MyNetDiary Blog

Running the Holiday Gauntlet

Here we are again – in the middle of that magical time between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day - the holiday gauntlet. It is a time for holiday cheer, festivities, parties, gift giving, and calories. As I recommended in last year’s post, consider a sane approach during the holiday gauntlet: aim to maintain weight rather than trying to lose weight. That is, hold steady – this will give you a little more leeway with your calories intake with which to enjoy the season.

You Still Matter More Than Gifts!
Don’t get so caught up in the merrymaking and gift giving that you fail to take care of yourself. Your family and friends will not benefit from you forgoing self care simply to insure that they get their favorite sweet or gift. You being alive and healthy enough to enjoy life is what matters most – and your loved ones ability to enjoy your company. Don’t lose sight of this very basic fact.

Not Enough Time
Yes, there is enough time to cook healthy meals and exercise even during the holiday gauntlet! You simply have to value those activities enough to schedule it into your day along with the other things that you do. Think of ways to free up time. If you have a family, then what age-appropriate activities can your children and teenagers do to help you get a healthy dinner on the table? How about your spouse – does he/she pitch in enough? Who’s doing the dishes? In my house, the person who cooks does not do the clean up. Ask for help! This frees up some of your valuable time for self care behaviors.

Dining Out & Parties
We tend to consume a lot of calories in both eating environments. Choose one or the other, but don’t do both for five consecutive weeks. If you typically eat out for lunch, then start bringing in lower caloric foods from home so you can budget for party calories later that evening. Skip parties that you really don’t enjoy and use that time for self care.

Keep Tracking
Keep tracking to remain aware of your calories intake relative to your total calories expended so there won’t be any unpleasant surprises in the New Year. So what if you made some choices that resulted in a huge calories surplus one day? It is the net calories over time that results in weight loss, gain, or maintenance. A 3500 calories surplus is needed to gain one pound of weight. That means you would have to eat 3500 calories over your weight maintenance calories to gain one pound. Most of us gain weight gradually over time with a creeping calories surplus that occurs for weeks, months, and years.

“All or Nothing” Doesn’t Work
Get rid of the “all or nothing” approach to holiday eating. If you persist in this type of thinking, I can pretty much guarantee that you will gain weight over the holidays. You don’t need to be perfect – this ultimately results in a pretty dramatic fall from grace during the holidays. And not knowing how bad things are getting is not freedom – it is simply not knowing. Better to track, assess, and make changes without drama. Knowledge is power – use it to make effective dietary and activity changes rather than as a tool for self-loathing.

Have questions or comments about this post? Please feel free to comment on MyNetDiary’s Forum or Facebook page. I would love to hear from you!

Best,
Kathy Isacks, MPS, RD
Consulting Dietitian for MyNetDiary

More Resources

Clemson Cooperative Extension. Control Holiday Weight Gain.

Gay Riley, MS, RD, CCN. NetNutritionist.com. A Survival Guide to Holiday Eating.

Harvard Health Publications. Enjoy Guilt-Free Holiday Eating.

Disclaimer: Please note that we cannot provide personalized advice and that the information provided does not constitute medical advice. If you are seeking medical advice, please visit a medical professional.

Healthier Bread on a Budget

We are creatures of habit. Most of us buy bread because we assume we don’t have the time or skill to make our own. But you don’t need to be a professional baker to make good whole grain bread. All you need is patience while you experiment with recipes to find one you like. To make good bread with very little skill, consider trying no-knead and bread machine recipes as a first step.

Healthier breads are those that are whole grain. For store bought bread, the first ingredient should be a whole grain (e.g. whole wheat, whole oats, etc). For homemade bread, most of the flour you use (or better yet, 100% of the flour) should be whole grain.

Cost Comparison

Not only do you save money when you make your own bread, but you also control the quality of the ingredients. To help convince you to consider making your own bread, I have provided a cost comparison. The weight of one slice of bread is typically 1 oz (for a thinner, lighter slice) to 2 oz (for a heartier, heavier slice). I used King Soopers for pricing – this is a chain grocery store (also known as Kroger’s in other states). For the homemade breads (the first two on the list below), I used store brand pricing for all flours, salt, yeast, canola oil, and corn meal. Since I couldn’t find a store brand version of Vital Wheat Gluten, an ingredient in both homemade breads, I used Bob Red Mills® brand. I used bulk honey (Crockett’s Clover Honey from Costco) pricing for the whole wheat bread machine recipe. If you use honey as a sweetener, then buy in bulk to save money. Small containers of honey are extremely expensive even if you buy the store brand (e.g. Kroger 24 oz Honey Bear is $0.24/oz whereas Costco’s Crockett Clover Honey is only $0.14/oz).

3.6 cents/oz: Homemade Whole Wheat Bread using “The Master Recipe” (by Hertzberg & Francois), 1 lb (16oz) loaf, $0.58

5.0 cents/oz: Homemade 100% Whole Wheat Bread for the Bread Machine (by KingArthurFlour.com) 1.5 lb (24 oz) loaf, $1.21

6.6 cents/oz: King Soopers White Bread, 24 oz loaf, $1.59

8.5 cents/oz: King Soopers Stone Ground Whole Wheat Bread, 20 oz loaf, $1.69

17.5 cents/oz: Pepperidge Farm Whole Grain 100% Whole Wheat, 24 oz loaf, $4.19

20.9 cents/oz: Rudi’s 100% Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread, 22 oz loaf, $4.59

One-Year Savings

Using 3 oz per day as an average intake (2 slices of bread at 1.5 oz/slice), one person would save $54/year if they made their own whole wheat bread (using The Master Recipe listed above) vs. buying a store brand whole wheat bread. A family of four would save $215/year making the same switch.

An even more dramatic savings occurs when one compares homemade bread to Rudi’s® brand (one of the pricier commercial brands) – one person would save $189/year whereas a family of four would save a whopping $756/year. Wow – that is a lot of cash to save on a single food item! For those of you on a shoestring college budget or trying to feed a family on one limited income, making bread makes a lot of sense.

Have questions or comments about this post? Please feel free to comment on MyNetDiary’s Forum or Facebook page. I would love to hear from you!

Best,
Kathy Isacks, MPS, RD
Consulting Dietitian for MyNetDiary

Tip for MyNetDiary Members: To calculate the calories in your homemade bread, if it wasn’t listed for the recipe you’re using, simply create a custom “Recipe” by listing each of the ingredients separately, including the amounts used, and provide the serving size. Then choose “Recipe” in “Consumed Amount” column. It’s quick and simple thanks to MyNetDiary.

More Resources

Alice Currah. PBS Parents: Kitchen Explorers. Healthy Bread in 5 minutes. This post includes a no-knead whole wheat bread recipe from Hertzberg & Francois, the writers of “Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day.”

Bread in 5.

Harvard School of Public Health. The Nutrition Source: Carbohydrates. The Bottom Line: Choose Good Carbs Not No Carbs. Article includes a link to a great whole grain bread recipe!

Cooking Light. All About Baking Bread.

The Fresh Loaf.

Disclaimer: Please note that we cannot provide personalized advice and that the information provided does not constitute medical advice. If you are seeking medical advice, please visit a medical professional.

Healthy Proteins on a Budget

Healthy eating is possible on a tight budget! You don’t have to be a college student to benefit from cost-saving tips either. Here are three basic tips for cutting costs while still choosing nutritious protein foods (that is, your main entrée foods): choose less processed foods, buy in bulk, and buy store brands over name brands. Eating healthfully on a very tight budget requires time to plan, shop, and cook.

Sometimes, though, it helps to look at cost in a different way to help you make decisions about which foods to purchase. If you consider choosing foods by cost per gram of protein, then you can save a lot of money. Be sure to account for handling and cooking losses when you make your comparisons!

A difference of pennies per gram of protein might not seem like much, but if you consume that food consistently for a year, then the savings become dollars. Think about that the next time you feel like you have to choose between paying for your groceries and paying your electric/gas bill.

For the sake of comparison, I have used prices from my local King Soopers (Kroger) chain grocery store located in Boulder County, Colorado. King Soopers and Kroger are the “store brands” (that is, no-brand versions). I have chosen less expensive yet nutritious protein choices for comparison.

Eggs. 1 large egg provides about 6 grams of protein regardless of brand.

2.3 cents/g protein for Kroger large white egg (13.5 cents per egg if buying a dozen)
3.4 cents/g protein for Eggland’s Best large white egg (20.1 cents per egg if buying a dozen)

Savings over the course of one year if you purchase Kroger vs. Eggland’s Best and eat 1 egg every day = $24.

Dried beans/peas (legumes). Legumes work double duty for you – in addition to protein, you also get high-fiber carbs. For reference: ½ cup of cooked beans is about 4.6 oz and provides about 7 grams of protein. Dry beans expand about 2.5 – 3 times their size, so just under 3 tablespoons of dry beans will make about ½ cup of cooked beans.

< 1 cent/g protein for Kroger’s dry bag of kidney beans ($0.99/lb)
6.4 cents/g protein for Kuner’s “No added salt” canned kidney beans ($1.29/15oz can). Drained weight is 68% of total weight so the true cost is $1.29/10oz drained beans. Price/g protein accounts for drained bean weight.

Savings over the course of one year if you purchase dry beans vs. brand name canned and eat ½ cup of cooked beans every day = $20.

Chicken. Buying a whole chicken and cooking it yourself saves a lot of money compared to buying a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken, or even buying raw chicken in pieces (e.g. breast meat or thighs). Buying small packages of raw skinless chicken breasts is the most expensive way to buy chicken, even after accounting for handling and cooking losses. Note that 1 lb is 16 oz (or 454 grams). One ounce of chicken provides about 8 grams of protein.

1.5 cents/g protein: King Soopers Raw Whole Broiler/Fryer Chicken ($0.98/lb). The yield of edible cooked meat is only half the raw weight of a whole chicken, so the true cost is actually $1.96/lb cooked, deboned, skinless meat. The price/g protein accounts for these losses.

2.3 cents/g protein: King Soopers Raw Chicken Skinless Breasts Super Value Pack 10 count ($1.99/lb). 1 lb of raw breasts yields about 11 oz of cooked chicken meat, so the true cost of cooked meat is $2.89/lb. Price/g protein accounts for these cooking losses.

4 cents/g protein: King Soopers Colossal Rotisserie Chicken 48oz ($7.99/bird or $2.66/lb). Edible meat is 52% of the total cooked bird weight, so the true cost is $5.12/lb of edible meat. Price/g protein accounts for these losses.

6.8 cents/g protein: King Soopers Raw Skinless Chicken Breasts 4 count ($5.99/lb). 1 lb raw breasts yields about 11 oz of cooked chicken meat so the true cost is $8.71/lb cooked meat. Price/g protein accounts for these losses.

Savings over the course of one year if you eat 6 oz of cooked chicken every week starting with a raw whole chicken vs. buying a small pack of raw skinless chicken breasts = $132.

Canned Light Tuna. Just because the money is tight doesn’t mean you have to go without fish. You will get a good amount of omega-3 fats (DHA) with less cost and mercury than fancy albacore tuna. One ounce of fish contains about 7 grams of protein.

16.0 cents/g protein: Kroger Canned Light Tuna in Water $0.69/5oz can (4.3oz drained)
33.2 cents/g protein: Kroger Light Tuna in Water Pouch ($1.99/6oz pouch)
48.3 cents/g protein: Starkist Chunk Light Tuna in Water Pouch ($3.09/6.4oz pouch)
71.6 cents/g protein: Bumble Bee Light Tuna in Water Pouch ($1.79/2.5oz pouch).

Savings over the course of one year if you purchase Kroger canned tuna vs. a brand name small pouch of tuna and eat 6 oz every week for one year = $173.

Over the course of the year, changing just these 4 food items will save you $349. Imagine how much money you would save if you switched out every food item you purchased with a store-brand, less processed, and in bulk version. The total savings would run well into thousands of dollars. Now that kind of savings would go a long way in paying your utility bills!

Have questions or comments about this post? Please feel free to comment on MyNetDiary’s Forum or Facebook page. I would love to hear from you!

Best,
Kathy Isacks, MPS, RD
Consulting Dietitian for MyNetDiary

References

Agriculture Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture. Food Yields: Summarized by Different Stages of Preparation. Agriculture Handbook No. 102. 1975.

Barbara Struempler. Alabama Cooperative Extension. 101+ Ways to Save Food Dollars. HE 757. 2008.
Disclaimer: Please note that we cannot provide personalized advice and that the information provided does not constitute medical advice. If you are seeking medical advice, please visit a medical professional.

From Labor Day to Tailgating, Keep It Healthy All Season Long

As Labor Day approaches this weekend, it’s one last chance to light up the barbecue, gather some friends and prepare some fantastic foods. For some of us, Labor Day is also an opportunity to perfect our grilling technique so we can be efficient tailgaters during football season. Whichever the case, we have collected some advice and tips for keeping your grilling filling, flavorful and healthful so the only layers you’ll be adding as the temperatures dip into autumn is an extra sweater or down jacket.

At the heart of every good tailgater’s plate is slab of grilled meat, but that doesn’t have to mean it’s not also healthy for the heart. Of course, there are some great vegetarian centerpieces you could grill up, such as portobello mushrooms or grilled tofu. But for the “meatatarians” in us, there are some simple and healthful ways we can prepare this tasty protein.

First, think skinless chicken, or better yet, skinless white-meat chicken strips. Kabobs made with lean beef and extra vegetables are a staple of BBQ meals. If you can’t go without a juicy burger, consider a lamb/bulgur burger, using lean ground lamb mixed with prepared bulgur wheat (cooked ahead of time at home), which help the patties retain their shape while providing a healthy filler. And who doesn’t love bacon? A simple BLT made with slices of grilled bacon strips and a light mayo (or your favorite mayo substitute) gives you a smoky, meaty meal without a burden of calories.

Every good meaty centerpiece deserves a fitting side dish (much like a superhero and his or her trusty sidekick!). Forgo the cans of sugar-loaded baked beans or the uber-loaded baked potatoes. Instead, throw together a coleslaw with shredded cabbage, bell pepper and carrots, but in place of heavy doses of mayonnaise use oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. If you want a touch creaminess in your slaw, a little dab of Dijon mustard will provide that and a kick of spiciness.

Other great lean sides are German-style potato salad, seasoned with vinegar and a little sugar. Or try a cold bean salad dressed with oil and vinegar. Pasta salad with fresh veggies and herbs also goes well with any barbecued dish.

Now to the drinks. Having been to a tailgating party and barbecue or two, what I saw most people drinking came in a silver can or brown bottle. Beer comes in many shapes and sizes, and if it’s your drink of choice while tailgating or barbecuing, remember to be sensible with the quantity (and quality) of this calorie-laden liquid. Light beers on the market now contain less than 100 calories per 12 ounces, which is about half of a “regular” beer, so keep that in mind.

Have any tailgating tips to share with those wanting to keep it healthy? Share them (and give your home team a shout out!) on our MyNetDiary Facebook page or in our Community Forum.

Go MyNetDiary members!

On Weight Maintenance & Tooth Brushing

I sometimes hear people say that they are going to get rid of their excess pounds and then be done with it all. That is a little like saying, “I’ll brush my teeth and floss this month and then I won’t have to do it anymore.” You can do that, but pretty soon you might not have any teeth or gums left. And if you stop performing basic activities that allowed you to lose weight in the first place, you will find that the weight creeps back on.

So healthy teeth/gums and weight maintenance have a lot in common – they both require preventative behaviors that need to be performed regularly. That is, one needs to develop a HABIT of performing those behaviors.

National Weight Control Registry

This is a registry of folks who have lost weight and kept it off for at least a year or more. Self-reported behaviors of these successful weight losers are:

78% eat breakfast every day.
75% weigh themselves at least once a week.
62% watch less than 10 hours of TV per week.
90% exercise, on average, about 1 hour per day.

Interesting list of behaviors, isn’t it? Here’s a link to the registry’s publications page.

Research also shows that journaling or tracking is a key behavior in successful weight maintenance. MyNetDiary will help you stay on track - please take advantage of our Community Forum for support during weight maintenance as well as during weight loss.

Fear of Failure

Weight maintenance can be a mind game. Many people have told me that they consider weight maintenance harder than weight loss. They express fear of weight regain and say that the odds are stacked against them. In my experience, what leads to failure is the “all or nothing” approach. When people get into this mindset, they stop at a setback and spiral downwards until they hit rock bottom.

What is more helpful is the problem-solver approach. Are you no longer maintaining and instead, gaining weight? Troubleshoot. For most of us, it is some combination of less activity and/or higher calories intake. For instance, a classic problem is a change in work so that you have to travel more away from home – meaning less time for exercise and more dining out. Once you identify the problem, you can work on solutions.

You don’t need to be perfect but you do need to persist in the habits that helped you lose weight in the first place. Continue tracking calories and monitoring your weight (or waist size). Move your body and exercise portion control. After all, weight maintenance is still a numbers game – your average calories intake over time needs to match your total calories expended.

Have questions or comments about this post? Please feel free to comment on MyNetDiary’s Forum or Facebook page. I would love to hear from you!

Best,
Kathy Isacks, MPS, RD
Consulting Dietitian for MyNetDiary

More Resources

Harvard School of Public Health. “How to Get to Your Healthy Weight.”

MyNetDiary Blog. Losing Weight – Step by Step.

Katherine Isacks, MPS, RD, MyNetDiary Library. Weight Maintenance.
NOTE: THE LINK TO THE AMERICAN DIETETIC ASSOCIATION NEEDS TO BE UPDATED IN THIS ARTICLE. The correct link is: http://www.eatright.org/default.aspx

Disclaimer: Please note that we cannot provide personalized advice and that the information provided does not constitute medical advice. If you are seeking medical advice, please visit a medical professional.

Being a Good Role Model to Our Children

Sometimes we focus our weight loss journey inwards so much (“I’ve got to plan time to exercise. I’ve got to start eating right”) that we don’t always take time to reflect on its impact on those around us, especially our children. Sure, many of us look to our children for inspiration (“I’m losing weight so I’ll be around for them in their later years, or so I can play with them more”), but we should always remember that our children watch everything we do - so let’s be good role models and include them in our journey as much as we can, which also equips them with the knowledge of good nutrition and exercise.

Obesity rates among children have been on the rise. In 2008 it was reported that nearly one child out of five ages 6 to 11 is obese, and 18% of teens 12 to 19 are obese. Additionally, a staggering two-thirds of obese children will also become overweight adults. These stats have prompted growing attention to this epidemicand the launch of initiatives like the First Lady’s Let’s Move program and Kid’s Health by Nemours. These sites provide great tools for teaching kids the importance of nutrition and exercise, but who kids really learn from is us.

Your family can be the best support team for your weight loss journey, and there are great ways to get them involved more so than just being cheerleaders. Below are a few things you can do with your kids so they can be part of your success:

Bring Them Grocery Shopping with You

Have your kids find the foods you should be eating. Don’t just tell them what’s on your list. Let them get creative in the store, perhaps even letting them create a meal once a week. You can even turn a shopping trip into a scavenger hunt. Give them clues about what nutritional value you are looking for in a food and see what they bring back to match it.

Let Them Weigh In with You

Don’t hide the numbers on the scale from your family. Ask your kids to read them aloud to you. You can even create a chart in the bathroom on which they can record your changes (or let them enter your weight on MyNetDiary.com or in your App).

Play-xercise with Them

Have your kids ride their bikes while you jog a mile or two, or take turns timing sets of jumping jacks, push-ups, etc. Create a family-friendly Olympics-themed picnic one Saturday, with each family member creating an active, competitive game. Not all your exercise needs to happen at the gym and away from your family.

Let Them Make YOU Lunch

How many lunches have parents made for their children - millions! Why not ask them to return the favor every once in a while? Again, by communicating your nutritional goals and calorie needs, let your kids get involved with your food and come up with a healthy (and tasty) lunch you will take to work.

These ideas are just a springboard. We would like to hear from you about other ideas or tips you do to keep your kids part of your healthy lifestyle. Drop us a comment on our Facebook page!

Big Game, Big Appetites, But No Need for Bulging Bellies

Welcome to this special pre-game post before Super Bowl Sunday! Super Bowl XLV, between the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers, is expected to be a dynamic, low-scoring game between the top two defenses in the NFL. The “big game” is also expected to draw a big viewership, even topping last year’s record 106.5 million viewers. And though the Super Bowl is treated like a national holiday, there’s no need to use the Super Bowl as an excuse to go super overboard with your calories.

According to the Calorie Control Council (CCC), Super Bowl Sunday is second only to Thanksgiving in food consumption in the United States, and the CCC estimates that Americans will eat 30 million pounds of snacks tomorrow. That’s pounds of food, mind you! From deep-fried chicken wings coated in oily hot sauce, to cheese-drenched nachos and pitchers of calorie-laden beers, it isn’t hard to consume three times your daily calorie goal just during the three-hour game. But it doesn’t have to be this way. You can be your own referee and call a “foul” on fatty foods! Here are a few tips to get you through a fun and festive Super Bowl Sunday without feeling left out of the party.

Log Your Calories

Don’t trick yourself into just “letting go” of this one day. Even if you plan to eat and drink a lot more than you would on a normal Sunday, don’t forget to log what you consume. It will give you an idea of how far off track you got and put a real number behind any weight gain you experience in the coming week.

Plan Your Day

Will you be eating out at a bar or restaurant, or bringing a dish over to a buddy’s house? Will your Super Bowl “snacks” constitute as your late lunch or in place of dinner (remember, game time is 6:30 PM EST, which is dinnertime for a lot of folks)? Will you be snacking with a bowl of chips on your lap during the game, or will you just eat at half-time while watching the Black Eyed Peas perform? Planning out your eating times for the whole day will help you moderate your calorie intake.

Go Light, Where Possible

Even if you can substitute one “light” ingredient in your planned snack fare, you’ll be able to cut some calories. This goes for drinks, too. You may be partial to a particular beer, but keep in mind that “light” beers have, on average, between 40-100 FEWER calories than a regular or dark beer (per 12 oz. serving). If you’re planning on having more than one beer, you could save yourself a lot of empty calories during the game. Light sour cream, light Ranch dressing, fat-free cheeses, turkey bacon - all are worthy substitutions.

Think Green When You Think of the Packers

Add color to your Super Bowl spread, and that means green vegetables. Yes, do have that order of celery with your hot wings (just don’t drown it in dressing). Add slices of pita bread, romaine lettuce, carrots and hummus alongside your plate of chips and salsa.

Yes, the Super Bowl only happens once a year, but if you can make thoughtful substitutions with these traditionally high-fat, high-calorie snacks, as well as exhibit mindful restraint during the game, you’ll be able to fit into your team jersey next year, or even have an excuse to buy a smaller one!

Do you have any tasty and healthy Super Bowl snacks you’re planning for tomorrow? Share them with us!