consistent effort), you will never experience the real benefits.
Step 5 – Stress less: While we hold out hope that someone will develop a “magic pill” that will banish stress from our lives forever, managing stress remains one of the most difficult aspects of our lives. Work and family commitments alone are enough to overwhelm our calendars and our worry threshold for the month. You can try to sleep more, take more time for yourself, and clear your schedule, but it’s not always possible to do those things.
So what can you do? It may help to start by identifying the centers of stress in your life and how you feel about them. Observe what happens to your mind and body when you experience stress. Knowing what causes your stress in the first place can help you gain new perspective and create coping strategies that will reduce stress and its consequences. It takes patience and practice, but you and your heart are worth it.
What are you doing to improve your heart health?
February is here and with its arrival comes the opportunity to evaluate the success of health-related resolutions. If you’ve resolved to lose weight in 2012, and find yourself struggling, here are three tips to set you back on track.
Start a Food Diary
One of the tips you hear most often to help you change your nutritional lifestyle is to start a food diary. But what does that mean really? And why is it helpful? Won’t it be depressing to see everything you’ve eaten?
Allow me to de-mystify it for you. Here’s why you need to keep one:
1. You become accountable for what you are putting in your mouth. I don’t ask my clients to write a food diary just to yell at them about everything “bad” they ate. It’s not about “bad” and “good.” It’s being honest about what you’re eating and seeing where you can make small changes in your everyday nutrition that will add up big at the end of the month and year.
2. You recognize emotional triggers or habits that you’ve created. I like to see why my clients are eating what they are eating. This may sound silly but we don’t always eat for energy. Maybe we snack in front of the TV at night or always order dessert when we have lunch with our mom. These are habits and triggers that affect our better judgment when it comes to nutrition.
3. You realize why you are starving before dinner and snack on chips while you cook. It’s important to note what time you wake, eat, and go to bed. How soon you eat breakfast, how often you eat, and when your last meal is before you snooze are important. If you wait too long to eat your next meal you’ll be starving and end up snacking on an entire meal before you sit down for dinner. Or you’ll stop at a fast food drive thru. Both habits are not good.
Here’s an example of a thorough food diary:
7:30 a.m. – Woke up
8 a.m. – 1 apple, 2 tbsp. peanut butter, 1 glass water, 1 cup coffee w/1 tbsp. cream (breakfast, hungry)
10 a.m. – 1 Kashi bar and water (140 calories) (a little hungry before workout)
12 p.m. – sandwich w/2 slices of 35 cal bread, low-fat mayo and reduced sodium turkey lunchmeat (3oz.), 1 serving fat-free pretzels and ¼ cup hummus, water (lunch, hungry)
12:30 p.m. – 8 Hershey kisses, water (needed chocolate 
)
2 p.m. – 1 cup grapes, 2 slices provolone cheese, water (snack, hungry)
3 p.m. – 1 apple, small bottle Coke Zero (hungry)
5 p.m. – spinach salad w/craisins, blue cheese, mushrooms, candied walnuts & balsamic dressing, water (starving, had to go to Whole Foods)
8 p.m. – one glass red wine, one small 96% lean hamburger w/o bun, one handful M&M’s (wanted wine and chocolate, hubby made dinner)
10 p.m. – bed
This was my food diary for a day and I was totally honest! Times, exactly what I ate, why I ate what I did, and when I went to bed. So try one for a week, even better two weeks, and see how you do.
Include a Fruit or Vegetable in Every Meal and Snack
These pure and clean foods add more vitamins and minerals with the least amount of calories than any other food. With all of the fiber, water and nutrients that occur naturally in fruits and veggies, you’ll feel fuller longer and will have better health overall. Pair them with lean protein for a well rounded meal or snack. Apples and peanut butter, pears and walnuts, broccoli and low-fat cheese, or baked potatoes and salsa all add up to feeling satisfied without a ton of fat and calories.
Pay Attention to the
Calories You Drink
The calories in fancy coffees, pop, juice, protein shakes, smoothies, and alcohol are all included in your calorie total at the end of the day. You can eat great, sticking within your calorie limit, but a Starbucks frappucino and two glasses of wine can add over 350 calories to your total. Over a week’s time, that’s ¾ of a pound. In a month’s time you have almost three pounds! Yikes!
So stick with water, black coffee and tea, and diet drinks, and count those special drinks as a meal to stay on track.
Which of these tips has worked best for you?
Do you have a dress or suit you want to fit into this weekend? Are you sick of that bloated feeling?
With some easy changes to your every day diet, you can lose those last few stubborn pounds.
Jenny Maloney, Registered Dietitian at Midtown Chicago, shares her expertise.
Instead of two or three large meals, eat smaller portions throughout the day to keep your metabolism working. This will allow you to burn more calories.
Try to eat no larger than about a fist-size of each type of food on your plate.
Enjoy fruits, veggies, and whole grains, and avoid sugar and white flour. When presented with a choice in grains, opt for the whole grain version, such as whole wheat bread, brown rice, whole wheat pasta, beans, oatmeal, whole grain cereal, and whole grain crackers. Fiber takes longer for your body to break down and will keep you satiated until your next meal or snack.
Not only does processing take out the nutrients from many nutrient-rich foods, they often contain hidden sugar, salt, and fat. Try for all fresh foods instead.
Reducing sodium will eliminate bloating. Sodium is found in most processed foods. Eating fresh fruits and vegetables cuts down on your salt intake. Salt dehydrates and causes our body to retain water, giving you that bloated feeling. Drink more water and less diet sodas and coffee, as these drinks dehydrate you.
By following these nutrition tips, you’ll eat healthier, which can decrease bloating, give you more energy, and hopefully lose that extra water weight gained by eating heavy food and processed food.
When are you getting started?
Jenny Maloney is a Registered Dietician and NASM- and ACE-certified personal trainer for Midtown. An expert in improving health and fitness through proper nutrition, Jenny shares tips for eating wisely this holiday season.
Most people gain weight during the holidays. If you don’t lose the added weight, you could gain 25-50 pounds in five years! This weight gain is mainly due to the high-calorie, high-fat foods that traditionally go along with holiday meals — and too much of it.
Why not try to make healthy and smart choices that will help you to maintain or even lose weight?
Here are some tips to keep weight gain to a minimum while still enjoying yourself this season:
What’s your tip for enjoying the holidays without overindulging?
It’s 2pm and you are three hours away from being done with your work day. 
If you’re hungry, low in energy, or feeling lethargic from a heavy lunch, then a healthy afternoon snack can give you that extra energy to finish your work day and avoid overeating at dinner.
Snacking has had a bad rep in the past because the word “snack” conjures up images of chips or candy bars.
However, snacks can and should be healthy and one of the most important parts of your day.
When choosing a snack, try to include carbohydrates, protein, and fat. The carbohydrates will give you immediate energy while the protein and fat will satiate you. Aim for about 100-to-200-calorie snacks to give just the right amount of energy without making you feel too full.
Snacks are a good way to add more nutrients to your diet as well. Fruits and veggies are hard to fit in throughout the day so incorporate them into your snacks.
Here are some healthy, 200-calories-or-fewer snack ideas from Midtown’s own Registered Dietician, Jenny Maloney:
What’s your healthy go-to mid-day snack?
There is depressing news from the CDC this week. From 2007 to 2009, 2.4 million more people became obese. This means that 72.5 million Americans, or 26.7 percent of the population, now have this dangerous and costly medical condition.
In addition, nine states (concentrated in the South and Midwest) now have an obesity rate of 30% or more, as compared with just three states in 2005.
And then there are the results of the Nurses Health Study, which came out at the end of June. 18,000 women in their 30s and 40s answered questions about their medical, exercise, and living habits, and it was found that women gain an average of 20 pounds over 16 years, but that those who bike or walk briskly were able to better control their weight.
Doctors blame the usual suspects:
Image courtesy of Super-Beader
I happen to think these startling obesity and weight-gain statistics can also find their causes in the recession.
Unhealthy food is cheaper than good food. McDonald’s “restaurants” are popping up in low-income neighborhoods across the country.
And with regard to the weight gain in women over a 16-year period spanning the study participants’ 30s and 40s, it’s no secret that this is the time when many women are getting married and more susceptible to the so-called “love chub.” Women in this age group are also busy raising young children.
Finding time to exercise and eat correctly while knee-deep in diapers and preschooler tantrums is no small feat.
But as someone who has spent years trying to convince a certain loved one that a healthy lifestyle change is needed, I can honestly say that when all things (education, socio-economic status, and physiological makeup) are equal, it basically comes down to one thing.
You have to want it.
I think a lot of Americans are simply okay with being overweight. They don’t exercise. They don’t belong to a gym. They choose to eat garbage food regularly. In many ways, they’ve just made a conscious choice not to make their health a priority.
But then their bodies begin to fail. They develop Type 2 diabetes or sleep apnia. They have strokes and heart attacks. Their doctors tell them that their behaviors are shaving years off their lifespan.
It’s only then that they begin to make the changes necessary to save themselves.
Don’t get me wrong. These people deserve credit too. It is hard work to lose weight. Hard when you have 10 pounds to lose. Even harder when you have 50 or more pounds that must come off. Choosing to take control of one’s life, even after health problems have surfaced, shows a willingness to stop the cycle that’s created the deterioration in the first place.
I know it’s not as simple as putting down the fork and picking up the free weights. I know mitigating factors make it supremely difficult for some people to get healthy.
Image courtesy of AnandaBlue
But I believe in many cases, it’s the drive that’s missing.
It’s the drive that motivates the athlete in marathon training to rise at 6am and run long for three hours. It’s the determination of the college student to take group exercise classes to look fabulous in her bridesmaid gown at her sister’s wedding. It’s the desire of the beer-and-chips-loving dad to drive himself to the gym after work so he can see his youngest child graduate from college.
And unfortunately, the way I see it, too few Americans have it.
I would love to know why.
What do you think about the latest obesity findings? Besides the usual culprits of poor diet, lack of exercise, and limited food education, why do you think Americans are so unhealthy?
