So, What Do I Eat?

I often get the question, "So, what do you eat?" This stems from conversation as I thread nutrition and diet into the whole fitness picture for my clients. Strength training is necessary, however, if anyone wants to change the composition of their body, changing how you eat must be a part of the process. One will not be successful without the other.
I truly practice what I preach by keeping with whole grains, lots of fruits, vegetables, fish, fowl with minimal dairy and fats.
The key is trying to keep the menu varied to refrain from getting bored. I eat every 3 hours and depending on my schedule, I eat a minimum 4-5 times a day.
My typical day will start with breakfast EVERYDAY which comes after waking up at the same time. These are important points with getting your body into a rhythm for consistency.

Breakfast choices: Kashi Cinnamon Harvest cereal (high fiber shredded wheat) with soy or rice milk. I also like Kashi Go Lean Crunch. There are many low-fat/high-fiber cereal choices in the market. On another day I may have egg whites, turkey bacon and whole wheat toast, or oatmeal with fruit. Water or OJ as my drink choice.

Snacks (minimum 2 times per day): If I am on the road, I carry my snacks with me at all times. I carry raw almonds, applesauce cups (no sugar added), yogurt, Nature Valley trail mix bars, mini-bagels, edamames, popcorn or dried fruit.

Lunch choices: Spinach salad with vegetables, tuna (in the pouch or packed in water) or legumes (such as black, pink, white or red beans). I may also eat a whole wheat wrap with fresh deli meat or preferably chicken or turkey breast.
A strawberry and banana smoothie made in my blender is a treat.

Dinner choices: Brown, basmati or wild rice or whole wheat couscous. Baked yams are a great source of fiber. Any type of vegetable. I am a fan of broccoli, carrots and asparagus. My protein is either grilled chicken breast, turkey breast, salmon or tilapia. When it gets cold outside, I will add a Healthy Choice soup.

There you go! This is just a sampling, but I make sure I have all of my food groups included in each meal with lots of water! Eating every 3 hours is important to maintain blood sugar levels to keep your energy level up and to aid in your body's rhythm of staying fit!

The Little Voice Within

Today is Saturday and my day to exercise. When I teach classes or personal train with a client, that is not my workout, it is my clients' or participants workout, so I have to find time for me. I usually take a boxing class because it is different and outside of my comfort level. It is very new to me and something I would not do on my own. (can you relate?) A little voice crept up in me today and tried to keep me home because I was feeling a little lazy. (sound familiar?) Then I had another voice tell me to go, get out and have fun with it. I even had a telephone call right before I left from a cousin that loves to chat. He could have kept me on the phone for another 30 minutes, but I cut the conversation short and told him I had to take my boxing class. When I was finished with my workout, I was glad I did because I had fun and felt energized. My point is, we all have those inner voices that will challenge you to keep you on the couch and from not moving forward. Ultimately, listen to the positive voice within, keep moving toward your fitness goals and a healthier you!

Good Carbs, Bad Carbs?

I have conversations about nutrition with my clients on a regular basis. The initial thoughts when it comes to carbohydrate intake is that, "I need to stay away from carbs". This arises from the thought that carbs are only bread, rice and potatoes. This is only partially true because fruits and vegetables are also carbohydrates. The total amount of carbohydrate intake for someone that is sedentary is about 45-65% of the total calories you consume in a day. Ok, lets just put it at 50% When you start adding consistent exercise, that number increases to 55-60%. If you view this on a per meal basis, your plate should consist of 1/2 carbohydrates. Now, if you originally thought carbs were only bread, rice and potatoes - I can understand the alarm. Take a look at www.mypyramid.gov and click on Inside the Pyramid. This is the governments assistance on proper nutrition where you can get a better understanding of the food groups and assess your food intake and physical activity. In MyPyramid Menu Planner, input your height, weight, age and level of physical activity to find how many calories you need to consume in a day. It will also provide suggestions on the amounts of each food group you should consume and the portions. Final thought, if you are not eating a lot of fruits and vegetables, one should increase the amounts but maintain a consumption of whole grains, as well. Carbohydrates are the primary source of energy, so they must be consumed . . but in a smart way.

How Many Calories Do You Need?

Finding how many calories you should eat each day is not as hard as many of us make it out to be. Most people who spend time trying to find the exact amount of calories they should eat either go on food binges which throws water on their metabolism fire, or chronically undereat because they never believe they can truly eat that much and lose weight.

Before I explain how to come up with a good calorie range for you to lose fat, I want you to stop and do a couple of things:

1. Get out your food journal. Yes, you need to log what you eat if you have not done so. Give yourself 3 days to really pay attention to what you are eating, how many times in the day you are eating, the time of day and the approximate amount. This can be hard because we sometimes underestimate our serving amounts. Be honest with yourself. Purchase a journal or just write it in a notebook so that you can have a good vision for what you are actually putting in your mouth. Many people will look back after those few days and say "Wow! I ate that?"

2. Accept the fact that to lose fat and not just weight you have to eat. I don’t want a single person trying to lose fat by starving or undereating and feeling miserable.

3. Your goal to lose weight is to create a daily 500 calorie deficit by combining calorie reduction with daily activity. If you cut 3500 calories in 7 days, you will lose 1 pound naturally and effectively.

Determine Your Daily Caloric Intake

We will estimate your daily calorie needs to maintain your current weight.

• Take your present weight and multiply by 11. That number covers your metabolic needs for the day if you are presently sedentary. If you are a recreational athlete or weekend warrior, multiply your weight by 12. If you weigh 140 pounds, you need about 1540 calories per day if you are sedentary. If you are an inactive 200 pounds, you need 2200 calories per day of NUTRIENT DENSE foods. Did I say nutrient dense? What does that mean? Foods that provide have a higher nutritional value and content such as your fruits, vegetables, lean meats, whole grains, low fat dairy with minimal added fat intake. Good fats from sources such as olive oil, RAW nuts or salmon is where your fat intake should come from.
• To create your calorie deficit, subtract 500 calories from your maintenance number on non-workout days and 200 calories from your number on workout days.

Your goal is to create the bulk of your deficit through your activity and not through reducing the energy you put into your body. For calculations above, I factored in you will burn on average about 300 calories per workout. That could be 30 minutes or running or 45 minutes of walking. You have to include strength training to build lean muscle, as well. This will help burn calories at rest.