Important for Pregnant Mommies

at 9:31 AM 0 comments

OK, listen up expecting mommies... this post is just for you.  Here are some suggestions and words of experience from my own two pregnancies for those of you who are expecting.  When I was pregnant with my son who is now 10 I had been running before I  got pregnant and so I continued, although with caution, with my running.  The first trimester I pretty much did the same distances I had done pre-pregnancy and then in the second and third trimesters, I decreased my mileage as I got bigger and needed to go to the bathroom every mile or so.  I also didn't lift as heavy as I had been before I got pregnant.  I exercised all they until two days before I gave birth.  I had a C-section and so I really couldn't do much until a few weeks later.  But I vividly remember that I was still on maternity leave when I started back into running.  The exercise and my healthy eating habits also helped me in producing a lot (and I mean a lot) of milk for my baby.  Our freezer was chock full of frozen milk!   During my second pregnancy due to a previous injury I had had unrelated to running, I had taken up the elliptical for cardiovascular exercise.  So I was doing the elliptical trainer 6-7 days a week with some weight lifting.  I was on the elliptical trainer the day before I gave birth to my daughter.   About 4 weeks later, I was back at the gym.  Don't do this...but I also water skied on two skis (no slaloming during pregnancy) when I was 5 months pregnant.

Bottom line: Please check with your doctor first.  But you can continue to, and in fact should, barring any serious medical conditions,  do anything you were doing before pregnancy.  Just listen to your body and make sure two things are in check: 1. You heart rate doesn't go up too much. 2.  You don't get too hot because the developing fetus has no way of cooling itself.

The Second thing I was very aware of during my first and second pregnancy was that it's a myth to be eating for two!!  During the first few weeks, the developing embryo is a bunch of cells.  And how can a bunch of cells require a whole second peanut butter sandwich?  Just be in tune with your body and don't overeat.  All that gained weight is incredibly difficult to take off once the baby is here.  In fact, the heavier you are before pregnancy the less weight you should gain when you get pregnant.

Bottom line: Don't go by the myth, 'you have to eat for two'.  Otherwise you will be setting yourself up for a lot of unnecessary weight gain.

A few years ago, one of the moms I knew at the gym I used to go to, told me that her pregnancy was a great excuse for her to eat whatever she wanted.  She ended up gaining 75 pounds.  She is still heavy, 6 years later.

Medical research suggests that fit moms give birth to healthier babies and those babies grow up to be healthier adults.  So be sensible with what you eat... plenty of veggies and fruit and high quality protein.  And go easy on the junk food.  And be active and stay active.

Adult Consumers Need More than Just Knowledge to Curb Obesity

at 12:00 PM 0 comments

A new poll of 2,620 adult consumers finds that large numbers claim to be changing the foods they eat.  Many know that they should consume less processed foods such as white bread and pasta and eat more whole grain and vegetables.  The replies were analyzed and show that the responses only suggest wishful thinking and public knowledge of what people think they should be eating rather than what they are actually putting in their mouths.  This actually rings true with conversations I have had with friends who would like to lose weight.  When I tell them that I snack on fruits and veggies, their answer more often than not is ' I like to eat apples'.  But in my case, my staples in the house are apples, spinach and milk.  As in when I run out of these types of foods I am basically forced to go to the store.  When people say that they like apples, do they just like them once in a while or are they eating them instead of french fries?

In the poll, most of those considered obese or morbidly obese claim to  be doing the same things as those who are not overweight.  So their responses reflect what they think they should be saying.  Many people know what they should be eating but are they actually putting the healthy advice into practice in the privacy of their homes?

Many times I read these reports in magazines or scientific journals and realize that no matter what the latest fad is... calories, carbs, fats etc., people in this country and the rest of the developing world are eating too much of EVERYTHING.  We have lost touch with our inner 'foodstat'.  Studies show that behavioral changes over time such as eating more and not paying attention to the built-in signals that tell us when we are full, can make it much more difficult, if not impossible, to quit eating when we should once we decide to start losing weight.

Stop making new year's resolutions, that you may never keep.  Start making actual small changes every day whether it's January 2011 or any other day.  Make changes that are not devastatingly huge!!  For example, instead of going to a fast food joint, see what you have in the fridge, and try making a meal in just a few minutes (omelette, salad, chicken sandwich on whole wheat bread).  Make it simple so you can keep practicing the new healthy behavior.  The more you practice it, the more automatic it will become.

My New Find... Turban Squash

at 5:57 PM 0 comments

Over the years I have tried many types of squash, but I hadn't tried the Turban squash.  The baking is pretty simple... just stick it in the oven at 350 for about an hour.  It comes out pretty soft which you can cut pretty much with a butter knife.  It has seeds so take the seeds out and scrape out the flesh with a spoon.  Add a little splenda and cinnamon.  This morning I also added an egg white and cooked the whole thing in the microwave for 30 seconds.  So delicious.  With a tiny bit of creativity in the kitchen (and believe me I have a genetic mutation in that department) you can add many different components to this very mild squash.

The Turban squash has an orangey or golden flesh and is very mild.  So if you look on the internet many recipes use it in cookies, but we are going to eat clean, right?  So please don't ruin a very healthy food by adding it to a cookie dough.  Here are some numbers for you: Per 100 grams, it has 37 calories, almost 9 grams of carbs, very little fat, 9 grams of protein and close to 2 grams of fiber.  Like many other winter squashes it keeps firm for several weeks in a cool dry place.  It looks more like a decorative gourde than an edible fruit.  But rest assured you will not be disappointed.  It is so mild that you can add many different types of foods to it to increase its nutritional value (i.e. egg whites).

How Do We Break the Cycle of Overeating?

at 2:00 PM 0 comments

In his book-The End of Overeating-Dr. Wansink offers solutions to the overeating problem that many people have.  James Leckman, a professor of child psychology and pediatrics at Yale says that invitations to the brain are built in, but if we give in every time and too often then the system becomes 'dysregulated' and we won't have a strong response system to say 'No'.  The only solution to the problem of conditioned hypereating is to have a strong refusal system within ourselves that we have tested and it works (that is, we can be offered french fries, but we don't give in) every time.  It must be a definitive system of saying 'No' to junky fast food.  Not just 'I will try not to eat it, BUT I will not eat it'.

I have a system of refusal that is very similar to what Dr. Wansink suggests.  After I talk about what he suggests we should do, I will briefly tell you what goes on in my head when I am offered chocolate-covered pretzels or other very enticing food.

- Have Awareness: you must figure out the situation that sets off the cycle of overeating.  We know that certain situations such as stress, anger, sadness may produce a sudden urge to eat without control.  We have to recognize those specific situations and know that we can put in a system where we can monitor ourselves.  How?  Keep reading...

-Have in place a competing behavior: For example if there is cake in the fridge that beckons you when you come home, don't even enter the kitchen; have another route already planned and another action that will keep you busy for a little while so you can completely be distracted.  This alternate route, behavior or action should be practiced and strengthened so that it is in place and strongly competes with the behavior you are trying to extinguish.

-Have support- support is so important because it will sustain and encourage your behavioral change, as you will be responsible to a friend or a close family member.  The right kind of support is very important.  The latest research suggests that people who socialize and eat with others who are obese are more likely to have the same behavioral patterns.

So here is what works for me:  I have just worked out for 3-4 hours.  Why would I want to eat those chips or slice or cake or chocolate ice cream?  The pleasure is momentary but I will have ruined the effects of my hard exercise.  And every time I give in to those temptations I will have weakened the competing behavior that I have worked hard to put in place.  The answers, solutions, and thoughts are not the same and can't be the same for everyone.  You need to think through it and be aware which is really the first step.

The holidays can be a specially difficult time for some, because of the presence of all types of edible temptations and not all are steamed broccoli!!  This is how you should talk yourself out of eating that piece of decadent candy: 'OK, if I eat this, then what? Tomorrow is another day and another temptation and it won't be easy and I won't be better off, maybe even half a pound heavier!!  I need to practice, practice, practice saying 'No'.  And I will start today not tomorrow.  Today with this piece of candy.  I will say no and perhaps it will get easier tomorrow.  If you don't practice walking away, you will forever be trying to lose weight and not actually losing weight!

How The Food Industry Makes Us Want to Eat More!!

at 3:55 PM 0 comments

I am really devouring (no pun intended) this book (The End Of Overeating) by David Kessler.  As he delves into our how the food industry generates billions of dollars by hijacking our human reward system, I start rethinking the whole overeating phenomena.  For most of human history we survived and thrived on food that was simple; vegetables from the farm, animals from hunting and fruits from trees; now we eat foods that are optimized so that we can eat MORE OF THEM with NO CONTROL.  As told by Jerome Kagan, a psychologist at harvard to Dr. Kessler, that the most effective rewards are those that can change our feelings, stimulating our brains and providing temporary pleasure.  That is what hyperpalatable foods do.

Hyperpalatable foods like a plate of chocolate chip cookies demand our attention because over time we have learned that they bring pleasure.  And we seek those emotions, furthermore the power of memory plays a significant role in this cycle of pleasure seeking.  We are presented with the salient cue, we seek that pleasure because we have had plenty of positive re-enforcement, alas transiently!

Dr. Kessler talks about a cycle of 'cue-urge-reward-habit' that becomes hard-wired in our brain circuitry.  Remember that we have evolved to seek positive reinforcement and pleasure, so the same type of reward seeking goes on with foods that occurs with other pleasure-providing situations in our lives.  And from what I gather, this type of cycle is simply not present when we eat raw celery, fortunately or unfortuantely.  We MUST break the cycle over time which he terms "conditioned hypereating".   I will talk about the simple (but not easy) steps we can take to stop  the pleasure-seeking behavior that Dr. Kessler talks about in a future blog.

The Food Industry's Genius Marketing

at 2:57 PM 0 comments

The author of 'The End of Overeating', David Kessler did numerous interviews with food industry consultants and one of them told him that one of the reasons that the foods in restaurants are highly processed is that you can wolf it down fast and by eliminating the need to chew, 'modern food processing techniques allow us to eat faster".  Refined food melts in the mouth and before you know it you have had several hundreds of calories.

The other weapon that the food industry uses to get consumers to buy and eat more are chemical flavorings.  For example, cheese flavorings sold by Kraft include blue cheese, American cheese and cream cheese, none of which actually contain much cheese. So adding artificial chemicals to the basic ingredients of sugar, fat and salt gives manufacturers incredible freedom to create novel food products.

Do you know what IQF stands for?  Foods such as shrimp or chicken nuggets are not frozen in huge blocks but frozen individually.  But before this individually quick frozen method the food pieces are partially fried (par-fried).  When the foods arrive at the restaurant and before being served they are fried again.  From shrimp to chicken pieces to french fries many chain restaurants are locations where food is simply assembled and not freshly cooked.

So this culture of overeating is encouraged by the food industry because that is how they make money.  Take the idea of ordering an appetizer for example.  Most appetizers unless they are fruits or raw/steamed vegetables are really a meal in and of themselves.  You order the appetizer and a soda or an alcoholic drink then the meal comes.  Assuming that you don't take half of the food on your plate home, at the end of the dinner you have consumed TWO meals!  Almost doubling your caloric intake.  And let's not kid ourselves, most of us order nachos, cheese sauce, egg rolls and other highly processed foods and not steamed broccoli for appetizers.

Why Do We Overeat?

at 2:42 AM 0 comments

Have you ever noticed that you really can't overeat broccoli or spinach or eat too much of a  grilled chicken breast, but turn the above choices into cheese fries, M&Ms and fresh glaze donuts, you can easily overeat.  Well it turns out that the answer is much more complicated that just the fact that donuts are SO GOOD or you just can't stop at eating one M&M!  The manufacturers of processes foods have done years of research and hire food scientists and flavor scientists to optimize the taste of these foods so they can be 'hyperpalatable'.

These facts and other eye opening ones which may not be obvious at first glance are discusses in a book called 'The End of Overeating' by David Kessler,MD.  A high level food executive told Kessler that higher sugar, fat, and salt make you wan to at more.  Then a food industry consultant who did not want to be identified said to his that the food industry create foods that hit the 'three points of the compass'.  Sugar, salt and fat make a food compelling, and they make it indulgent.

Take cheese fries for example.  Cheese fries take  high-fat food and put more fat n top of it. The potato base is a simple carbohydrate, which quickly breaks down into sugar in the body,  Once it is fried and layered with cheese, we are eating salt on frat on fat on sugar.  Buffalo wings start with fatty parts of chicken, which get deep-fried.  Usually they are par-fried (partially fried-this is an industry term) at the production plant then again fried at the restaurant which basically doubles the fat and finally served with some sort of sauce.  This makes sugar on salt on fat on fat on fat!!!  An industry source joked that chicken tenders so loaded with fat that they are basically a UFO-an unidentified fried object.

In time, as a result of over stimulation and rewarding our selves with these types of foods, overeating becomes a habit and basically it rewires our brains where we no longer respond to being full and as a result we keep eating past that point.  Therefore we no longer can control those impulses, every time the stimulus presents itself-the presence of hyperpalatable food- we overeat.

Notice that this type of overeating behavior does not occur with basic healthy foods such as a spinach salad with carrots and broccoli topped with grilled chicken.  Or steamed squash seasoned with a little salt and pepper. The overeating behavior happens with highly processes foods that are cheap, and easily accessible.  Let's think about foods that we eat and stop the shoveling-in-the-mouth behavior.