Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

I’ve always thought of Raw Food Vegans to be a wayward branch of vegetarianism. They eat only food that is plant-derived that is uncooked. Corn flakes are out. Canned spinach is out. Meat and cheese? WAY OUT. I just couldn’t believe that one could be healthy and eat under such restrictions. This study begs to differ.

• Reuters.com – Raw Food Vegans Thin But Healthy, Study Finds

Now, you have to remember that this study looked at the health of only eighteen Raw Food Vegans, which isn’t a statistically valid number. Humans are such slipperly test subjects, however, it’s hard to do long term studies on these sorts of things. You just can’t lock them up in cages and only feed them what you want to test like you can with mice and rabbits. Until we are able to see the results of a larger group (double blind, please…) we’ll have to accept that raw fruits, vegetables, whole grains and nuts are a healthy way to eat.

Go Ask Alice is a website hosted by Columbia University that provides health information. Fitness and nutrition are a small part of healthy living, but they have dedicated quite a few questions to them.

• Go Ask Alice – How do I know when I’m no longer hungry?

My hardest obstacle was knowing when I’m hungry. I would let myself get to the point of feeling ravenous before I would eat. I started eating Mini-Meals every two to three hours whether I felt hungry or not. Eventually, I learned what hunger feels like. I used to think hunger was the point when I was shaking and couldn’t think straight. That point is way beyond hunger. Now I am able to feel those first hunger signs and eat before I’m to the point where I will stuff anything in my mouth.

There are a few things that I have learned about eating home cooked meals:

• Dish up the correct number of servings onto the plates in the kitchen. – When I was growing up, my family used to just bring a huge bowl of spaghetti noodles and another huge bowl of spaghetti sauce to the table. The bowls would be passed around and we could choose how much of each we wanted. Now that I have mastered healthy eating, we dish up all the food in the kitchen and bring the individual plates to the table. I found that serving a meal “Family Style” is too much of a temptation for me. I tend to take too much in the first place and go for seconds afterward.

• Dish up the leftovers into individual sized portions. – I use Ziploc Storage Containers because they are inexpensive and translucent enough to tell what has been stored in them. If the recipe says that it has six servings, I get a dish for me, a dish for Mike and four Ziploc bowls. I divide the recipe equally among the six dishes and put lids on the containers before taking our dishes to the table.

• Leave the leftovers in the kitchen. – If the leftovers (in their individually sized containers) are in the kitchen when I finish eating. I am reluctant to get up and dish up another serving. I would have dirtied a dish (and lid) for nothing and that’s one less lunch for me over the week. If you want to truly be committed to only eating one serving, put them in the freezer before you eat your meal. I guarantee that the idea of that same meal, growing ice crystals in the freezer will prevent you from overeating.

Controlling the amount of food I eat has been an important factor in my weight loss success. Whether I am eating at home or at restaurants, managing my portions has been essential. I don’t cook at home very often, but when I do, I find that these three tips prevent me from eating too much at home.

If you haven’t been following the comments on my post called Supersize Me Rebuttal, you might want to check them out. This following comment was so interesting that I thought I should highlight it:

I just saw this movie last night. The DVD has bonus materials that caught my eye. Specifically the “scientific” mold test he did on fries and a burger from a restaraunt that actually makes their stuff fresh.. then he took the sandwiches and fries from McD’s and put them all in a jar to promote mold growth… the real burger & fries molded in about a week… the McD’s fries didn’t mold after 10 weeks.. the burgers were alient planets all by themselves by that time.. but it took a while.

Point is. What are you actually eating when you eat their fries? I wouldn’t even want to know. I’m sure all of us have performed a variation of this experiment w/out even knowing it… you clean out your car and discover some fries that missed your mouth that have fallen under your seat … God only knows how long it’s been there.. but looks as perfect as the day it was purchased. NO biological breakdown or mold at all… makes ya wonder what you’re really eating.

I, for one, will never eat fast food again.

Comment by Ben — 3/26/2005 @ 8:08 pm

Ben,

You said, “I, for one, will never eat fast food again.” That is just the kind of thinking that can send some people into a purge/binge cycle. If I told myself that I could never eat fast food ever again, I would follow that rule to the letter… for about three-four months (I’ve tried this before, I know my limits).

After three to four months of DENIAL, I would end up bingeing on fast food and end up eating far more than I ever would have if I had told myself that I could eat at fast food restaurants whenever I wanted. Given permission to eat whatever I want, I tend to choose healthier options than if I tell myself that I CAN’T have something.

What we should focus on is being healthy. Which is healthier?

Restricting something from your diet until it becomes the only thing you can think about and bingeing on it beyond comfort.
OR
Allowing small quantities of unhealthy food into your diet tempered by healthy food most of the time.

In my case, I have found that allowing myself permission to eat whatever I want paradoxically helps me eat less. It has been the method that allows me to eat healthier than I ever have in my entire life.

Thanks,
Laura Moncur

I’m not young enough to buy the kid’s meals and I’m not old enough to buy the Senior meals. You know what? Ninety percent of the time, my server doesn’t care. If you are polite and order nicely, they will give you the kid’s meal or the senior meal ninety percent of the time. It’s the other ten percent of the time I’m talking about.

When the server says, “I’m sorry, but those meals are for twelve and under / 65 and older.” Here’s what to say:

Fast Food Option: Order the meal To Go and tell your server that your child/grandmother is in the car.

I’ve only had to use this option once. I was at Wendy’s for lunch. After she said that the Kid’s Meals were only for kids, I told her it was To Go and that my child was in the car. She shrugged and gave me the Kid’s Meal even though I didn’t order anything else.

Restaurant Option: Try the very polite response, “I’m watching my weight and I prefer the smaller portion sizes. Could you charge me full price and give me the smaller portions?”

I’ve had this work once. I don’t mind paying extra in order to keep myself from eating too much. Another time, I ordered the children’s portion, but the waitress brought the adult portions to me. I called her back and sent half the food back with her on her tray. The third time I tried this, the waitress wasn’t willing to help me, so she got an insignificant tip.

Remember, we are the consumers. We drive the market. If we ask for smaller portions often enough, the restaurant business will scramble to create healthy and delicious meals for us that are meant to serve one person instead of three.

Additionally, the employees of restaurants aren’t paid enough to REALLY care about the rules. Ninety percent of the time, I order the Kids/Senior Meals without anyone saying a word or raising an eyebrow. They just want to get me fed and out of their place quickly and the path of least resistance is giving me what I want. Try it. It works for me.

Controlling the amount of food I eat has been an important factor in my weight loss success. Whether I am eating at home or at restaurants, managing my portions has been essential. Ordering from the Kid/Senior Menus is just one way I’ve been able to keep my portions manageable.

The concept of Mini-Meals is a two-edged sword. Eating five to six Mini-Meals each day is an effective way of keeping you feeling full and preventing your blood sugar from dropping. If the meals start inching away from the mini size, however, you have the potential of eating more calories throughout the day. Keeping your Mini-Meals mini is the key to this technique.

The way I keep my Mini-Meals small is that I only snack on fruit and vegetables. They are so low in calories that they balance things out if I happen to overdo it a bit at dinner. I don’t recommend making your breakfast smaller. When I eat a well-rounded breakfast with enough protein to keep me satisfied, a snack between breakfast and lunch can stay small.

I usually space my Mini-Meals about two to three hours apart. Sometimes that makes me feel like I’m eating all day long. When I first started dieting, it felt really comforting to know that I only had to wait two hours until my next snack. Now that I am eating healthy on a regular basis, I am used to the Mini-Meals. I don’t get hungry between them, but they are a nice break in my day.

Favorite snack foods: V-8 Juice, apple, nectarine, orange, carrot sticks, tomato, peppers (green, yellow or red – they’re all good in their own ways), blueberries, raspberries, pear, clementines, snap peas, snow pea pods

I usually choose one or two from the above list for my snacks between breakfast, lunch and dinner. If I have two snacks, I choose one vegetable and one fruit so that I get a wider variety of nutritional value. Remember, a serving of fruit or vegetables is only a half cup. It is recommended that you eat five servings a day. If you eat two for your mid-morning snack and two for your mid-afternoon snack, you’ve polished off four servings.

Controlling the amount of food I eat has been an important factor in my weight loss success. Whether I am eating at home or at restaurants, managing my portions has been essential. Mini-Meals helped me learn how satisfied I can be with smaller portions.

Once again proving that obesity and poor nutrition are not the same problem, Tech Central Station interviews two people who ate McDonald’s food every day and still lost weight.

• Tech Central Station – 30 Day McDiet: Results Are In – by Ruth Kava, Ph.D., R.D.

This article is a rebuttal to the entertaining, but scientifically flawed “Supersize Me.” I finally saw that movie a few weeks ago and I’m so glad that I don’t have to eat McDonald’s food every meal of every day for 30 days just to prove that I could lose weight. Two other people did it for me.

Of course, nutritionally, McDonald’s food did not provide them with some nutrients and oversupplied them with saturated fat and sodium. That is poor nutrition, however, not obesity. If Murlock removed all references to obesity in his movie, it wouldn’t be nearly as compelling.

Via: Fitness News

For all of you who saw “Supersize Me” and have shied away from McDonald’s Restaurant, Karen Hiser has the rebuttal.

Travel Fitness for Road Warriors: McDonald’s Goes Active

McDonald’s has added a Go Active section to their website for health conscious customers. Using their Bag A Meal utility, Karen found that a meal with a Caesar’s Salad with Grilled Chicken, Lowfat Dressing and the Yogurt Parfait (without the granola) is less calories and fat than the typical healthy lunch she usually eats.

As I have said before, it is possible to lose weight or maintain a healthy weight while eating restaurant food. Bag a Meal is just one of many resources you can use to find one or two meals at each restaurant that are healthy.

I have a few recipe books, but on the whole, I’m not a recipe girl. If someone makes fabulous food for a potluck, I compliment them. I thank them. I never, ever ask them for a recipe.

After months of writing for Starling Fitness, I realized today that I haven’t shared one recipe with you. It’s not because I don’t have any. I have family recipes that have been slimmed down and bulked up with veggies. I have books of healthy recipes including nutrition facts. I have plenty of recipes, but it never occurred to me to tell you about them.

I guess I prefer to outsource my food preparation. My hardest task during this weight loss journey has been portion control because restaurants give me so much food. Ironically, if I complain, they usually end up giving me more food. Even more frustrating is when they get to know me and give me even more food because they like me. Slimming down family recipes and finding new ones was easy compared to learning how to politely and graciously say, “No, thank you.”

I remember talking with a group of friends. One of them said that she wished she had a cook to take care of family meals. I told her, “I have several cooks. They work at all the restaurants all over the city.” Living in America has given me the luxury of being able to have other people cook my meals.

With that luxury, however, is the added difficulty of eating healthy. If you ask me, I can tell you three healthy menu items at every restaurant in town. The large restaurant chains have nutrition facts for you so that you can easily find the healthiest food. The local restaurants, however, are a little more difficult. Sometimes you have to estimate or compare their menus to that of the large restaurant chains.

Here are some simple tips if you eat out:

• Find the menu and nutrition facts for the restaurant online (See Dotti’s Weight Loss Zone)
• Choose at least two healthy options for each restaurant.
• Make a list of the healthy choices and keep it with you just in case your plans change.
• Download the nutrition facts to your Palm device (See Palm Restaurants).

After “Supersize Me” came out in the theaters, there was a huge backlash on the food industry. I had already lost my weight eating primarily restaurant food, so I had already learned that I am responsible for the food that I eat. You can eat healthy and lose or maintain your weight eating out every night of the week. No cooking required.

I’ve been tracking the stories about these concoctions since mid-February. The Luther Burger is a bacon cheeseburger served on a Krispy Kreme Donut (or two, depending on the news source). The Ham Dog is a hot dog, wrapped in ground beef and served with cheese, bacon, chili and egg on a hoagie bun. These articles talk about the caloric and fat content of these culinary items and blame them on the South because the restaurant is located in Georgia.

• 02-13-05: Associated Press – Decatur, Georgia – Health officials wage tough fight in America’s ‘Stroke Belt’

• 02-14-05: A Welsh View – The Hamdog And Luther Burger Are Killing Off Southerners

• 02-21-05: Chicago Tribune – In praise of the Luther Burger

• 03-03-05: Snopes.com – Luther Burger

I’m in flux. I want to talk about this, but I don’t know what to say. I have so many voices inside of me.

The Klingon inside of me is screaming, “Road Trip!” over and over with a growl in her voice. (more…)