10% Happier? Maybe.

I’ve been reading more lately. I always read newspapers and have a stack of books on my nightstand but sometimes TV intrudes on my reading time. This past weekend, I read a ton and finished Dan Harris’s 10% happier. If you’re unfamiliar with the book, Harris is a newscaster who was battling panic attacks and, as he so aptly called, it “the asshole voice in his head” or negative self-talk. Harris embarks on a journey through the self- help sphere in the most skeptical way. It reminded me a little of A.J. Jacob’s books, if you’ve read those.

Some things that have stuck with me from the book:

Just because a book changed someone else’s life doesn’t mean it will resonate with you. For example, Harris doesn’t relate to much of Eckhart Tolle’s writes. In fact, Harris interviews Tolle and doesn’t feel there’s much that’s useable in his advice. There are a number of books, Brene Brown’s work comes to mind, that friends or colleagues rave about whereas I cannot get through them. Unlike Bill Gates, I think it’s fine to put a book down and find one that’s not a struggle.

Wanderlust may be misleading. I am a travel junkie and I have always felt a certain pride in being adventurous. While reading this book, Harris describes the person always looking for the next thrill, trip or high. Maybe, focusing on these amazingly amazing moments makes everyday life feel dull or not enough. We were home this past weekend and, at first, part of me regretted not going to Vermont or somewhere new. Perhaps reading this book played a role but we had the best time. We had no plans, I slowed down…if you’re go, go, go reconsider a bit.

You don’t have to love yourself. Confession- I hate this advice. And again, it’s personal so if you love loving yourself by all means continue. For me, it feels phony. One of the experts on this book says he counsels against it. “Mindfulness gives us a way to examine our self-hatred without making it go away. Just being mindful of it can be liberating.” Harris points out, if we allow ourselves to acknowledge those less-than-lovable parts of ourselves maybe we don’t need to eat, pop pills or do whatever it is to hide it or distract ourselves. WOW

After reading this book I found myself looking at mediation as something with a payoff, I know that sounds wrong. I used to see meditation as something I should do, something other people benefited from. Now, I see it as something that could help me at work, help me pause and not react out of anger and tame that voice inside my head that’s an asshole.

What are you reading? Do you meditate? I’d love to hear.

Do you guilt eat?

 I’ve written about peer pressure before and “bossy bosses”.  Guilt eating is similar but generally speaking in this case the person gifting or offering food has good intentions. I hear instances of guilt eating all the time. Just this week “My mom left this morning! After she left, I filled a trash bag with all of the English muffins, chips and dessert she had so graciously bought me :)”

Good that the “trash” was tossed. I’m not 100% convinced bringing these foods to an adult “child” is the best idea but you see the pull. Mom thought of me and arrived with these foods, it was so nice of her.  Yes, to an extent it was, feel that gesture.

Or, this one is even more tricky and loaded, “my kids had made cinnamon chip cookies which my daughter "invented” she had to make up a recipe for school...how could I not have one?”

Are you ready? Neither mom’s kindness nor this child’s creativity are ignored if we don’t consume the food. Acknowledge the emotion “thank you so much for taking time to bring these” OR “tell me what you put in these cookies”. It will not create an eating disorder in your children if you say “let’s put this in a container, I’m going to have it tomorrow as my treat” or “those look amazing but I’m not hungry right now.” You see, show enthusiasm and graciousness but only eat the said food if you really want to. It's your choice and your guilt or lack thereof. Make sense?

Do you guilt eat? In what situations? 

Five Tips to Prevent Weekend Weight Gain

Let’s say a person (perhaps you) develops a stellar eating routine that involves cooking, hydrating and eating lots of green things. By Friday that person (perhaps you) feels accomplished, clothes are looser, energy is through the roof- you get the picture. Then, person (you?) goes to Connecticut or Fire Island or stays put, after all it’s summer and things are carefree wherever you are. Person enjoys the weekend (a little too much) with extra cocktails and barbeques and fun, fun, fun. What’s the big deal you say? No big deal if your weight loss from Monday to Friday is erased and you’re good with bloat and more.

OK have a good day you’re screwed. No, no of course there’s a way to balance cocktails with consciousness, even a way to make progress over the summer. Truthfully, sure it’s nice out now but weekends are tricky all year round let’s sort them out.

Make room for the weekend

There are 52 weekends a year so what goes on from Friday to Sunday shouldn’t be all that shocking. Use Thursday to your advantage. Thursday is a day where you skip your grains and skip your cocktails so that your weekends can be slightly (I said slightly) looser.

Pre-eat

It’s not only the alcohol calories (that your body burns before it gets to any love handle or back fat), it’s the food we consume once we’ve had the drink and sadly the food we may think makes us feel better the next day. You must pre-eat. Have asparagus (breaks down alcohol and debloats you, how’s that for a twofer?) or a little good fat (walnuts or olives work well) before you imbibe. Alcohol will affect you 3x slower if you do this and that’s a good thing.

Meals Matter

There’s much more winging it on the weekends. Instead of defined meals, more time around the house often leads to grazing or what I like to call pupu platter eating. Pupu platter eating isn’t pretty. I suggest a “walk through” on weekend mornings. Take a minute to think about where you’re going to be and what you will eat. Think in terms of distinct meals and snacks. Even if your day starts later I’d suggest 3 meals. This is better than two meals and ten snacks.

Move it (not just for workout)

Maybe you went to a spin class, that’s awesome. But sitting on the beach, by the pool or at brunch (grrrr) for hours isn’t in your best interest. I’ve written about my fitbit. A tracker is a great thing on the weekends. You’re not chained to a desk; let’s see what you got.

Make sure you’re set up

Be super careful if you do go away on the weekends that you’re set up for the week. Food shop on your way home or have groceries delivered. You need your tools and a menu for the week ahead.

So if you’re feeling puffier today than on Friday, put your plan in place. There are 13 more weekends until Labor Day.

Do you eat differently on the weekends? What’s you’re biggest challenge? What do you do to keep things clean? What’s your favorite thing you did (or ate) this past weekend?

Thanksgiving Teams, You a Ripa or an IJOD?

Happy Thanksgiving. I am thankful for clients who come to our offices throughout the year. I am also thankful for this blog and especially the dialog that we often have in the comments section. As you know, I welcome a good debate and so for those of you who disagree or offer a divergent view, thankful for you all too.

Yesterday, I did a quick segment on Thanksgiving. It was specifically about gluten free Thanksgiving options but the producer opened with “What do you tell clients when it comes to Thanksgiving, is it a day to enjoy everything and put your diet on hold or should they (and we) make an effort to keep it healthy?”

As I see it, there are two camps on Thanksgiving. On her show Kelly Ripa lightheartedly said, “I’m going to sit down to Thanksgiving dinner and eat like it’s any other day because when you don’t you get into trouble.” On the other hand, after the CBS segment ran with me and other chefs and experts explain how to tame Thanksgiving the anchor concluded with the flipside “I don’t know, it’s one day, I plan on enjoying myself.” And Clinton Kelly, of The Chew, on a funny segment on table etiquette said whatever you do “don’t say the D-word at the table.” D here refers to diet.

I don’t think these camps or viewpoints are as polarizing as it may seem. The “it’s one day” folks really don’t want to end an evening seeking antacids and elastic clothing. And the “Ripa’s” probably will not be in a corner eating white meat turkey, crudité, peeling marshmallows from their sweet potatoes. And I concur with Clinton whether you are gluten-free, paleo or just run of the mill neurotic, nobody (except the host well beforehand in the case of an allergy) needs to know your eating rules.

“It’s one day” sounds innocuous if it were really one day. One of the things that work against Thanksgiving is its occurrence on a Thursday. Many could recover from having two days (3500-5000 whopping calories)  of food at one pop if it was sandwiched by regular consumption on other days. What typically happens is that Thanksgiving acts as the starting gun for “it’s one day” folks that ends up being 35 days and Thanksgiving is early this year, make that 40 until the new year.

Some advice?

Thursday, stick to the One Plate Rule- you wouldn’t ask for seconds at a restaurant and this food beats restaurant food in butter and sugar content.

And Focus on Friday. If you have stuffing or pie or candied (apt description) yams today, leave them today. Tomorrow turkey in a salad, turkey soup…you get the idea.

Most importantly, relax and enjoy all you have to be thankful for.

Which camp are you in? Ripas or IJODS (it’s just one day-ers)?  Are you a leftover person? Do you think it’s possible to keep treats to just one day?

Workout Reward

It seems rather intuitive that cranking up your exercise helps you lose weight.  After all, if you’re burning more calories and eating the same way that would be the case. The problem that exists, that I refer to as “marathon syndrome” is that for some people feel they deserve a reward for their exercise efforts and that reward is often edible. When I look at food journals, for clients training for a marathon, the day of their long run is usually when I see the pancakes or cookies. And in case you’re tempted to explain this based on appetite, the same workout rewards have been observed with lighter workouts.

The May issue of the Nutrition Action Healthletter, interviews one of my nutrition heroes Dr Brian Wansink. Wansink wrote the book “Mindless Eating” and this interview focused on cues that affect our eating. My post on the connection between color and appetite was an example of one of these cues. Regarding exercise, Wansink summarized an experiment conducted with participants on a retreat. Before dinner, the group was divided in two. One group was told they were headed on a scenic walk around a lake. The other group was told they were going on an exercise walk. Both walks were easy and paced similarly. When they returned and had dinner the “exercise” group ate more. They also estimated they had burned more calories.

Another study, with postmenopausal women, divided participants up in groups and prescribed varying amounts of weight loss. Women doing the most exercise did not lose the most weight. There was more food compensation in this group than the low or medium exercise group.  An association was seen between increased exercise and increased “rewards”.

In some cases it’s not even the exercise but thinking about exercise that can trigger reward behavior On her blog Herbal Water, Dr Ayala discussed a recent study in the journal Appetite.  Participants read a passage about a 30-minute fun walk or a 30-minute exercise walk (not unlike the Wansink experiment). After reading, those who had read the passage and answered questions were presented with snacks and candy. They were allowed to scoop as much as they wanted into bags to take home. Those who had read about exercise scooped 52 percent more. 

If you’re exercising to release stress or for your health, this sense of entitlement may not be a problem. However, if you’re interested in losing weight because Memorial Day is about three weeks away that’s another story. I work with clients on their self-talk. If we can see fitness, leanness or slimming down as the “prize” sometimes we can skip the post-workout pancakes. Another tool is to pre-plan food on more intense workout days to avoid impulsive decisions.  It also should be pointed out that there’s nothing wrong with having a treat as long as it isn’t presented as a workout reward. Love handles aren’t that rewarding.

Do you find yourself feeling exercise entitled? Do you eat differently on workout days? Why do you think there’s this “I ran so therefore I eat” connection? 
Speaking of rewards (ha) the winner of our Sweet Riot giveaway is EA The Spicy RD.

Why Men Want Women to Eat Mac and Cheese

                                   photo by Simon Mark Smith

Recently I applauded Kim Cattrall’s admission that she watches what she eats as a refreshing departure from teeny celebrities professing their love for burgers and big portions. And then yesterday I got a kick out of an article in the New York Times “ For Actresses, Is Big Appetite Part of the Show?“ on this exact subject.” In this article experts debate the reasons why actresses profess their love of fattening food and why we all want to read about it. It was noted that these declarations appear most often in men’s magazines. Padma Lakshmi, the host of Top Chef, went on to describe women eating a lot as a male fantasy after which the author wrote “two things we need to survive in life are food and sex or love. Food for our bodies, and love for our hearts. So what is better than the archetypical image of a woman eating succulent, dripping, greasy, comforting food?”

OK so let’s forget the words succulent, dripping and greasy (ew). The question I have is: do men find women eating a lot sexy or appealing? My first thought is that men, and by that I mean the stereotypical man who reads these male magazines, wouldn’t find it as sexy if the woman doing the eating was larger or older (see photo for confirmation). This is so hard to say in any remotely politically correct manner but the burger or rib eater’s perceived sexiness most likely determines that degree to which her hefty eating is sexy.

But aside from the idea of women’s eating as sexy or a fantasy, do men like their women to eat a lot? I wonder if you polled 100 men if they would prefer their partners to eat

a) a burger and fries

 b) a burger

c) a salad

d) nothing-

what the majority would say.  As a serious salad eater, it elicits surprise from my husband when I veer from my normal course. And yet I don’t sense any outpouring of desire when my food choices are “greasy.” I can, however, appreciate a good scotch (just one) and love to watch sports and I have a sense that my husband likes these less prissy qualities.  So maybe I’m wrong.  Maybe my salad eating is the equivalent of his toothpaste residue in the sink- something that’s not ideal but not worth making a fuss over. 

And what about the converse, what do women like their men to eat (which just came out so wrong)?  It would make some sense that females who eat healthy fare would like their men to also but I think there’s a fine line here. We want our men, at least I do, to be able to eat healthy food but we don’t want them ordering “dressing on the side.” Amenable but not high maintenance, that sounds about right.

Slender women chowing down (as if they do it daily) is no different from the super skinny woman with giant boobs or the actress shown waking up in the morning perfectly made up and coiffed. There’s something a little hard to believe about each of these examples. The irony is that hot-to-trot Kim Cattrall, was the most honest about all of this and who’s sexier that she is?

Does your partners food choices turn you on or off? Do you think a woman eating unhealthy food is sexy to men? What would you do (ladies) if your husband ordered “dressing on the side?”

Heat-beating Eating

I recently contributed this piece to a fantastic site called Blisstree. You can check out the original post (and my enormous head) there or read my pasted version below:

Summer means more outdoor exercise, but also beach, pool, and backyard parties with (let’s face it) lots of drinking. Plus, it’s hot, and (if you’re where we are) way too humid. We love a good summer afternoon barbecue, but heat waves and multiple mojitos can leave us feeling exhausted and sluggish. Foodtrainers to the rescue.
• Water and White Tea, Not White Wine: Much of how we feel during the summer has to do with our hydration status. Both sweating and alcohol can dehydrate us, so pump up your water drinking with 2-4 cups more than your norm (10 cups a day for most people). And bad news: Avoid drinking at lunchtime altogether. That glass of wine or couple of beers at a midday barbecue is a surefire way to crash. Instead, we’re huge iced tea fans in warm weather. Try Republic of Tea brand tea bags with fresh mint or lemon or orange slices.
• Olives and Pickles: Not what you’d expect from nutritionists, but we tell our active clients to include some salty foods in their summer food plan. This is something athletes are accustomed to and a trick we can all benefit from. Yes, sodium is the villain behind bloating, but it’s also one of the electrolytes lost via sweat. The key is striking that balance where you feel energized but not enormous. Note: Healthy salty foods only, so chips and the salt on your margarita don’t count. 1-2 healthy sodium sources a day is perfect during a heat wave.
• Be Cool – as a Cucumber: Choose fruits and vegetables with high water content. In addition to cucumbers nothing says summer like a slice of watermelon. And cukes and watermelon even work well together.
• M & M Smoothies: Don’t get too excited – last we checked, M&M’s didn’t have an anti-sluggish claim to fame. But smoothies are a refreshing way to get fluid into your breakfast or snacks. Our secret energy-boosting ingredients are matcha (a powdered green tea) and maca, which is a South American root with fatigue-fighting properties sold in powdered form.

• Summer Soups: Nobody wants to eat anything hot and steamy in the summertime. Cold soups made from celery, sweet potatoes, or avocados are perfect warm weather meals. And don’t forget gazpacho. Think of summer soups as vegetable smoothies eaten with a spoon. You get a couple cups of much-needed liquid, and often potassium or B vitamins which help with mood and energy.
• Stay in Good Humor: Ice cream may temporarily cool you down, but, sadly, it’ll leave you feeling like a summer slug. (Plus, it’ll blow your diet.) Instead, try frozen banana slices or frozen red grapes. And don’t roll your eyes until you try them, they’re really good.
Have you ever made any heat eating mistakes? Any of the foods above you're going to try? Do you agree with us that day drinking is a disaster?