Holiday Weight Managment, and a Coffee/Tea/Caffeine Update

Earlier in the year I confessed to drinking about 600-800 mg caffeine per day. My goal was to cut this in half, and so far, so good. As of now I am consuming around 300-400 mg caffeine per day, which is a huge improvement. I recently learned that the average daily consumption of caffeine in the USA is 1000 mg, so perhaps I wasn't doing so bad after all. Yikes!

An article I recently Tweeted about made these claims regarding caffeine:

- Prolonged administration of caffeine is not associated with a significant elevation in blood pressure.

- Caffeine consumption does not result in water-electrolyte imbalance (mainly a concern of athletes).

- Although the above has been shown in studies, be aware that side effects could include anxiety, jitters, inability to focus, gastrointestinal distress, insomnia, irritability, and with higher doses possible heart arrhythmia.

Source: NCSA's Performance Training Journal, volume 8, Issue 6

Speaking of caffeine, here are some excerpts from an article found in BBC news regarding yet another possible benefit of tea and coffee!
Researchers looked at 18 separate studies involving nearly 500,000 people. The analysis revealed that people who drink three or four cups of coffee or tea a day cut their risk [of diabetes, type II] by a fifth or more, say researchers.

The same amount of decaffeinated coffee had an even bigger effect, lowering risk by a third.

If the findings prove true, doctors may well start advising people to put the kettle on as well as take more exercise and watch their weight, say the researchers.

When the authors combined and analyzed the data, they found that each additional cup of coffee consumed in a day cut diabetes risk by 7%.

Compounds in coffee and tea - including magnesium and antioxidants known as lignans or chlorogenic [which have been shown to slow down the release of glucose into the blood after a meal] acids - may be involved.

NBC4, Columbus News Segment

If you don't already know, I'm the local NBC4 news "Health and Nutrition Expert". I got lucky because my friend is the producer of the show ;) For the month of December I was asked to do a segment on "how to maintain your weight over the holidays". Sorry there isn't a clip of my news segment, but if you want to see my last one (about vitamin D) look on the side bar, I added it! Here are some of the points I made:

1) Increase your exercise, even just a little. Add 5-10 minutes to your normal routine, or include some cross training and/or intervals. If you don't workout, start walking around the block after dinner, or lifting small weights to build a bit of muscle and make up for those extra calories inevitably consumed.

2) If you have a party to go to at night, remember it's not good to skip meals during the day (many people do this so they can "enjoy" the party and eat whatever they want). This is a bad idea because your metabolism slows down and you usually end up eating a lot more than you should, because you're so hungry! Just eat normally throughout the day and don't go to the party overly hungry.

3) Plan ahead. Make a goal of a specific number of treats to allow yourself at any holiday party. I like the goal of 2 or less treats, which includes alcoholic beverages. Another treat might be a piece of fudge or 2 small cookies. If you plan ahead, you are more likely to stick to your weight management goals.

4) Modify traditional, higher calorie holiday foods/drinks. Check out the eggnog I made on camera here. It's not me, just the recipe. Leave a fun comment if you feel like it!

Update

I hope everyone has a fun week ahead of them! I have a tiny bit more shopping and a lot more wrapping, plus a lot of actual work to do before Thursday. Nick and I got a lot done this weekend, but I feel like the "to do" list is never ending. Alright, deeeeep breaths...in....out..... Off I go! Pepperoni bread and my new favorite iPhone application coming up on my next post. Everyone, have a great Monday and thanks for reading!

Breakfast of Champs and Time Management Strategies for Living Healthier

Thanks for all of your comments about labels on my last post! I asked for your opinions as to some other changes that may be necessary, and I found that many of you agreed there should be nutrition facts on alcoholic beverages. I couldn't agree more! I really don't understand why they aren't there in the first place, and how those companies get away with it. It's strange...

I also received this comment on my blog, from an anonymous reader:
Gina, as you seem quite knowledgeable regarding all matter of food-related subjects, I have one rather profound question in my opinion) for you: Considering that over the past 30 years or so the number of professionals who deal in health-oriented professions (such as yourself) has increased exponentially in concert with our exposure to nutrition facts (e.g., witness fast-food chains' relatively recent reporting of their meals' nutritional information), why do we, as a nation, continue to live unhealthy lifestyles and gain exorbitant amounts of weight in the process? Wouldn't you think that an influx of health professionals and an enhanced access to nutrition information would help alleviate some of the impacts associated with our pervasive obesity epidemic?

My thoughts: This is a fantastic question. As I read this question I couldn't help but think about all of the "health professionals" that I know, many of whom don't even practice what they preach. Think about it, how many times do you walk or drive by a hospital and see doctors and nurses outside on a smoke break? How many doctors, and even RDs, do you know who are obese, smoke, don't workout, and/or have poor diets? I can actually think of a few off the top of my head! My point is, yes, there has been an increase in the number of people who are choosing health professions, but this doesn't necessarily mean they are teaching the right stuff (many doctors don't even know anything about nutrition...they just give you your the lab values and send you on your way). Not only that but many health professionals, including RDs, cost a good amount of money (50-100 dollars per hour for RDs) to see. Where does this put the people who really need the help? Out in the cold because they can't afford it. It's the sad truth. I always want to help as much as I can by providing FREE dietary guidance when I am able, but it's difficult. I wish it was easier. That's why I created this blog, really. One last comment is that the number of healthy professionals has increased as their need for services have increased. Many people choose a career based on the fact that they know they can get a job, not necessarily based on passion for the field. Thanks for your question.

Breakfast Of Champions
Since I've been on this wheat free diet (FODMAPS) I've had to give my breakfast, and other meals, quite a makeover. For starters, I bought this wheat-free cereal.

Here it is up close. Looks great doesn't it?? haha, maybe not so much, but it is actually quite delicious.

I love how the label highlighted some important facts; wheat free, low sodium, and low fat (although the low fat part wasn't important to me)

And when I'm not eating cold cereal, I've been eating steel cut oats. I never thought I would turn into an oats lover, but reading all of your blogs, and dealing with this IBS diet, has caused me to eat oats more often. I can thank Coco for recommending the steel cut oats over regular oats. They are slightly less processed and have more soluble fiber than some rolled oats, and especially the instant oats. They also have a nuttier flavor and keep me full for a good about of time.

I don't like having to wait 30 minutes every morning while the oats cooked, but thankfully each batch makes 4 servings. I put it in this container, and cut it into four sections after it sits in the fridge for a few hours. This way I have pre-portioned oats for four mornings.

This is where the Breakfast of Champions comes in!

Steel cut oats
Purevia (~1 t)
Pumpkin puree (1/4 cup)
Skippy Extra Crunchy peanut butter (~1 T)

- Keeps me full for almost 3 hours (that's great for me!)
- Provides 1/2 servings of vegetable, lots of fiber, and some healthy monounsaturated fats

Time Management Strategies for a Healthy "At Home" Living
Source: Mark Forster, author of Do it Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management

1) If you have a tendency to mindlessly snack on not so healthy foods, and it bothers you, set aside some time each week and remove anything form your fridge, cabinets, freezer, etc. that you tend to binge on, in an unhealthy way. Leave a special treat for yourself that is portioned so that you don't go overboard. If your spouse or child has a special snack that temps your binge reflex, ask them to hide it from you!

2) Set aside some time week to make a plan for what your meals will be for the week. Follow this by making a list of what ingredients you will need. The author suggests that if you don't do this you will be tempted to eat convenience food (mom, if you're reading this.....take this advice!!). I'll add that you should check out Andrea's blog for some great sample menus and weekly menu plans.

3) Set aside some time each week to pre-cook meat, poultry, etc. Put it in the freezer until you need it. Also pre-cook some vegetables so you and your family always have access to them when you are hungry or when you are looking for a dinner side dish. Preparing some fruit to snack on is also a good idea. I do this each week and it takes me about an hour. It's very much worth it.

4) Slow down when you are preparing food, and take time to enjoy the process. Same goes for when you are consuming the food. Savor the food and enjoy it, rather than eating it so fast you can't even appreciate the uniqueness and taste.

Life Update

It's Tuesday, which means one day closer to Christmas! How are you doing on your Christmas/Hanukkah shopping? I'm about 80% finished, I've just got to buy Nick's mom and sisters some things, and do major wrapping. This weekend my mom and I will be making pepperoni bread and chocolate dipped waffle cones! I have to say, I'm pretty excited about that. Thanks for reading, have a wonderful day!

Label Mania

Did you see this blog post by the New York Times? It made me so happy! Basically, the food label may be getting a makeover soon. If I had to name one thing/person who needed a makeover the most, it would be food labels (and of course a few others that I have in mind, but I won't mention names....I'm on the top of that list!).

Here is what the article says they are proposing for food labels:

1) Put calorie and serving size information in larger type at the top of the label so it’s immediately clear how much you are eating.

My thoughts: This is a great idea. Currently the print is so small, it gets lost with everything else. Take this label (above), for example, the serving size is first, but it's not highlighted, people may not even notice it! 150 calories doesn't sound like a lot, but if you knew it was only 7 chips that provided those calories, that may be a whole other story.

2) Make the ingredient list easier to read by printing it in regular type instead of all capital letters. Use bullets to separate ingredients rather than allowing them to all run together.

My thoughts: I had not even really thought about this before, how about you? Now that I think about it this is a great point, they do all run together. Check out the food label below, yikes!

3) List minor ingredients and allergens separately from the main ingredient list. Highlight allergy information in red.


My thoughts: I have often struggle to find if products contain wheat (FODMAPS diet says no wheat). Check out the label above, the allergens blend right in with the ingredients. If the allergens were highlighted in red it would make my life, and many others', easier. Plus I could tell clients what to look for. I think the label below does a great job of making the allergens easy to find. They are listed separately and in bold, but if they were red it would be even easier to find for those who have to look for this information on EVERY SINGLE LABEL.


4) List similar ingredients together and show the percentage by weight. For instance, sugar, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup and grape juice concentrate are all forms of sugar and should be listed in parenthesis under the catchall heading “sugars".

My thoughts: This may confuse people who have already gotten used to seeing the ingredients listed in order of percentage by weight. However, I think it's a great idea, as many people don't understand that corn syrup, and many concentrates are just another word for "sugar". The label below is a great example. Some people might not understand that corn syrup and HFCS are just another way of saying"sugar", and so "sugar" is actually the second ingredient in this product.


5) Use red labeling and the word “high” when a product has more than 20 percent of the daily recommendation for fats, sugars, sodium or cholesterol.

My Thoughts: This is by far my favorite recommendation. This would even help me! When is 5% good and when is it bad? Which nutrients should I look to see if there is at least 20% DV or less? Does anyone else get confused about the percent daily value (DV)? This would make life so much easier. Why didn't they think of it before??

6) Make it clear which sugars are added to the product versus those that occur naturally.

My thoughts: For those who really watch their sugar sources this could be helpful. This is also good for dairy products, and juices. Looking at the kefir label below, it may be unclear for some people where the sugar comes from, but in fact it occurs naturally in the milk that is used to make the kefir. It's in the form of the disaccharide lactose (glucose and galactose). Looking at the ingredient list, however, you really can't tell where this 8 grams of sugar came from! It's confusing.


6) Display prominently the percentage of whole grains contained in a product.

My thoughts: This is another one that I find incredibly important! They say we should all be making at least half of our grains "whole", but we never even know what percentage of whole grains our products contain. How are we supposed to make half our grains whole? When I'm buying cereal, or telling clients what to look for when buying cereal, I'd love for them to look for a whole grain percentage, rather than having to decipher all this junk.


7) List caffeine content.

My thoughts: Can I tell you something? They don't even list the caffeine content on my Maxwell House coffee!! I had to do some research and sort of deduce a guess for the amount of caffeine I have been consuming each day. For all I know, I'm way off! This would be so nice, and about 100 years too late.

Question: Which changes would you make?

I would change the trans fat law, which says if a product contains less than .05 grams of trans fat per serving, it can be listed as 0 grams trans fat! That's ridiculous. Nick and I were eating that Cool Whip (label above) by the spoon full, until I noticed it had hydrogenated vegetable oils! Bummer.

Five RANDOM Things I've Learned This Year
(Continued from previous posts)


Spaghetti squash is the reason I love fall and winter. I can't believe I never used to buy spaghetti squash on a regular basis.

Taking a moment to just relax and breath really helps when I am starting to get stressed.

Drinking my water threw a straw everyday was not the best idea. It was causing me to take in way too much air, and thus I was uncomfortable.

The lotion in the green bottle from Garnier Fructise causes me to breakout, MAJORLY.

Update

This weekend has gone by just as fast as the week, which means I'm super behind on what I wanted to accomplish! Today I'm doing some baking and tons of errand running (isn't that what Sundays are for?!). Stay tuned for my next post, which will showcase my new breakfast of champions, and provide some hints for planning ahead and being healthy at home. Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

Christmas Cheer and Clean Eating

On Monday night Nick and I listened to Christmas music, drank hot cocoa, and put up our fake tree. Yeah, you read that correctly, FAKE! This was our first year doing fake, but our apartment won't let us have a real tree :( We were both pretty disappointed, but we figured fake is better than nothing at all.

Here are some of our favorite ornaments.....

Of course we have OSU Buckeye ornaments, and some other fun ones from vacations and family friends.



I love this one, it's Santa on a gondola in Italy. My father and his mother are from the same part of Italy, and her maiden name is Casa, while my last name is Casagrande!

Finished product! This tree is currently packed with tons of gifts, all from me. Nick works a lot more so he does all his shopping at the last minute. Not me!


What is Clean Eating?
Source: Today's Dietitian Magazine

- Main principles focus on choosing whole fruits and vegetables, in their natural state, and also lean meat, fish, and poultry; beans and legumes; low fat dairy products; and whole grains from a variety of food sources.
My thoughts: This just sounds like a healthy diet plan to me, no? I think most "clean eaters" don't eat frozen vegetables. I couldn't live without my frozen veggies. Who says frozen vegetables are any less clean than fresh anyway? They are just boiled, blanched, froze, and put into a bag!


- Meals are high in fiber, low in fat, calories, and sugar
My thoughts: again, isn't this just eating healthy?

- Some off limit ingredients include high-fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, margarines, trans fat, artificial colors and flavors, and unnecessary food additives such as salt, sugar and corn syrup.
My thoughts: I hate the words "off limit" when it comes to food. This is when I would get in trouble. When I was anorexic, many foods were "off limit", but then when I brought them back into my life I couldn't get enough! Secretly I wanted them so bad. Now I know how to choose those "off limit" foods in moderation, and enjoy them when I want to! Plus, how fun is it to live life knowing that you can't eat any food with added salt or sugar? No going out to eat for you!

Give up having a piece of this every once in a while? No thanks.

- Clean eating does not permit fried foods or foods that are covered in olive oil, honey, or salt
My thoughts: Same as above, the "off limit" thing just doesn't appeal to me. If I want to get a side of fries with my sandwich every once in a while, I will.

What's wrong with eating a salty restaurant meal every once in a while? I gave myself props on this particular night out, for ordering fish and having a vegetable with my meal. It was salty, but a much better choice than some of the other options.

- Clean eaters usually eat frequent meals, dividing them into five or six daily occasions.
My thoughts: I think this is a great strategy. This prevents people from eating too much at one time, which can have a negative effect on hormones, bloating, and mood in my opinion.


- The clean eating philosophy maintains that regular physical activity, about 5-6 times per week, is necessary.
My thoughts: Obviously I can't argue with this one

There are many benefits of clean eating, says the article, such as environmental benefits, saving money (buying fresh can be much cheaper than those processed, pre-cooked, packaged foods), focusing on quality rather than quantity, and improvements in health. But I'm not sold on the "Clean Eating" philosophy. I think many of the ideas behind it are great, but personally I don't want to have to think that much about my food choices. I already read the labels fairly closely and pay a lot of attention to what I put in my mouth, but I think this is somewhat extreme. I like my frozen vegetables and canned soups on occasion! And, who could give up fried food 100%? Who would want to do that? Not me!

What are your thoughts on clean eating? Would you stick to such a strict regimen, or would you rather do what I do and try to eat healthy and "Clean" as much as you can, but not let rules hold you back all the time?

Special thanks to the Foodie over at Fab and Delicious Food for my giveaway prize! I am planning on being nice and stress-free from the spa package I received. Also, thanks to Rebecca of Chow and Chatter for my blog award :)

Stay tuned for my next post, which of course will be my LAST Biggest Loser review of the season. Did you watch?! Thanks for reading everyone, and have a great day!

Biggest Loser Review and Division One Training Center

Hey everyone! I hope you are all having a great week. I've been super busy, but made time to write this post, and have been trying really hard to read as many blogs as possible. Please bear with me, I promise I'll catch up sooner or later :) Sometimes life just takes over!

Biggest Loser Review

Dislikes
Bob didn't mention the unpleasant side effects that come from chewing sugar free Extra gum all day. Yeah, diarrhea, flatulence. Good times ;)

Amanda sounded like she had disordered thinking going on. What do you think? She said she struggles just waking up, and thinking about counting calories and watching her weight. She basically said it causes her stress. That makes me sad, and I hope she can talk to someone after the show.

Subway, AGAIN?!

I'm not against the fact that they ran a marathon, but come on, 60 days to prepare? That may be doable for someone who has done a marathon before, but for the contestants on the BL I thought it was a little ridiculous.

Danny lost 59 pounds in 60 days. That's 1 pound per day. He looks AWESOME, but what the heck is going on in his body biologically, and metabolically? Who knows?! The safe amount of weight loss is 1-2 pounds PER WEEK. This is not good for the public to see, in my opinion.


Likes

They went back home for 60 days, to see if they could do this at home. That's fantastic. I love that they do this. Losing weight on a catered and scheduled ranch, is much different than losing, and maintaining weight in the real world.

Loved how realistic the contestants were. They knew about the "honeymoon stage" and they talked about it, and made peace with it. They talked through their plan, and their goals. I think their goals sounded so real and achievable. I was so proud of them!

The Take Home Chef. That's all I have to say :) I love Curtis Stone. I wish I had "Smell0vision"!

This one deserves a "LOVE", and it's Danny! I love him. I hope his wife realizes how much he loves her too. She will.

5 Random Things I Have Learned This Year

I am incredibly lucky, no matter how many times I have a moment of sadness

I LOVE cheese! Especially Swiss

I love my job, but actually having a job and living in the "real world" can really be as difficult as they say.

85% dark chocolate tastes gross when eaten after a piece of milk chocolate, but when eaten alone it's amazing! Especially Lindt's.

Many of the foods I eat contain a lot more sodium than I ever imagined. This was a good lesson learned, as I'm making some serious changes now!

Life Update
I've been working almost 12 hours the past two days, which I'm not used to at all, but it's been a lot of fun. Here are some pictures of the Division One Training Center with whom we have partnered:

They train "every day people" who are just looking to lose weight, or maintain a healthy weight. They do this in the form of a boot camp. Wednesday was their testing day, where they were weighed, measured, and their sprint times were recorded. They use this data as a base fitness assessment, or to compare with past assessments to see if there have been any positive changes.

They also train young athletes in middle school and high school, and of course some college aged athletes. GO BUCKS!

We will be in charge of providing the nutrition consulting, in order for the participants to learn how to balance athletics with a healthy diet. They are both important, obviously, so I think we'll make a positive difference and people will hopefully notice a change in their strength, energy, and motivation.

Giveaway
Kelly is giving away a 20% off coupon and free bride t-shirt from Cake by Inkbox Design

Stay tuned for my next post, which will include some product reviews, and some of my own tips on how to get kids to eat healthier. I may even throw in a restaurant review, we'll see. Thanks for reading! Have a great day :)