What I've Learned

We're coming to the end of the health challenge. It's been a great experience for me. I've lost about 12 pounds; I haven't weighed this low since probably Jr. High. I've learned a few things and wanted to share them.

1. Food matters. Weight loss, gain, and maintenance is about 90% (my guess, probably it's higher) of what you eat. Exercise is important, but food is by far the biggest determiner of your weight. Because of my knee injury I wasn't doing much exercise over the last few months, but I was very careful on my eating, which enabled me to lose the weight. By watching how much food (i.e. calories) I ate, I was able to achieve my goal.

Eat Less, Move More

2. Pay attention to the details. Before I started this challenge I thought I knew what healthy was. I did in some part, but after carefully tracking my food, I really got a sense as to what I eat, and what foods are healthy and unhealthy. I would never have guessed that a chocolate chip cookie could have 200 calories. If I have my (old) usual 4-5 cookies, I've just ate 1000 calories! A banana, apple, and tablespoon of peanut butter can be just as filling for only 300 calories.

Think you know food? Take this Calorie Quiz.

45 Common Foods and Their Calories

3. Know where you are. Everyone's body is different, so we all have different energy (calorie) requirements. What you should eat depends more or less on your gender, age, physical activity. It's not an exact science, but once you know the general amount of calories you need, you can move forward accordingly. You can either eat more (to gain weight), less (to lose weight), or the exact amount (to maintain weight).

Before I started the challenge I didn't really know how much I should be eating. Do you? If you want to lose weight, take your base calorie needs and subtract 500 calories to lose about one pound a week.

Mayo Clinic Calorie Calculator

4. Eat good food. Along with watching your calories, having a proper balance is important. Our bodies need a variety of nutrients. Protein, vitamins, minerals, fiber, etc. This is exactly why we have we have been told for years about the food pyramid (now replaced by the plate), and why we should eat foods from all the major food groups (that includes vegetables!).

The Food Plate

5. Everybody needs a down day. It's ok if every day isn't completely healthy. Sometimes you have to loosen up a little. The key is to not let every day be a down day, but only occasionally. The next day you start healthy again.

6. Big changes are possible. I've seen it in my own life. I'm down probably 80-90 pounds from my peak weight in high school. There are tons of success stories of people out there who changed their lives and lost weight. There will definitely be bumps along the way, but two steps forward, one step back, will still get you to your destination.

Success Stories

Good Vegetarian, Bad Vegetarian

Quick, quick! What do all these foods have in common?

cookies, candy, cake, ice cream, donuts, twinkies

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia: User Chamalani

They are all bad for you vegetarian!

Therein lies the danger of a vegetarian lifestyle; you can be completely vegetarian, but also completely unhealthy. In fact, some vegetarian diets are worse than diets heavy in red meat, which are known to be heart-unfriendly.

I came across the idea of an unhealthy vegetarian in a recent book I was reading. It had a quote from a college student who lived off of cheese pizza and slurpees, both "vegetarian" dishes. The student initially believed that since he was vegetarian, all was good. But I don't think anyone would recommend this diet.

This site here describes the carboterian, a vegetarian that lives off of carbohydrates such as bread, pasta, cheese, milk, or pizza. These things aren't necessarily bad in a balanced diet, but too much is not healthy.

So why do I bring this all up?  I guess to make the point that a good vegetarian diet is not just about going without meat. It means substituting meat with healthy food, like vegetables(!) and other protein sources (beans, whole grains, nuts, soy, etc.). The key to healthy vegetarianism (or flexitarianism or any diet for that matter) is to eat a variety of good foods. Here's a quote by a professor of nutrition from Harvard that describes it well: “the healthiest vegetarian diet will have a lot of vegetables, fruits, nuts, and legumes,”.

Getting started with Meat-free dishes

Hopefully I've whetted your appetite a little towards going a little more meat-free. Where do you start? What should you make? Here's some quick ideas to start making meat-free dishes (see the link below for a large article with the original idea).

1. Think of three meat-free dishes you already like or eat. You know how to make them, so eat them up. Here's some ideas.
          Bean burritos
          Pasta/spaghetti
          7-bean soup
          Vegetable soup
          Grits and eggs
          Stir fry
          Peanut butter and jelly sandwich

2. Take three of your favorite meaty dishes and convert them to meat-free. There are lots of ways to get rid of the meat, but still get an enjoyable food. Here's some ideas.
   Hamburgers: try veggie burgers (such as. Boca burgers or bean burgers) or portobello mushrooms
   Hot dogs: Go with tofu dogs
   Pizza: eliminate the meat and load up on vegetables
   Chili: get rid of the meat and go with bean chili
   Biscuits and gravy: use TVP instead of sausage
   Deli sandwich: remove the meat and try hummus or avocado
   Lasagna: make a meat-free version, loaded up with vegetables

 

Photo courtesy of Flickr: chrisphoto

3. Try three totally new recipes. There are so many recipe sites out there.  Sparkpeople, Allrecipes, FoodNetwork, Food.com. Google "recipes" and you'll get many more sites. Or check out some vegetarian cookbooks from your local library for free. Find a recipe that looks interesting and try it!


You now have nine different recipes you can make. Did you know that most families only cook nine different recipes, but keep rotating them around? You should be set for a while.

Resources:
Vegetarian Starter Kit

Living a vegetarian lifestyle

I mentioned last week how a vegetarian lifestyle can be healthy. I know this works, since many years ago I was a complete vegetarian. My dear mom put up with this for a few months while I shunned all meat. I did lose weight, which was my goal. If you are really eating a balanced vegetarian diet, you can't help but eat healthy food.

      

 One of the big transitions towards vegetarianism is replacing meat with other protein sources. There are a number of non-meat protein sources, including legumes (beans, lentils, and peas), nuts, grains (like quinoa, brown rice, or barley), soy products (soy milk, tofu, TVP, or tempeh), or protein supplements (powders). With a little planning, you can turn many dishes into meat-free dishes. Bean burritos. Veggie burgers (I have been eating boca burgers for years and love them). Soup with beans. Peanut butter sandwich. Stir Fry with tofu. And on and on. You can still get the protein without all the negative consequences of excess meat consumption.

Now you may be saying to yourself, "I'm not ready or willing to become vegetarian." Honestly, neither am I. There is an alternative, called "flexitarian" which means being a flexible vegetarian, or mostly being vegetarian, but still eating some meat. I recently got a book from the library called "The Flexitarian Diet". It has a lot of good information and recipes for incorporating more meat-free dishes into your life, so you may want to check it out. You can also google "flexitarian" for other resources. What's a good way to start? Have some meat-free days. I'm aiming to be an expert flexitarian, which means five meatless days per week.

Other Resources:

Should you be a flexitarian?

The Flexitarian Diet Review

Eat those veggies

In July we visited Travis and Aymee. It was fun! While there we watched a documentary "Forks Over Knives" which was really interesting. You can see it on Netflix, so I suggest you check it out. It was a documentary about some doctors' research into vegetarian lifestyles. The movies is basically an attempt to convince you that vegetarian is the way to go.

Now when I see something like this, I'm naturally skeptical. I suppose it goes with my job. Just because someone tells me something, doesn't mean I believe. I want to see some proof. So I started looking at the scientific journals, where scientists and doctors publish their research findings. And you know what? Vegetarians do live healthier lives. Less heart problems, live longer, weigh less. All the good things we want.

So there must be something to eating your fruits and vegetables. Even Joseph Smith realized this back in D&C 89!

Snack Breaks

This week I bring you some ideas for some healthy snacks. I've tried to pick snacks that come under 100 calories.

Gum. Just chewing gives you some flavor to wait until the next meal.
Fruit. I love apples and bananas. Raisins, grapes, or whatever. Something sweet and healthy.
Granola bar. You can get one with about 100 calories. Be careful of ones loaded with sugar and other junk.
Pretzels. Healthier than chips or most crackers. A handful can come in around 100 calories.
Vegetables. Carrots and salsa or celery and salsa make a good snack. Cut up peppers also work.
Yogurt. Get some protein, calcium, and yumminess.
Popcorn. Go with air-popped popcorn without the butter (we use spray butter) and you can get a healthy snack
Cheese stick. Get your dairy fix for about 100 calories.
Peanut butter. One tablespoon has about 90 calories. Spread it over fruit or over a rice cake (one of my favorites). 


What else do you like to eat?

I found this and thought it was interesting. If it's too hard to read here is the link. Hope everyone is working hard and having a good time doing it:)