Okay, so is there anything I can eat?

I hear this phrase from clients as we are going over nutritional information. We start talking about food - what needs to be eliminated, what needs to be added - and the process can be overwhelming. Or when I spotlight a product on my Facebook fanpage and give you the "real" dish on a particular food. Or when I take a class through Publix in my Healthy Shopping 101 class and teach them how to read food labels. People get discouraged. What they thought was healthy is not. And so they ask me the inevitable question:

"Okay, so is there anything I can eat?"

And they ask this with despair, by the way. Nothing fun about being deprived of your favorite foods. But, is deprivation the only way? Do you have to give up everything you enjoy eating to lose weight?

Tough question. It's really a matter of focus and goals, education and inspiration, and just plain "how bad do you want it?".

• If you educate yourself on the nutrition of foods, you start to realize what is in the packaged and fast foods. 
• If you focus on your goals, including nutrition, you start to prioritize what is really important in your food life. 
• If you really want to lose weight and have tried for years and haven't been able to, and if you have cried about your weight, then you might want it bad enough to make the hard changes. 

Because there will be hard changes. If you want to lose the weight.

You may have to give up ice cream. You may have to give up chocolate. I did. I had to give up "trigger" foods that just negatively affected my body. Was it worth it? Yes, absolutely. Was it hard? Yes, absolutely. But it's possible. And now, I can go back and have those foods - once in a while, not daily - and it's not a problem now.

The hard part is finding your food addictions, facing your food addictions which involves asking what is this food replacing that I am not getting in my life, and then dealing with it.

Yes, there is food you can eat. Healthy, nutritious, beautiful food. You don't have to deprive yourself. You need to educate yourself. And I'm here to help you...

Celsius - a healthy sports drink?

Celsius joins the ranks of sports drinks designed to - wait for it - HELP YOU LOSE WEIGHT. Wow! It will magically take away those nasty food cravings. It will shoot you up with caffeine and it will just burn the fat off your body. No more worries, when it comes to weight loss. Okay, so I'm being a little sarcastic. But really? Is this a good drink for you?

Well, it has a great advertising program.
And, it is endorsed by Mario Lopez, dimples and all [who doesn't love a guy with dimples? That's all I'm sayin'].

So, let's look at the food label - oh yeah - that thing that tells you what's in a product:

• 10 calories, that's good
• 0g sugar, that's good
• It has vitamins, that's good
• Low sodium, good
• It even has green tea extract and ginger, gotta be good!

Now read the last line. Contains 200mg total caffeine per serving. Okay, is that a lot?

Well, if you compare it to:

• Chocolate bar - 30mg
• Tea - 30-70mg
• Cold relief tablet - 30mg
• Cup of coffee - 90-150mg 
• Vivarin or other speed pill - 200mg

That's a lot of caffeine. Note the warning "Not recommended for..." at the bottom. I don't know about you, but I don't like warnings on the bottom of my food product. Kind of makes me feel uncomfortable. This is a caffeine-loaded product. If that's what you're looking for, fine. Caffeine is addicting and even though it may make you feel good for a short time, there's a crash coming. Not to mention what it does to your hormones [ladies AND guys].

• Do you need it to lose weight? No.
• Would it help you to lose weight? Maybe in extreme cases where you are NOT sensitive to caffeine and can handle the side affects. 
• Is it worth it? No. 

You have everything you need inside of you to lose weight. It's not going to come from a beautifully-designed can of caffeine, no matter how cute the spokesperson is.

Wendy's new salads - are they healthy?

Have seen some pretty advertisements lately for the new salads at Wendy's - have you tried them yet?

• Apple Pecan Chicken Salad
• Baja Chicken Salad
• Spicy Chicken Caesar Salad
• BLT Cobb Salad

Yum, they sound healthy. So, are they? Let's find out...

First of all, before you partake a new item, esp. at a "fast food" restaurant, always check the company's website under "nutritional information". It only takes a minute and this will give you the information you need to make an informed choice.

Here's a brief summary:

• Apple Pecan Chicken Salad - 580 calories, 27g fat, 50g carb, 38g protein, 1590mg sodium
• Baja Chicken Salad - 740 calories, 47g fat, 49g carb, 35g protein, 1990 sodium
• Spicy Chicken Caesar Salad - 740 calories, 49g fat, 41g carb, 37g protein, 1860 sodium
• BLT Cobb Salad - 670 calories, 47g fat, 50g carb, 47g protein, 1920 sodium

Okay, red flags...

1. High calorie item. If you are consuming 1500-2000 calories a day, this is 1/2 of your day. Too high in calories, esp. for a salad. 
2. Check sodium. Normal intake for the day is 1500-2000mg. For the day. All four of these salads exceed 1500. That is not good. Too much sodium in your system causes bloating, water retention, and negatively affects your hormones and metabolism [your ability to burn fat], as well as other physical problems. 
3. Don't be overwhelmed by the details. It's important to know the other breakdowns, carbs, proteins, fats, but if you don't know what to look for - just look for the obvious - calories and sodium. 

So, what's your option? If you HAVE to go to a Wendy's, what can you eat? Well, there are many other options. The key is to look at the nutritional information yourself and find something that you like. For example, the garden salad has 220 calories, 14g fat, 19g carb, 4g protein, 440mg sodium. The Grilled Chicken Wrap has 260 calories, 10g fat, 25g carb, 20g protein, 750mg sodium. Not the best on the sodium, but a better choice than the salads listed above.

Don't be intimidated by eating at a fast food restaurant! It is possible to eat healthy - but YOU have to control what you eat. Don't be fooled by pretty pictures and hefty marketing and advertising. You do the research and know what is going into your body. It's worth the time and effort, so will you?

What if the bad food is not the problem?

Okay, we all know about bad food. We are told about it all the time, especially if you are trying to lose weight. Okay, so you know what to stay away from:

• Fried foods
• Fatty foods
• Creams and butters
• Ice cream
• Sugar foods
• Salty foods

And if you're trying to lose weight, you sometimes wonder "What food can I eat at all?" and are left to ponder this while you shop for more fruits and veggies and other boring foods.

But, what if, in our quest for getting to the "perfect size", what if we find out that the bad food is not the problem?

• What if we eliminate the bad food, but still can't lose weight? 
• What if we workout like crazy, but the scale still doesn't budge?

Could it be possible that the bad food is not the problem? 

When you are used to eating "bad" foods, such as those listed above, it is hard when you start eliminating them from your daily life. You have to deal with cravings, you have to deal with a growling tummy and you have to deal with your emotional ties to food. Cravings, you can deal with. Growling tummy, you can control to some extent. But, the emotional ties, oh, that's when we get into trouble.

We find out that there is a REASON we are drawn to these foods, whether it is:

• Habit
• Lonliness
• Lack of love
• Comfort 
• Unhappiness with life

And that's the hard part.

That's the reason most diets don't work. It's not all about cutting out the "bad" foods. It's about finding out WHY those foods are important to us and then dealing with those emotions. It truly does start with the inside, so will you?

When you're too tired to workout

You're too tired to workout. No energy.

So, now what? 

Do you just take a day off exercise? And what if a day becomes two days? And on and on? How do you know when to take a day off?

There are many reasons why you are too tired to workout and have no energy:

• Exhaustion
• Overtraining
• Illness
• Boredom

Now, for the first three, these are legitimate excuses for wanting to miss a day. When you are exhausted, your body is weak and asking for a break. Give it one. When you are overtraining, your body is stressing and asking for a break. Give it one. When you are sick with an illness, your body is recuperating and asking for a break. Give it one and let it recover.

However, if you are just bored and feeling lazy in your muscles, that is the time to get off the couch. I know, you're too tired to workout. I know, you have no energy. Do it anyway.

• If you can't do your normal workout, do something. 
• If you can't run, walk. 
• If you can't lift weights, do light exercises. 
• If you can't do cardio, stretch.

Do something to get your body moving. Talk to that inside voice in your head. If you know exercise is good for you, then say it. If you know you NEED to get up and exercise, then do it. Remember - whatever you tell your body - your mind is listening! Always remember that! 

Tell your mind - you can succeed, tomorrow will be a better day, you are strong!
And you will...

Emotional eating

Emotional eating can derail even the best workout plan.

Why? 

Because when you look at weight loss as a whole, 20% is the workouts, 80% is nutrition. Good nutrition. Emotional eating is very common due to stress, boredom, a way of stuffing feelings as you stuff your mouth. Sound familiar?

This is a great article by my mentor Tosca Reno...

http://www.eatcleandiet.com/newsletter/augrise10/

Here's an important quote from it:

"The sudden onset of hunger is triggered by an emotional event. All of us have been conditioned to eat food when we’re sad, bored, frustrated, anxious and even when we’re happy (think of all the times we choose to celebrate an event with cake and desserts). Emotional eating also tends to become a vicious cycle of self-sabotage. Once we allow ourselves to eat emotionally, we feel guilty, and that guilt feeds another bout of emotional eating that moves us even further away from our goals."

Tosca also talks about recognizing your trigger foods and using a journal. I highly recommend using a health journal. In fact, every client of mine gets a health journal on their first visit. It's crucial, not to record food, but to record the emotions that go along with the food.

You can conquer emotional eating. If I can do it, you can too...

Healthy oatmeal bar recipe

This is a recipe I modified a little bit. I make this on Sunday, cut it into bars and keep them in ziplocs or container in the refrigerator. Then, throughout the week, I eat one bar with a fruit for a snack. This is particularly good for those PMS weeks when chocolate cravings are strong. It replaces chocolate or a protein bar. The ingredients are healthy. Enjoy!

1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tspn cinnamon
1/2 tspn baking soda
1/8 tspn sea salt
1 scoop protein powder [I like to use chocolate]
1 tbsn cocoa [optional - if you want a chocolate flavor]
1/2 cup peanut butter [I use natural crunchy]
1/2 cup organic sugar [you can leave this out if you want or use agave nectar]
1/3 cup honey
1 large egg
2 large egg whites
2 tbsn olive oil [I use extra-virgin]
1 tspn vanilla extract
2 cups oats [old-fashioned, like me]
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 9 x 9 baking pan with nonstick spray.

Whisk the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, protein powder and cocoa in a medium bowl. In separate bowl, beat peanut butter, sugar and honey with electric mixer until blended. Blend egg and egg whites with a fork in a small bowl. Add to the peanut butter mixture, along with oil and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Add flour mixture and mix with a rubber spatula. Mix in oats, dried cranberries and walnuts. Scrape batter into baking dish.

Bake the bars until lightly browned and firm to the touch, 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool completely in the pan on a rack before cutting into bars. Serving size is 2 x 2 bar.