Feed Your Body—Post 1

Welcome to Intuitive Eating

Welcome to the new Aerobicmom.com “Feed Your Body” segment.  These posts will be quite different from the “Feed Your Body” posts I have previously written.  As I have tried to narrow my focus to helping women free themselves from the negative effects of food anxiety and body image, “Feed Your Body” is going to be all about Intuitive Eating.

Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program That Works is, in my opinion, the only “program” that will help you recover from an eating disorder, or any unhealthy obsession with food and weight, for that matter.  I was introduced to this tool by a dietician when I was beginning my own recovery, and though I never read the book or studied a formal program, it was a principle that “intuitively” made sense to me and ultimately led me to recovery.

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For these posts, I will be basing my content on steps outlined in the book, Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program That Works, by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch.   While they have broken down the concept into a step-by-step program, it’s important to realize that the reason Intuitive Eating will help you recover is because it’s actually not a program.  It’s an Anti-Program.

Intuitive Eating is all about learning to trust your body again.  For many of us, that means completely relearning what it feels like to be full, be hungry, decide what we want to eat and when we want to eat it.  Intuitive Eating will help you relearn to follow the natural hunger and satiety signals that you were perfectly cued into as a young child.  It’s letting go of that white-knuckle grip you’ve got on your food intake.

To me, Intuitive Eating goes hand in hand with the spiritual nature of recovery, reaching out to a higher power.  When we learn to eat intuitively, we are learning to trust and accept the ability of our own bodies, and thus that higher power who created these bodies, to tell us what we need.  We reach a point where we don’t need to count calories, measure portion sizes, or time our meals because we trust in the incredible creation that we are to do these things for us.  We let go of the wheel and accept a higher power into our lives.

Today, see your body as the incredible creation it is.  Try to be grateful for all it has done for you, and thank your maker for providing you with such an amazing tool.  Listen to what your body is telling you it needs.  Eat when you are hungry.  Stop when you are full.  It’s almost as simple as that!

Next post:  “Feed Your Body by Rejecting the Diet Mentality”

Yes, it’s another book review!  I guess you could say I’m on a roll, although this one hardly counts as heavy reading.

Eat This Not That! 2010: The No-Diet Weight Loss Solution by David Zinczenko is more accurately described as a well-illustrated reference guide to making healthy food choices, particularly when eating out.
So, is this one worth adding to your home library?  I would say….NO…sorry, David.  While I found this book interesting, to me it was nothing more than a glorified and well-publicized calorie counter.  Here’s the breakdown of what I loved and what I didn’t:

Why I loved that this book:

• Had great pictures of all that food
• Compiled nutritional info from many of the popular restaurants that you probably frequent
• Compared apples to apples…or burgers to burgers, rather.  It was most helpful in this arena–when you feel like a greasy burger, now you know that a Big Mac will save you 200 calories over a Whopper.  Who knew?
• Gave some good nutritional reminders.  It was good to refresh myself on all the tricks to keeping eating out from being a health hazard:  omit the mayo, no cheese please, veggies on the side, watch what kind of bread you ask for, and for goodness sake, consider fries only on those special occasions when you can afford a huge empty calorie splurge.
• Took into account total nutrient density rather than simple caloric intake.  Zinczenko acknowledges the benefits of avocados and alike despite their high calorie counts.

Why I was ultimately disappointed:

• The fact that I felt this book did not live up to its hype.  For a clueless American eater, perhaps this was breakthrough content.  But if you have basic knowledge about nutrition, this book seems rather, well…obvious.  Choosing grilled fish with a side of veggies will save you calories over chicken smothered in cheese and sauce with tortilla strips on the side.  No, really?
• I didn’t feel he always had fair comparisons.  He would recommend one sandwich with a side salad over another sandwich with a side of fries.  Of course the salad combo gets much better numbers, but how much of it was the salad and how much was the sandwich?

What I took from this book:  I have always been one who feels a bit of anxiety about eating out.  All those…CALORIES!  Well, reading this book and seeing all those numbers in front of me actually reiterated that eating out does not have to sabotage your waistline, if you do it in moderation.  But I really think that your life will be much simpler and you will be slimmer if you just live by this one Aerobicmom cardinal rule: TAKE HOME HALF.

There you go!  Now just print those three word out onto a piece of paper, tuck it into your wallet and you’re good to go.  I don’t even care if you get the smothered burrito.  Just TAKE HOME HALF.  It’s a lot easier than carrying Eat This-Not That around with you on your lunch break.

My favorite tidbits from this book:

• Chic-Fil-A is your best bet for fast food (even above Subway)–not a single sandwich breaks the 500-calorie barrier.  Wow!
• A single Cinnabon cinnamon roll clocks in at 813 calories.  Split this occasional indulgence with a pal or bypass it altogether!
• The worst food in America…Outback’s Aussie Cheese Fries…a gooey 2,900 calorie mess.  When you consider the deep-fried starchy potatoes, gooey cheese and fatty bacon, can you really say you are surprised?
• One of the best quick breakfasts around is the old standard Egg McMuffin, with around 300 calories and a good balance of protein, fats, and carbs to keep you fueled.
• I was introduced to the In’N'Out Secret Lexicon:  I’ve only tried this very trendy burger joint once and left wondering what all the fuss was about.  I guess I’ll give it one more go and try my burger Animal & Protein Style.  I’m new at this…is that legal?

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Hello Aerobicmom Readers!

Today I have a Book Review for you:  In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, by Michael Pollan.

Click Here to Buy on Amazon

I devoured this book, subtitled “An Eater’s Manifesto,” the week that the Health Care Bill passed.  As the politics of Health Care Reform swirled around in my mind, this book made me accutely aware of the politics of our diet, how food is marketed to us, and how big money misleads us even down to the crackers we purchase.  This book was thought-provoking, paradigm-breaking, uncomfortable and exasperating, and, in the end, left me more committed to being an informed consumer and a moderate and healthy eater.

The first line of this book sums up the point of all 201 pages:  Eat food.  Not too much.  Mostly plants.

But don’t be fooled.  It isn’t nearly that simple, and it takes all 201 pages to really understand what this simple statement means.

This book is broken up into 3 parts:

Part one, “The Age of Nutritionism”

Pollan reviews the history of “Nutritionism,” which, as Pollan explains, is the cultural phenomenon of seeing food as a sum of its parts (its nutritional content) rather than food as a whole.  Pollan particularly points out the politics behind the way the science of nutritionism took over a more traditional way of eating, where cultural norms (ie MOM), decided what, when, and how much we should eat.

Part two, “The Western Diet and the Diseases of Civilization”

highlights the various health ramifications the entire world has seen as more and more developing countries have adopted the Western Diet.  It also delineates what exactly it is about the Western Diet that is so harmful.

Part Three, Getting Over Nutritionism

Offers some fairly simple and liveable rules to help guide all of us eaters to what we actually should be eating, and how to be healthy in a world so entrenched in the tenets of Nutritionism that we don’t even know how to discuss food and diet without falling into its jargon.

What I liked:

• I felt much more informed after reading this book.  It is amazing how misleading advertising can be.  I have always read nutrition labels carefully, but I will recommit to this practice after reading this book, particularly reading the list of ingredients, and I’ll be a little more skeptical of noisy health claims on boxes and labels.
• Seeing the historical background that took us from traditional ethnic diets to a more processed Western diet.  It’s interesting to see how and why we got where we are now.
• The suggestions Pollen gives in Part 3 to eat healthfully.  Particularly helpful were his suggestions to plant a garden, to eat meals (and avoid snacking) & eat sitting down, and to not eat anything that your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.

What I did not like:

• In a sense, this book left me far more confused about how to eat healthfully than I was before I read it.  On one hand Pollen bashes nutritionism, (seeing food too strictly in terms of its nutritional content), while on the other he bashes the Western diet with its highly processed, refined “food products.”  Not even organic produce escapes his criticism for the long distances it travels to get from California’s organic farms.  The book leaves you feeling like you just can’t win.
• The fact that Pollen contradicts himself repeatedly, first criticizing nutritionism, then using nutrition science to support his own claims of what is optimally healthy.  Although Pollen himself acknowledges this inconsistency, it adds to the overall feeling of the book that the only way to be truly healthy is to go back to the hunter & gatherer lifestyle of our ancestors.  Not. Gonna. Happen.

What I took from this book:

• Recommit to eating & serving my family 5 servings of fruits and vegetables daily.
• Recommit to making whole wheat bread from scratch at home.
• Commit to cutting down on “food products” that replace fat (an essential nutrient) with chemicals, texturizers and gums.  *This is a tough one for me!
• Continue in a moderate approach to healthy eating, using wisdom and moderation to eat what makes me and my family feel good and strong, realizing that there are as many fanatical opinions about what makes the optimal diet as there are nutrition scientists.

If you’re interested in reading this book for yourself, we’d love to hear a review from you on AerobicMom.com!

Buy the book at Amazon: In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto

Okay Moms.  Whether you are reading this to stay informed about your own health or the health of your children, here’s a headline you’re probably familiar with:

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

It really is true!  Not only does it get your metabolism revved up after a sluggish night of digestion, but it also keeps you from bingeing later in the day.  And if you’re eating right, you should feel more than ready to eat by the time breakfast rolls around.  Going to bed on what feels like an empty stomach is a great intuitive way to manage your weight, and trust me, you’ll be hungry in the morning.

So, what exactly is a healthy breakfast?  Don’t worry, I’m not going to suggest that you, busy mother, wake up at the crack of dawn to get the whole wheat bread in the oven while you scramble egg whites and tofu with a sprig of parsley.  Please.  If you are like most moms, you are lucky to get the kids fed at all in the  morning rush of getting everyone off to school with their shoes on the right feet and their shirts on right-side-out.  Let’s talk about cereal.

Now, I know what you’re expecting, and I am going to surprise you here today, with 2 simple rules for a kid-friendly, health-friendly breakfast.

1.  Ignore your Mama’s stereotypes

So I don’t know if you are like me, but whenever my in-laws come to town, they look down their noses at my kids’ cereal bowls in the morning.  To them, a healthy breakfast is hot (think oatmeal, pancakes and bacon) and cannot be prepared in 10 seconds flat.   But here’s my beef with their old-fashioned ideas.  They are based totally on tradition and zero on fact.  Let’s compare, for example, the worst-case scenario.

Let’s say that my kids are eating, “Gasp!” Captain Crunch Berries for breakfast.  Oh, for shame, I know.  With one serving of this sugary, processed cereal & 1/2 cup of 1% milk, they will be getting the following nutrients:

• 140 calories
• 1 g saturated fat
• 12 g sugar
• 100% Folic Acid
• 15-40% of 8 other essential nutrients for the day
• 5 g protein
• 1 g fiber

Let’s compare that list with, say, a breakfast of 2 pancakes with 1/4 c of  syrup, 1 Tb of butter, and 2 slices of bacon:

• 434 calories
• 52 g sugar
• 9 g saturated fat
• 4 g protein
• 0 g fiber
• The only other essential nutrients provided would be 5% calcium, 3% iron, and 8% of Vitamin A

How about Grandma and Grandpa’s other healthy choice?  Oatmeal?  Now, I don’t know about your kids, but if my kids are going to eat oatmeal other than the kind that comes out of the packet, they are going to drown it in sugar.  I mean the oatmeal is hiding somewhere below the surface of the muddy brown pool of brown sugar that my kids have dumped on top of  it.  So, let’s say, realistically, that we’ve got 1 cup of prepared oats to about 1/2 cup of brown sugar, 1/4 cup of 1% milk, and 1 Tb butter.  Here it goes, grandma:

• 690 calories
• 100 g sugar
• 7 g saturated fat
• 10 g protein
• 4 g fiber
• The only other essential nutrients represented are 10% iron and 12% calcium

I don’t know about you, but Cap’n Crunch is looking pretty good about now. And with the huge caloric disparity in these breakfasts, it makes sense that numerous studies have found that people who regularly eat cereal for breakfast have lower body weights.

So, before you get your panties in a bundle, don’t think I’m going off the deep end here.  I’m not actually saying that you should eat Cap’n Crunch for breakfast everyday.  I personally don’t ever eat Cap’n Crunch for breakfast.  But, my kids do, and that’s one battle that I feel just fine about.  When you look at the facts above, it is pretty clear to me that they could be eating a lot worse things for breakfast.

However, they could be eating a lot better things for breakfast as well.  Here comes Part 2 of my Breakfast Post:

2.  Read Nutritional Labels

So, once again, I’m going to go off on stereotypes.  Here’s a quiz:  if you had to choose the healthiest cereal from the following list, which would you choose:  Raisin Bran, Frosted Flakes, Apple Jacks, Honey Nut Cheerios or Honey Bunches of Oats?

Well, the term “healthiest” can be interpreted various ways, but here’s some simple facts comparing 1 cup of each cereal from the list above:

• Raisin Bran:  190 calories, 9.5 g fiber, 17.6 g sugar
• Frosted Flakes:  160 calories, 1 g fiber, 16 g sugar
• Apple Jacks: 100 calories, 3 g fiber, 12 g sugar
• Honey Nut Cheerios: 150 calories, 3 g fiber, 12 g sugar
• Honey Bunches of Oats:  160 calories, 3 g fiber, 8 g sugar

The “healthiest” cereal on that list actually contains the most calories and the most sugar.  While the higher fiber content off-sets the negative aspects to some extent, this certainly isn’t a clear-cut case.  Even Apple Jacks, the villified “sugary” cereal contributes 3 g fiber with only half the calories, and also provides 25% of 12 essential nutrients.  And even Frosted Flakes with its poor fiber content still provides 50% of 6 essential nutrients.  Not too shabby.

My point is not to say that healthy cereal doesn’t exist, but it is to encourage us all to be informed and read the nutrition labels before we make a judgment as to what we will or won’t include in our diet, and when we’re choosing which nutritional battles to pick with our picky toddlers.  A good alternative for breakfast is to try unsweetened cereals topped with fruit.  Not only does this take away the sugar problem, but it also provides one of those “5 A Day” servings that are so important to include in our diet.

So just do me a favor and be an informed cereal consumer!  For heaven sake, breakfast cereals have made it about as easy as it gets:  what else are you going to do in those groggy waking-up moments but stare vacantly at the side of a cereal box where everything is so neatly listed in such precise detail.  Just make sure you account for serving sizes, as cereal serving sizes can generally range from 3/4 cup to 1 1/2 cups.  Just make sure you’re comparing Apples to Apples (or Apple Jacks).

My favorite cereal breakfasts are as follows:

Fill cereal bowl half-full with unsweetened bran flakes (120 calories, 7 g fiber & 7 g sugar per cup), top w/ half a banana (sliced) and 1/3 c blueberries, add 1/2 c Honey Bunches of Oats, and pour 1/2 c of 1% milk on top.

Fill cereal bowl half-full with Quaker Corn Bran, top w/ half a banana (sliced) and 1/3 c blueberries, layer with 1/2 c Golden Grahams, 1/4 c Multi-Grain Jumbo Krispies & pour 1/2 c of 1% milk on top.

(Side note:  my kids actually love Quaker Corn Bran without any sugar on top.  It’s a little pricey, but well worth the nutrition at 120 calories, 7 g fiber, & only 8 g sugar per cup).

Try your own mix & match fun with unsweetened cereals and fresh fruit toppings (it’s best to mix bran flakes with other flake-type cereals and corn bran with cereals of the same texture).  It’s a great way to start your day with a balanced breakfast covering 3 different food groups and provides a nice chunk of your daily fiber and essential nutrients for the day.  If you’ve got a mixture you love, let me know!  I love to experiment!  And next time you feel your in-laws giving you the eye over your kids’ Froot Loops, pour yourself your own bowl with confidence, and know that it could be worse.  It could be oatmeal.

Hello, again, to all my friends!

You know you’re a mom when you begin a blog post with a Barney quote.

So you will be SO glad you read today’s blog post.  It is one of my favorite desserts, for 3 reasons:

1.  It is SO yummy

2.  It looks and sounds really fancy

3.  It is super low calorie but doesn’t taste like it!

I got this recipe for Creamy Vanilla Raspberry Pavolva from Kraftfoods.com, but modified to make it even lighter.  You might be familiar with this dessert under the name of Schaum Torte, if you’re from Wisconsin like me, or have any German roots.  Whether you call it Pavlova or Schaum Torte, it sounds exotic, looks impressive, and tastes delicious!   Just follow this link to get the detailed instructions from the website, and make the following substitutions:

• instead of granulated sugar, use Splenda
• instead of Cool Whip Lite topping, use Fat Free
• Omit the powdered sugar, or use a sprinkle of Splenda to get that “sugar-dusted” look

This recipe looks tricky, but it’s really not bad if you are watchful with your merengue.  Follow the directions exactly.  I just made a huge batch of this for an upcoming event, and instead of one big merengue circle I made a dozen single-serving size clouds.  They turned out great!  Merengue is an awesome low calorie option for your sweet-tooth, and it’s easier than you’d think.  Here are a few tips about cooking with merengue:

• Prepare merengue the day of or day before you will serve it.  It does not store well.  If you need to store it overnight, store it at room temp. in an airtight container.  Do NOT put it in the refrigerator!
• To keep merengue from shrinking or beading, cook it longer at a lower temperature.  As you can see, this recipe calls for a 225 degree oven for 1 hour.  Cook merengue until it is barely browning and dry to the touch.  This keeps you from overcooking, resulting in a tough texture.
• Make sure to add sugar very slowly as you whip those egg whites into shape.  Undissolved sugar is what attracts beads of moisture, resulting in sticky, “weeping” merengue.

So, take the challenge and master the merengue.  It will give you some great culinary experiences without any guilt for years to come.  Not to mention, how impressive will it look when you serve a Creamy Vanilla Raspberry Pavlova at your next get-together?  Just call you Martha Stewart.

So it’s that time of year when so many of us are trying to cinch in our belt and stick to our resolutions.  If your resolution includes improving your diet and/or losing weight, here’s your secret tool: a food diary.

In a 2008 study by the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, participants who kept food journals lost almost double the weight of their nonjournaling counterparts.

Could it really be true that a simple paper and pen can have such a huge impact on your health and wellness efforts?

YES!

And here’s why–there’s something magical about writing things down.  It’s like, psychologically, certain things don’t exist until we’ve actually written them down (like those 3 Krispy Kremes you downed in your car on the way to work).  We already discussed how this principle applies to goals in general in my New Year’s post “How to Make Your Resolutions Stick”, but it certainly is true for getting a handle on your food intake as well.  You might be surprised how often you pop in a handful of peanuts or snitch a quick Snickers bar without even thinking about it.  There’s nothing like a food diary to make you look your diet right between the eyes.

5 Simple Steps to Begin Your Food Diary

1.  All you need is a notebook and some paper.  There are also plenty of forms you can download online (see the links below), but they really aren’t necessary.

2.  Decide what your goal is.  If you want to track calories, you’ll want to be sure to check nutrition labels or have a calorie counter resource available so you can track calories along with your food.  If you want to track the overall balance of your diet, you may want to record how many servings of each type of food group you consume, and compare it with the FDA recommendations.  If you want to track your eating habits in general, you may want to record why you decided to eat every time you head for the refrigerator.

3.  If you are new to food diaries, it is very important that you actually measure the food you take in.  To write down 1 peach, is fine.  But, to write down 1 bowl of Captain Crunch is not.  The trouble with most Americans is that they have no concept of what a serving size is.  Even if they are educated enough to be checking labels, they have no idea if they’ve poured themselves 1 serving or 4 servings.  For your quick breakfast, you should measure and record the exact amount of cereal and milk.  For example:

1 1/2 c Captain Crunch cereal (2 servings & 240 calories)

1/2 banana  (50 calories)

1 c  milk        (90 calories)

As you become acquainted with what serving sizes actually look like, you will be able to make much more informed choices in the future.  Obviously, it’s initially a pain to carry that measuring cup around the kitchen, but remember, this is only for a short period of time and it is essential to gaining a full understanding of how much food you consume.

4.  Record at least 1 typical weekday and 1 typical weekend day.  Some people are very disciplined in their diet all week long and then go for a cookie dough extravaganza on the weekends.  Try to keep the days you record as close to typical as possible.  Remember the whole point is to find out where your diet currently stands.  It’s even better to record up to a week.

5.  When you’ve met your goal, whether it be to lose weight, to balance your diet more healthfully, or to analyze the psychological underpinnings of why you eat, STOP keeping a food diary.  Think of a food diary as a great tool to supercharge your fitness results, but not as a way of life.  Food diaries can easily spin into unhealthy obsessions that lead to anxiety and unhappiness.

So Christmas Gift ideas: Post #3.  This one will be a shocker.

My suggestion?  Chocolate.  Yes, that’s right.  Chocolate.

Yes, this is a health and wellness blog.  Yes I am recommending you buy a box of chocolates as a guaranteed winning gift idea this Christmas.

No, I am not a hypocrite.

The health benefits of chocolate, particularly dark chocolate, are well documented.

About. com explains:

Chocolate is made from plants, which means it contains many of the health benefits of dark vegetables. These benefits are from flavonoids, which act as antioxidants. Dark chocolate contains a large number of antioxidants (nearly 8 times the number found in strawberries). Flavonoids also help relax blood pressure through the production of nitric oxide, and balance certain hormones in the body.

Heart Health Benefits of Dark Chocolate:

Dark chocolate is good for your heart. A small bar of it everyday can help keep your heart and cardiovascular system running well. Two heart health benefits of dark chocolate are:

• Lower Blood Pressure: Studies have shown that consuming a small bar of dark chocolate everyday can reduce blood pressure in individuals with high blood pressure.
• Lower Cholesterol: Dark chocolate has also been shown to reduce LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol) by up to 10 percent.

Other Benefits of Dark Chocolate:

Chocolate also holds benefits apart from protecting your heart:

• it tastes good
• it stimulates endorphin production, which gives a feeling of pleasure
• it contains serotonin, which acts as an anti-depressant
• it contains theobromine, caffeine and other substances which are stimulants

The calories in one chocolate treat will vary depending on which brand and which variety you choose.  But, though life is like a box of chocolates, you should know what you’re going to get calorie-wise if you’re going to incorporate this little number into your diet (An average of 100 calories per chocolate).  Certainly, if you can exercise self-control, this is a serving size that you can live with.  But you definitely need to exercise self-control!

Personally, I try to keep a box of hand-selected gourmet chocolates hidden in an undisclosed location of my home at all times.  (I can’t say where because my husband might read this post).  On particularly stressful days, I will sneak up to this spot, shut the door, select the chocolate that looks best, sit on the floor, and indulge my sweet tooth.  I savor every second of this experience, and for that moment, the sound of screaming children melts away and I am lost in the endorphin oblivion of my chocolate habit.  It takes me on average about 4 months to get through one box of chocolates, so you can see that I am not talking about a binge by any means.  And a small indulgence now and then builds a healthy mindset that helps stave off those unfortunate episodes where you find you’ve eaten a carton of ice cream at one sitting.

Buy a box of stress-relief for your loved one right here!   They’ll be grateful the chocolate is there when they need it!

Leonidas Belgian Chocolates: Signature Dark Chocolates Assortment

So with Thanksgiving just around the corner, here’s a lower calorie option for your pumpkin sweet-tooth fix.  It’s delicious, nutritious, and so easy to make!  It’s a staple in my refrigerator every year:

Pumpkin Pudding:

Mix 2 pkg Jello Sugar-free vanilla pudding (4 servings each) with 2 cans of fat-free evaporated skimmed milk.

Refrigerate 5 minutes.

Stir in 1 can (15 oz) Pure Pumpkin and 2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice.

This pudding will serve 8 at only 81 calories per serving, as well as providing fiber, calcium, vitamin A, vitamin C, and protein.

Add a little fat-free or sugar-free whipped cream on top and you’ve got a delicious dessert that you can feel great about!

Enjoy!

You can almost smell that roasted turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes dripping with butter, pecan-crusted yams, and of course, that creamy pumpkin pie.  Yes, Thanksgiving is only days away.  Unfortunately, this annual event could possibly fill your heart with anxiety for a number of reasons, which may or may not include:

1.  You can’t control yourself around those creamy, buttery mashed potatoes

2.  You are in charge of hosting 52 of your closest relatives

3.  You are worried about that 3rd helping of those sweet, savory pecan-crusted yams

4.  You are in charge of roasting a 20 pound bird to perfection.

5.  You are worried that you may inadvertently eat a dozen fresh-baked buttery rolls all by yourself through the course of the day

6.  You need to have an immaculate house despite 4 sets of tiny hands that are set on dumping everything you pick up

7.  You are worried that you won’t be able to choose between pumpkin, pecan, or banana cream, so you might just sneak one of each by saying you are getting them for the kids and running to the guest bedroom to down them before anyone notices the kids are still playing in the basement.

Truly, Thanksgiving can be a hurtle to a happy mom and a healthy diet, but certainly it should not constitute a crisis.  This is a holiday, people!  Just remember, you are in control here!  Here are 5 Survival Tips to keep you from tipping the scales this Thanksgiving  (as for the cleaning, you’re on your own on that one):

1.  DON’T STARVE YOURSELF ALL DAY

So, mathematically you might think the best way to keep yourself on track Thanksgiving Day is to not eat anything until they roll out the cranberry sauce and yams, right?  Wrong.  If you starve yourself all morning, not only will your body shut down into starvation mode and you’ll wind up exhausted and cranky, but you’ll have a voracious appetite by the time Thanksgiving dinner rolls around.  And the typical holiday dishes are not forgiving on a hunger binge:  butter-drenched veggies, cream-filled potatoes, and huge dinner rolls are not low-calorie items.

Instead, your best bet is to eat low-calorie, high-fiber foods throughout the day.  This could be a bowl of bran flakes, a cup of steamed veggies, or a serving of light yogurt.  I like to snack on the foods as I am preparing them all day.  That way, when I get to Thanksgiving dinner, I tend to choose smaller portion sizes since I’ve already had a taste of many of my favorite dishes.

2.  REMEMBER…THERE’S ALWAYS TOMORROW

One of the reasons we tend to overindulge at Thanksgiving dinner is because we put all of our favorite foods in front of us at one time.  We’ve simply got to have it all!  And right now–before it’s gone!  Most families tend to prepare huge portions of foods–more than will ever get eaten at the meal.  Try to work out a system where you can take home some leftovers for the next day.  At my in-laws, we end up eating “Thanksgiving dinner” 3 times as we reheat the leftovers to get us through the busy after-Thanksgiving days full of shopping and other family activities.  And you will never hear me complain about that!  It really helps to say no to seconds if you know you can taste those perfect yams again the next day.

3.  TRY IT ALL…BUT KEEP IT SMALL

No one wants to feel deprived on Thanksgiving day.  In fact, anyone who says, “That’s not on my plan” to delicious family traditions should be stuffed and roasted themselves.  This holiday is all about celebrating the abundance in life, and there is room for a little bit of abundance in any diet.  Yes, you know the recipe for yams calls for 4 sticks of butter, but even so, if you keep your portion size small, you can still enjoy it!  Try to keep your serving sizes smallest on the dishes that you know have been pumped up with the most fattening additives, and do your mindless munching with the veggie tray (and skip the dip).

4.  DRINK WATER

Unless your family tradition includes some very special beverage that you only enjoy during the holidays, buy yourself a few hundred extra calories by drinking water.  You can make water more special by adding sliced lemon or lime, and really, is there anything more refreshing than that?

5.  GO LOW-FAT WHERE YOU CAN

So, those of us who are lucky enough to attend someone else’s home for Thanksgiving dinner trade the convenience of not hosting, not cleaning, and not having a nervous breakdown, for the control of exactly what goes into the food.  We always have Thanksgiving dinner at my in-laws, and I am always helping in the kitchen all day.  Unfortunately, it does mean that I am not in control of what ingredients we put in the food, and therefore we do end up with mashed potatoes with whole milk and butter, and throwing huge chunks of butter in with the steamed corn and carrots.  It’s not the ideal, but it’s a sacrifice I’m very willing to make.

If you ARE in control of the foods that you are preparing for your meal, go low-fat where you can!  Mashed potatoes have an excellent flavor with a little fat-free sour cream and skim milk mixed in rather than butter and cream (this is how I always prepare them for my family).  Steamed veggies can hit the table with nothing but a little seasoning salt.  People can always add their own butter to these dishes, and then you are not sacrificing flavor or keeping anyone that wants to from clogging their arteries.  When you consider that butter contains about 100 calories per oz., you will save a SIGNIFICANT amount of calories by not adding the butter to the food before it is served, and generally, no one will even notice.  People usually want to see the butter melting on their meal and will add more anyway, so do everyone a favor, and leave out the hidden fats.

Good luck with your Thanksgiving Feast!  Enjoy every bite!

I recently read The Fat-Free Truth: Real Answers to the FItness and Weight-Loss Questions You Wonder About Most, by Liz Neporent and Suzanne Schlosberg.  If you are looking for a reference resource that reads like a magazine column, this is it.  And it makes sense:  Suzanne has written Shape’s “Weight-Loss Q&A” for over 10 years, and Liz is the “Fit by Friday” columnist for iVillage.  These two health and wellness gurus tackle topics from plastic surgery to slow-twitch muscle fibers.

The things I liked best about this book were:

• All of their responses are based on actually scientific studies.  There is so much hype out there in the diet and fitness industry.  These women give you the bottom line and cite the research that backs it up.
• The book is organized in a Question/Answer format so you can quickly browse or locate the topics that are of interest to you.  If you could care less about low-carb diets, just skip those questions, and find the answers to what interests you.
• These women give you the straight forward answer about typically hyped-up topics, such as “Which cardio machine burns the most calories?,”  “Is there any dietary supplement that can safely help me lose weight for good?,” and “Is it true that interval training can help boost your calorie burn?”.  We see plenty of wild claims in the media that is supposedly backed by “a study,” but it’s nice to get a straight answer from a trusted source without a hidden agenda.
• Even though the book may be considered part of the reference genre, their conversational tone keeps you interested and engaged.  Even though they cite the research, you don’t get lost in scientific jargon.

This book is a perfect addition to your home library and one you will refer back to often.  It’s also the perfect gift for that health nut on your Christmas list!  Check out The Fat-Free Truth: Real Answers to the FItness and Weight-Loss Questions You Wonder About Most!

BUY HERE!