There is a good website for calorie counting, that also gives helpful hints.  Today’s article is about working moms and prepping ahead of time for food to be in the house for kids so that they eat well.

http://caloriecount.about.com/healthier-meals-less-time-b587689?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_20120929&utm_term=continue1

I counsel people and I find that many issues are about food.  The cause for being tired and overweight is food and the food is the cause of being tired and overweight.  It is a vicious circle.  Everyone is tired.  So, people get lazy.  They eat boring quick, bland meals, they eat out at chain restaurants, which serve high calorie/high carb/high sodium meals or fast food.  The problems seem to be about addiction, self-entitlement, and time issues.

I have clients who think that it is okay to go to Wendy’s for a meal and that this serves as a nutritious meal.  I have clients who don’t want to cook and they will go to McDonalds and get one ( maybe two) double cheeseburgers, fries and a DIET coke.  (In their mind, that is a protein and a vegetable.)  Then, the test of true laziness and lack of knowledge about food,they will eat a whole bowl of grapes (copious amount of sugar) and wash it down with yet (the irony of it)–a Diet Coke.

It is so frustrating watching people on a carb/sugar addiction cycle being stuck in it–due to cravings created by continuing to eat carbs/sugar, and they are getting sick or are already sick with obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, auto immune disorders, leaky gut syndrome, candida overgrowth, etc.  I speak from learning and from my experience of having all of the problems here, but I was not obese yet, no high blood pressure because I do work out and no diabetes yet.  But, it could have been in my future if I didn’t get mad that I had been sucked into the carb/sugar cycle and wanted to find a way out.

Thank goodness for the Groupon ad for Lindora, that got me involved in learning, and I took it from there and kept learning.  I am trying to share it with others, but most people want to believe that this is not a problem and don’t want to see that maybe THEY are responsible for their own ILL health problems.  Because being responsible would mean self-blame.  However, I don’t look at it as blame/shame.   I look at it as, “you didn’t know, but now you should read, learn and try harder and LEARN how to be responsible for getting better so you can be a well, productive person in society. ”  No one should end up in one of those scooters–like the sad Wal-Mart patrons in that People of Wal-Mart website– because they are too fat to walk.  Pick yourself up by your boot straps, and fix this problem.  There are tools.  I am trying to share the ones I learned.  Get over calling your bad choices, “mistakes” and use them now instead as a “learning opportunity.”

ADDICTION!

If  people would just read more and learn more and just give into the fact that they are addicted to a POOR learned eating style and learn a new way that could be fun and delicious, and not as boring as they think, they would be better off in life.  They would look and feel better, inside and out.  One book that I recommend and most of the clients in the cycle are not wanting to read and learn is:  http://www.primalbody-primalmind.com/  I wish everyone would just read it and learn.  Also, http://www.wheatbellyblog.com/ is another good thing to read and learn how your BAD MISINFORMED food choices are killing you, slowly for some……and not so slowly for others.

Here is a link to a blog about how the brain is affected by the addiction to food.  Worth the read!  Please look at this!  You don’t even realize that you are being sucked into the addiction!  http://www.crossfitvalleypark.com/valleypark/2009/04/addiction-is-a-choice.html

TIME!

The second part to the problem of  food addiction is that people  have also gotten too tired, sick, lazy and/or have no motivation to do the necessary preparation work.  Also, there is a self-entitlement feelings of “I work hard and I deserve to go out.”  This is the thought e. I deserve to eat well, my family deserves to eat well (eating bad chain food is not eating well), so I will go out (and waste a lot of money on food in a recession).

Six things to do to make it easier to eat dinner at home:

1.  I put together a list of foods that you can eat as a snack or cook every week (see my blog from Sept. 29 on the 20 foods that can be eaten that are good for you and are easy to do.).  I will continue to blog on different recipes and ideas.

2.  Involve the family and start looking up recipes online or in cookbooks that you think are easy or you want to try.  My husband and I just got a recipe for this killer cooked chicken and I am excited to try it.  This could be a family project.  Everyone gets to help pick out healthy recipes and you can take turns on what gets made for the following week.

3.  Create a shopping list for the weekend for the things you need for your family-picked recipes and create a dinner menu for the fridge, which shows what is for dinner every night.

4  Shop on the weekend yourself or your loved one and get everything you need.

5.  Cook at the beginning of the week or on the weekend and make things in advance to eat for the rest of the week.   Make this a family project that takes about an hour or two to do.  Families need to do more together anyway!  This way kids are learning how to cook and be healthy and not just learning to be waited on or ordering out or eating bad food.  You also have more control of getting good vegetables cooked for your kids.

6.  Put the food in your fridge/freezer with labels.

My next blog, I will write about some things you can prep in the week to eat throughout the day, and make it easier to not say, “I have to go to Wendy’s because I have nothing to eat and I am too sick and tired to cook.”  It is like a crack addict heading to the crack den.  Stay away from it!  Stay home and open your fridge!

The weekend is coming.  You need to know what to eat as one of your six protein meals a day.  Don’t forget, two servings of vegetables and fruits each and two small salads with two cups of lettuce in each serving.  That being said, let’s go over protein ideas (can be a meal or a snack).

On things like nuts, seeds or spoonfuls of things, measure them out though after looking at carb content and eat according to the number of carbs you are allotting yourself for one of six protein meals for the day.  (example, if each meal has 15 g of carbs, then you want between 50 and 100g of carbs a day to lose/maintain weight, then you can’t do much higher than that…unless one of your proteins is only a few carbs, then you can up them in another protein meal later in the day.  Mix and match.

1.  An Egg or 2 egg whites

2.  A protein bar, watch the carb content (Power Crunch and Nature Valley Protein Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter, my favorites)

3.  Nuts and seeds.  Some nuts are higher in carbs than others.  Read the labels.

4.  Four ounces of a meat or 6 ounces of tofu (white fish, no other color)

5.  Cheese, 2 ounces regular, 4 ounces lowfat

6.  1 cup of milk or 4 ounces of cottage cheese, low fat and plan

7.  4 ounces of turkey bacon or turkey/chicken sausages.  Jenny O makes really good ones.

8.  1 cup of milk, non fat

9.  1/2 cup of yogurt (greek is lighter).  (Dannon lite and fit is great and flavored too!)

10.  Lindora.com has a lot of proteins for sale on their website that are good.  ( Their pancakes, oatmeal, pasta are my favorites!)  For pancakes, get lite maple syrup like Walden Farms, Cary’s, Mrs. Butterworth, etc.  Aunt Jemina lite is too high in carbs.  The others are 12g of carbs per 1/4 cup or less.  For pasta, Protein infused pasta at Lindora.com or any of the low carb websites.  Made with a dash of marinara and some parmasean cheese.  Yum.

11.  You can have a piece of bread, two times a week to replace a fruit.  Try to go for high protein, low carb bread.  Julian Bread has very low carbs.  http://www.julianbakery.com/  Western Bagel makes a Perfect 10 bagel, with only 10 net carbs.  http://www.westernbagel.com/products/_printable.php?PR_SKU=41269  I have had them and they are good.  But, keep your wheat to a minimum!  No more than twice a week to replace a fruit.

12.  Stick with any berry or citrus fruit for a fruit option.  All of the others, especially apples and bananas are high in carbs.

13.  Low-fat Chocolate pudding or Tapioca pudding.  Good ones at Trader Joes–Kozy Shack.

14.  Protein drinks.  Some great ones, cold and hot at Lindora.com site and at all stores.  The lowest I have seen are at Trader Joe’s Vanilla and a Chocolate at 4 and 5g of carbs.

15.  Carbolite in a small container, , a Yasso Greek Yogurt popsicle at 12g of carbs (http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/search), and/or some frozen dessert that has a decent carb content.  Some of the Skinny Cows top the chart at 30g and some are 14.  You be the judge.  http://www.myfitnesspal.com/nutrition-facts-calories/skinny-cow

*Frozen Yogurt is about 4-5g of carbs per ounce.  Those self serve places have huge cups and if you really measured just having about 4 ounces as to not have too many carbs, 4 ounces is small.  Also, don’t do toppings.  Just more carbs!  If you must, just a few nuts.

16.  Stay away from cereal and rice if you can.  Not worth the carbs.  Look at the sides of the boxes.  Oatmeal would be safer and the Lindora.com oatmeal is really good.  You might find something online as well at Carbessentials.net or Netrition.com

17.  However, there are delicious protein infused cookies that are lower in carbs at Lindora.com, Carbessentials.net and Netrition.com  My favorites are:  http://store.carbessentials.net/Proti_SNAX_Cookies_p/600.htm  and http://store.lindora.com/index.php/dark-chocolate-tea-biscuit.html

18.  Peanut, almond, sunflower butter.  2 tablespoons is about 8 carbs.  Eat accordingly.

19.  Multirounds (at many stores, but Costco has low carb ones by Kirkland) that are low in carbs as your grain replacement or the Western Bagel Perfect 10 bagel or Alternative English muffins, with just a dash of cheese, basil and a touch of pizza sauce cooked for 10 minutes for a tiny pizza.  Also have a cauliflower based pizza recipe on one of my blog pages.

20.  Low carb tortillas (net 4 or 5 g of carbs).  Big thing of them at Costco and small package at Trader Joe’s.  Also online.  Cook them with a little cheese and meat, taco seasoning, lettuce and tomato inside on the stove, dash of enchilada sauce on top and you have a healthy enchilada.  I have the recipe on one of my blog pages.

There are most of my favorite choices.  Have fun deciding.

‘Find an alternative to caffeine, which actually slows the production of building our cells that help keep us looking young and beautiful. Become addicted to feeling naturally energized by replacing the sugar-filled, caffeinated drinks with regular exercise and a healthy, vitamin-filled diet.”  This was a tip on the Murad Beauty Facebook page.  (Murad is a doctor made beauty regimen):

Now, I happen to like coffee a lot and it keeps me from eating, but I am writing this particle blog piece especially since recently a Skinny-Rules follower had a comment about my blog on the high carb and sugar content in Starbucks Refresher Via mixes.  The commenter was adamant that the drink was good for you because it had Stevia and natural fruit juice.

My position on the carb UNfriendly Via Refreshers:

1.  They have caffeine.

2. They have way too much fruit juice, and there is no need to have that much sugar–albeit natural or not.  They are  just too much sugar at once and high carb content.

3.  There are other choices that are just better options.  Besides water–there are other mixes that have as little as ZERO sugar and carbs, to the mixes that have Stevia and are only 6 g of carbs, not 17g of carbs  compared to the Starbucks ones.

I went to Target and took pictures of the many stacks of choices that are there.  Some are made with Aspartame, some with Splenda.  Some with Truvia (mixed with Stevia and are the higher in carb content at 6g of carbs.

There is a great product though that my sister-in-law shared with me that is made of all natural great products and has no carbs and only 1 g of sugar (Starbucks Via Refreshers had 17g of carbs and 11g of sugar (about 3 sugar cubes).  TRUE LEMON!

True Lemon  is not the easiest to find.  You can look online, buy online, and I did manage to find it at Wal-Mart, of all places.  All True products are 100% natural with no artificial ingredients or sweeteners, preservatives,sodium or gluten. To view the nutritional information of all True products, click here (http://www.truelemon.com/cooking5.cfm)

HERE IS THE KICKER!  You can’t find any information on the Starbucks site on what is in the Via Refreshers, but you can see everything in these other drinks online.  So, what is Starbucks hiding?  I say that if you can’t read what you are drinking or eating, then it probably isn’t good for you.

So, next time you want to mix something in your water, read the label and no that there are so many alternatives that are healthy and are not going to add extra pounds onto your body.  You don’t need to have carbs in your fluid.  Get it in your food.  And watch your caffeine intake to keep youthful looking!

Here is a locator for True Lemon:  http://www.truelemon.com/store-locator.html

I used to get a Hostess snack almost daily as a kid.  I always wanted to be thinner like the other kids and I had no idea why I wasn’t.

Well here is a thought!  I ate a lot of sugar!

I had Ding Dongs, Cupcakes, Sno-Balls and Twinkies.  And even one a day is not good.  They are about 25g of carbs in each piece and about 17g of sugar in them, and more in a Sno-ball at 23g of sugar.  So, if you realize that it is about 4g of sugar per sugar cube, there are 4 sugar cubes in a Twinkie and a Ding-Dong, and about 6 sugar cubes in a Sno-Ball.  There are 30g of carbs in a Sno-Ball.

So, you can see that they are not a healthy snack (corn syrup and other bad things) and they are fattening, but they are addicting.  No wonder I was addicted to sugar and carbs.  No wonder I developed a yeast overgrowth.  I was a sugar junkie.

You would not go out of your way to eat sugar cubes, so every time you see sugar a s an ingredient, divide the number by 4 and that is a sugar cube.  Figure out how many you are eating and start noticing your nutritional information.  Don’t eat blindly.  This is why there is so much obesity and diabetes in this country.  People have no idea what to look for!

Look before you EAT!

Well, today is my birthday.  A lot of people break their diet for the day.  If you can prepare for your birthday and lose a pound or two more, then you can take on the extra carbs, so why not?  In my case, I had gained a few pounds and today was the first weigh in day that came out normal.  I do not want to ruin the good strides that I made, so I am not splurging on food.  

Why does food have to be the birthday reward anyway?  Whoever came up with that idea?  

Instead, I went to Peets Coffee and got my favorite Americano, and then I went to Target and bought a few extra new shirts and a few knick knacks and had fun there.  Tonight, I will go out for a delicious salad with chicken with my husband and maybe it will be BBQ to be different.  The fun is being with him and getting my Carbolite protein snack later on.  I am even going to get my car washed now as a treat to myself.  

I will NOT be having birthday cake.  Whoever came up with cake as a birthday must-have?  If you absolutely must do it, go split a piece of Cheesecake Factory low-carb cheesecake with your best friend (each half is about 17 g of carbs).  But, a piece of chocolate cake with icing is 35g of carbs (mostly sugar).  In my book, it is not worth it unless I am below my goal.  Last night I worked out for two hours and how stupid to ruin it for a piece of cake when I am perfectly happy with my Carbolite frozen dessert.

A couple of people sent me flowers and I love the flowers.  Thank you for not sending food!  A client gave me a chocolate bar, which is mostly natural and a third of it is 17g of carbs.  Not bad if you need that chocolate fix….however……

FOOD DOES NOT HAVE TO BE A REWARD.  We have to get over that mindset.  It is crazy.  It is what gets us fat in the first place.

I was shopping at Costco, thinking about getting some yogurt.  Some people eat yogurt every day and they don’t realize that most brands of yogurt are high in sugar, have some protein, but are high in carbs.  Yoplait regular yogurt with no fat has 17 g carbs and 5 protein. The original Yoplait has 33 g carbs.

(that is a lot if you don’t want more than 50 to 100 g carbs in a day to lose weight.

I noticed one named, Oikos Greek Yogurt, at Costco.  Some of this brand has  low carbs and some have high carbs.  Don’t let the no fat or lite fat fool you.  The carbs will mess up your diet.

The Greek Yogurts are usually lighter in carbs.  I wound up deciding on   (Dannon Lite & Fit Greek) Serving Size: 1 container, Calories: 80, Fat: 0g, Carbs: 8g, Protein: 12.  It had fruit at the bottom, it was low carb and high protein.  And it was SUPER delicious.  I completely recommend it for those who think that they might not like Greek Yogurt.  I am eating them daily now for my snack.  They are good for bringing with you to work or outings.  Another snack idea for low carbs, high protein.  Remember 6 meals a day and three of them can be things like this!  Kind of like a dessert and protein all in one!

I see people eating portions that are ridiculous for their size. Food sizes have increased over the years (and so have people!).  People make the mistake of eating out and thinking that the restaurant-sized portion on their plate is the portion that they should entirely eat.  They trained their brains and stomach to want MORE MORE MORE.  Chances are, you should eat half of it or a third of what is there.  I always get a take away box up front, divide the food up and put it in the box and then only eat what is on my plate.  Out of sight, out of mind!  If you eat a sandwich, think about it.  ONE slice of bread is about 15g or more carbs.  If you eat a whole sandwich, there are two slices of bread.  Chances are the protein portion is about 3 times too big to lose weight.  And then people eat potato salad or chips and you just can’t do that if you want to lose weight.  You will put weight on, not take it off.

If you want to lose weight, here is what worked for me and most people on low carb diets.  It is very simple:

50 to 100 carbs a day, closer to 50, the better!

Learn to measure.  Size does matter!  This is what I learned from the pros and worked for me.  After a week or two, you will be able to just eyeball stuff and know the weight or size.

1.  I ate protein 6 times a day, about every 2 to 3 hours.  Don’t let a lot of time pass in between.  Starving yourself in between meals slows down your metabolism and you will not lose weight.  You have to BURN!  If you eat chicken, turkey, meat, soy (6 ounces of soy), 1/3 cup of a veggie burger–your protein choice shouldn’t weigh more than 4 ounces at each meal.  You can also do low carb protein bars or a small greek yogurt.  Just saw a Dannon lite one with 8 carbs, with fruit at the bottom at Costco, and at other markets.  String cheese and lite mini Baby Bells.  Protein bars like Power Crunch or Nature Valley Protein Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate are lower in carbs, but be careful, some are high.  Protein drinks are good too, check carbs.  Trader Joes has two and they are about 4 or 5g carbs each (better chilled).

2.  I ate 2 cups of lettuce two times a day (lunch and dinner). Fat free dressing and look on the label for the carbs and factor that into your day’s allotment of carbs.

3.  I ate roughly about a cup of any vegetable twice a day.  If it is an onion or carrots, only half of a cup.  If you can stay away from most root starchy vegetables like potatoes, sweet potatoes and yams.  Too many carbs and they spike up your blood sugar.  Look up a recipe online or on my blog history on how to make cauliflower-based “mashed potatoes” without the potatoes.  Tastes great.  NO CHIPS!

(to make life easier, I made a salad twice a day that had my lettuce, a protein and my veggies in it (I would do something like half a cup of tomato and 1/4 cup of carrots in my salad to do a smaller mix of two rather than just eat one at each meal.  And this way, two proteins were accounted for with a salad.)

4.  Diet drinks.  Coffee can have non-dairy creamer, but if you use milk, that is a protein.  Look at the carbs for it and factor it in as one of the six proteins for the day.  1 cup is 12 carbs.  I gave up milk in my coffee, and I carried non-dairy creamer cups in my car because I didn’t want to give up a meal just to put milk in my coffee.  Use the creamer sparingly, there are carbs, but not nearly as much as milk.

5.  Each fruit has different amounts of carbs and you need to eat two a day.  I lost little weight with apples and bananas, as they are high in carbs, so I stuck with a citrus fruit or a cup of berries like strawberries or blueberries (you can put them in your yogurt).

6.  I stayed away from bread, oatmeal and cereal.  You can have bread or a grain twice a week in place of a fruit.  But, they are high in carbs (one slice is usually 15g or more carbs and a cup of strawberries is only 11g carbs.  So choose wisely.  In fact, Julian Bakery in stores like Whole Foods or online orders has very low carb bread.  Western Bagel makes a bagel that is 10g net carbs (Perfect 10).  So you can have your grain twice a week and if you get the right one, you can keep losing weight.  Before I found out about the low carb breads and I had a normal slice of bread (despite counting carbs), I would get stuck in my weight.  So, I tended to avoid the grain substitution altogether because I wanted to lose weight!

7.  A dessert after dinner would be one of my six proteins, but done 2 or 3 hours after dinner to keep your metabolism running better.  I would have Carbolite frozen dessert and count the carbs.  8 ounces had 16 carbs.  Or I would look at a Skinny Cow dessert or something that had a milk or something yummy to it so it felt like a dessert, but it was a protein.  Look at the label and make sure it has protein.  The more protein, the better.  There are lite chocolate puddings, etc.  You don’t want to feel deprived, but if you do it in a way that still follows the rules, then you can lose weight.  Cheesecake Factory has a low carb cheesecake now that is about 35g carbs.  That is still a lot, but think about only eating half or sharing it with a friend.  I think there is a low carb one at Whole Foods too.

8.  A way to kick start your metabolism is to eat some carbs for a day or two and then, do ONLY proteins for 3 days.  Nothing else.  Just the three proteins, every 2 to 3 hours–along with beverages.  Then, start the above plan.

9.  If you want pancakes or pasta as a protein to break up the monotony, then look at low carb websites for low carb replacements.  Lindora.com ( you don’t have to be a member) has a protein infused pancake mix and a pasta.  They are really good and worth the money.  They will let you lose weight.  But, keep the carb content in mind as you factor it into your day.  An egg is only one carb, so that might have to be your lunch or snacks to balance it out.  I did this a couple of times a week and stuck mostly to meat and eggs as my protein.  Jenny O Chicken Sausage is a VERY low carb delicious way to get your protein!

–Important! Do not use regular syrup if you want to lose weight.  ONLY 2 tablespoons of most maple syrups are about 50g carbs. INSANITY.  So, look at lite syrups.  I believe Aunt Jemima Lite is not that lite at about 21g carbs per 1/4 cup (a lot more than 2 tablespoons), when you compare it to some like Walden Farms lite at 10g carbs per 1/4 cup or IHOP Lite Syrup at 5g carbs per 1/4 cup.

10.  Exercise!  Even if you can just walk.  But do it!  It helps you burn and you will burn.  You will be going into ketosis, where your body is now burning fat. (Rules for ketosis, including checking with your doctor and making sure you are ok to do this weight loss planhttp://www.livestrong.com/article/132636-ketosis-weight-loss-rules/.  )

AND REALIZE THAT IF YOU DON’T ADOPT THIS AS A LIFESTYLE. AND YOU GO BACK TO EATING A LOT MORE THAN THIS (OUTSIDE OF ADDING IN A LITTLE BIT MORE OF FRUITS, VEGGIES AND PROTEIN),….

AND YOU GO BACK TO REGULAR MAPLE SYRUPS AND DESSERTS, AND YOU DON’T COUNT CARBS PER DAY, YOU WILL PUT IT BACK ON.  LEARN TO MAKE DIFFERENT THINGS LIKE MY CAULIFLOWER BASED PIZZA RECIPE AND DELICIOUS TURKEY MEATLOAF AND YOU WON’T FEEL SO DEPRIVED.  IF YOU FEEL DEPRIVED, YOU WILL CHEAT.

This is not a punishment.  This is actually what you really should be doing.  You trained your body to eat too much before, and now you have to train it to eat right and balanced.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/americans-obese-2030-report-warns/story?id=17260134#.UFuwW7KPX09

This article came out.  So, why is this happening? Maybe it is because almost everyone I see around me really does not look into the nutritional content of what they are eating.  They go out, and order a sandwich and a salad, and they think that is pretty healthy.  Well, the healthiness of that choice all depends on how the meal was prepared:  What is in it and what is the content of what is in it?

For example.  I can eat a slice of pizza from Dominoes.  A normal slice of cheese pizza is about 25g carbs and thin pizza is 20g carbs.  But, the worst offender, Costco  (Pizza Hut as a runner-up) is about 70g carbs–for just a regular slice of cheese pizza.  So, the size of the pizza slice and how it is made is important to know.

If you go out to eat, you should have a little information on what you are eating, or you should stick to a salad with a protein, with the dressing on the side.  If you don’t do that or plan and bring things with you, and you just eat whatever, whenever, expect your weight to go up.  My next blog, I want to talk about portions and choices of food, as I saw a heavy girl yesterday eating a very large sandwich AND a bag of chips (she needed all of that like a hole in the head).

Choose wisely today and remember, what is important in a diet or change of lifestyle is not that you are losing a lot of weight at once, it is that you are consistent in your choices and losing, and keeping it off over the long haul.  Eat proportionally, not like this little guy!