Tag Archives: protein

I Figured Out Why I Have Been 7 Pounds Away From Goal!

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Portions!!

Look, I had blood tests and they came out good.  Because of eating according to the rules, I have low sugar levels (no diabetes risk), by cholesterol levels are fantastic.  I get more than enough iron and since I take a mineral supplement daily, all is well!

I eat really well.  I eat six protein based meals, every 3-4 hours.  I have four small portions of veggies a day, two small portions of fruits per day (and I stick to lower carb fruits like berries and citrus) and two measured out salad portions a day (about a cup of lettuce).  I am very good about this.

I avoid grains, sugar desserts, rice and even most beans.

I count carbs (between 50g and 100g per day).

I exercise about 10 hours per week.

I lost all of my weight and then after having to go on steroids for itching last January, I put a few pounds back on and I keep fluctuating between being 7-9 pounds more than I want to be (goal).  I look thin, but I want the cushion of not being at the far end of acceptable.

So, I was looking at ready-made portions at Lindora today.  I realized that my protein portions have creeped up over time.  I have been mostly eyeballing my protein and I haven’t been measuring every meal as much as I used to do it.

So, crash course for me and you on portion control: 

Meat is about 4 ounces.  3 ounces for beef.  Last night I ate a lean burger (without a bun, as usual).  But, it was TOO much burger.  It was 1/3 a pound.  That is about 5 1/2 ounces.  I should have eaten half of it and brought the other half home.  I am going to be more cognizant of this.  What happens when you do a diet long enough (a way of life), is that your eyes get big and you forget how small the portion has to be in order to stay thin.  This happens, especially if you eat out.  The portions are outrageous.  I could have had half of the beef and half of the egg in the salad and just eaten the other half today.

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I have to eat less, more often!  6 times a day, 4 ounces, broken up!

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You have to remember this!

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Meat1-300x240  meat_serving

I am not fat like I was, but I don’t want to go back to fat either.  I am nipping this in the bud before it is too late.  I am sharing this with everyone because this is reality–this happens when you work on maintenance after a diet.

I have seen people who are hungry and overeat and don’t realize that they are eating the portion for two to three LARGER people.  Ordering a POUND burger AND fries–outrageous.  A 50-year-old man, not that active and not that tall–eating that much–it is just asking for medical problems.

Ordering a burger and a bag of fries, just for one person (especially an inactive female) –is fat waiting to happen. These people are all eating about 75g of carbs or more in one sitting.  But, I have to be aware that even if I eat meat, veggies and salad–if I overdo portion size, I might be having too many calories and messing up my own weight loss ability.

So, wish me luck on getting back to portion measuring and control.

10 Diet Mistakes

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There are many things that can lead to mistakes when dieting.

DIET MISTAKES

1.  No Exercise:  Dieting alone is not enough.  You need to start out slow if you are out of shape.  Take the dog for a walk after dinner.  Start walking with friends.  Start out with 15 minutes of any aerobic activity.  But move your body.  It is not normal to just eat a little bit of food and never move.  This is not how the cavemen would have done it.

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2.  Crash Diets:  You have to teach your body to lose and maintain weight on normal food and routines.  When you eat so few calories in a crash diet, you train your metabolism to slow down. Once the diet is over, you have a body that burns calories more slowly — and you usually regain the weight.

3.  Skipping Breakfast: Skipping breakfast seems like a simple way to cut calories, but the result can be insatiable hunger the rest of the day. Then, you are more likely to have unplanned snacking at the office and eating a super-size portion at lunch. Breakfasts that are high in protein and fiber can reduce hunger throughout the day. In fact, studies show people who eat breakfast every morning are more likely to maintain a healthy weight.

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4.  Snacking Without the Snacks as Part of Your 6 Meal a Day Plan: Mindless munching on carbs, which are not protein-based, could sabotage an otherwise well-planned diet. If you’re serious about counting calories, you may want to use a diet journal to keep track of every bite of food.

AND NOT HAVING PROTEIN-BASED SNACKS between meals and after dinner is also a big mistake.  Your body needs protein-based foods every 3-4 hours throughout the day in order to lose/maintain weight. Cars need a constant supply of gas to move and so does your body.

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5.  Eating Low Fat Food Without Looking at Carb Content:   Low-fat products can play an important role in your diet. Just remember that low-fat isn’t the same as low-calorie and it’s not a license to take second and third helpings. You may end up eating more calories than if you had a smaller slice of regular cake. The best way to know how much fat, sugar, and calories you’re getting is to check the nutritional label.

6.  Drinking Juice:  Juice is full of carbs and sugar and you are better off EATING fruit, not drinking it.  You can blow a diet, just by drinking juice.

7.  Speaking of Drinking:  Not Enough Water and Drinking Alcohol  You need water or no calorie drinks throughout the day to keep your metabolism going.  If you don’t drink enough fluid, you will not lose/maintain weight.  Sometimes, when you are thirsty, you feel hungry and you eat instead of drink.  So, hydrate.  Also, alcohol is not good for a diet because it slows down your metabolism on burning fat so your body can deal with processing the alcohol.  Many drinks are also very high in carbs.  Worse case scenario–a vodka or gin and water drink, if you must, is lowest in calories and carbs.

8.  Too Much Fatty Dairy: Full-fat milk, cheese, and ice cream are bad for diets, but ditching dairy foods may be counterproductive. Some research suggests the body burns more fat when it gets enough calcium and produces more fat when it’s calcium-deprived. Stick to non-fat or low-fat dairy options.  Low-fat Greek Yogurt, Low-Fat Cottage Cheese or Cheese (portion control!) and Breyers Carb Smart Ice Cream.

9.  Fast Food for Snacks:  Many bad options and who isn’t going to want fries as they order?  Only do it in a pinch for their salads or protein-style burgers only.  Try to prepare in advance with your own foods and if you can’t refrigerate, then low-carb protein bars, drinks or measured out nuts.

10.  Unrealistic goals:  You need to know that changing a way of life or eating takes time.  There will be areas where you get stuck and you need to exercise more, or cut back more to get your metabolism going.  Drink more water.  There are plateaus, and if you search on my page for a plateau diet, I have one.  But, you may never be stick thin, but that is unhealthy too.  Try to go for a healthy weight range.

 

Losing Weight Means Stepping Out of Your Comfort Zone–COOKING!

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On Saturday, I went shopping and bought supplies so that I have decent things to eat next week, things which are low-carb, but delish.

Why?  Because I love myself and I love my family.

Cooking is love made visible Thoughts and Images along the Way

I bought organic chicken breasts from Trader Joes and made chicken tenders–enough for the whole week (4 ounces a day).  I used the recipe that was on my blog and added hemp seed to it (found it at Costco, actually and it is low-carb, high protein).  https://skinny-rules.com/2013/08/27/low-carb-almond-and-flax-seed-chicken-tenders/

I never cooked.  I spent the first 30 something years of my life only baking.  Baking is fun and smells good.  Baking is easy.

I have stepped outside of the comfort zone that made me fat and ill–and I am forcing myself to learn.  I have started with easy recipes and if I need help, I ask for it.  It isn’t hard.  The first few times is hard, but what isn’t at first?  Having children or a job is hard–did that stop you?  Are you conditioned by your family to go out to eat?

Comfort-zone

Low-carb chicken tenders, made from almond meal, flax-seed meal, hemp and Organic chicken is WAY healthier than getting some Who-Knows-What-It-Is-Made-Of and high sodium bread encrusted so-called chicken from a fast food place or a restaurant.  I know so many people, especially parents who don’t take the time to learn to do these things at home for the love of themselves or their children.  Saying you “love” and showing that you “love”–are two different things.

Cooking this is so easy–dipping the pieces in the meal and coating them, placing them on tin foil, baking for 10 minutes, turn them, and 10 more minutes and then you can heat them up over the week because you can make a batch of them.  And you then know what you are putting into your or your kid’s body.  How much love can you have for yourself or your child if you are putting nothing but antibioticed non-organic chicken, encrusted with Frankenwheat and carbs in their mouths?

I just did a batch and they are cooling.  They taste good and it wasn’t hard.

Step outside of the box, and start cooking basics like this one.  I will put up more easy recipes from time to time, or Google them.  When was the last time  you ever even tried to turn on your oven and cooked fresh foods that didn’t come already done or out of a box?  Or the last time you cooked at all because you bring in (unhealthy) food all of the time?

Could this be part of the reason someone in your home might have medical or weight issues?  Think about cooking with love, for love.  (And save money too!)

comfortzone

 

Prevent Halloween Holiday Weight Gain

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The holidays are upon us.  This usually means that people start to eat things that are higher-carb and they will put weight on themselves.   The “traditions” of the holidays–are man-made–and perhaps should be modified, as our society gets bigger and bigger.  I am not sure who came up with the idea that on Halloween–that we need to give a bunch of sugar items to children all night long.  I know their teachers are usually not too happy about it the next day because those kids are all wired from the whole event and the toxic poisoning of all of that sugar.

The carb-fest at Thanksgiving and Christmas is a whole other Oprah.  Let’s talk about Halloween though.

Here are some guidelines to follow if you are trying to lose weight on Halloween:

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At home:

1.  Buy candy you don’t like so it will be easier to resist temptation.
2.  Purchase candy at the last-minute so you won’t be tempted to sample it.
3.  Keep in mind that you will need to walk nearly a mile to burn off that 90-calorie “fun size” or “snack size” candy.
4.   Get out and walk with the kids or look at neighbor’s homes so you aren’t tempted to eat candy in your house.

At work:

1.  Do not bake and bring Halloween muffins, cookies, etc to work and when they are at work, stay away from them.  Have your healthier snacks available to you so you will not be hungry.  If you have to be standing or sitting near those sugary items, then eat your snacks before you are there and near them.

2.  There are recipes online for low-carb baking items and you should consider that if you need a treat.  There is also low-carb chocolate out there.  Eat a Power Crunch bar or a Nature Valley Protein Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate bar as a replacement of a regular candy bar.

Eating Eggs for Breakfast Makes It Easier to Lose Weight

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There is proof that eggs should be the first thing you eat every morning in order to be skinny.

There were a few studies on having eggs first thing in the morning. One study published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition determined that an egg the first thing each morning could help with limiting calorie intake throughout the day. The study reported that leucine, an essential amino acid that is found in high quality protein such as eggs, can give a weight loss advantage when dieting by helping to decrease loss of lean tissue, increase loss of body fat, as well as stabilize blood glucose levels.

study story

Breakfast Skinny Rules

If you eat 6 low-carb, protein meals per day, as part of the Skinny Rules, you should start your day with eggs. Until you reach maintenance, and you are still losing, stick to one egg in the morning or two egg whites, scrambled, omelette, etc. I put spinach and mushrooms in mine. I also get hard-boiled eggs and always have them available to pop in my mouth, if I am running out the door, with no time to cook.

What kind of Eggs?

There are many different ways to prepare eggs. frittata, scrambled, over easy or hard, omelette, and even deviled eggs. Here is the recipe for low-carb, delish devils eggs, poached, etc. You can double the amount of egg if you use egg whites. These are also sold, ready to our from cartons.

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a Couple of Good Low-Carb Egg Recipes

I just found a recipe for low carb egg muffins. They look fantastic and I hope to make them soon. If anyone beats me to it, tell me what you think.
egg muffins

The deviled eggs:
deviled eggs

A Weight Loss Product Line With Many Choices. Delish, and Low-Carb Proteins

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Heard of Jenni-O?

They make turkey patties, sausage links, turkey breast slices, turkey breast meat, low sodium versions, taco-seasoned turkey meat of all kinda, Italian-seasoned turkey meat of all kinds, , turkey steak, turkey bacon, turkey meatballs, etc, etc.

All Products

Some days I make the meatballs, some days I cook the breakfast sausage.

Today, I bought some taco-seasoned ground turkey meat and just threw it in a pan and cooked, turned and cooked it until it was done. 5 to 10 minutes. Now, I can have it by itself as a snack, with some cheese and/or guacamole on it, with some salsa, tomatoes, and/or in a low-carb tortilla. Easy and tasty, and sometimes I need something more than eggs that is easy to do or have in the fridge.

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The meat is 2g of carbs per 4 ounce serving. So, this one out of the six daily proteins you should eat to keep your metabolism going is very low in carbs and tastes great. And it is inexpensive and easy to do. And when you need a snack, it is tasty. I can also put it on a salad at lunch and have a taco salad. Melt some cheese on it! Yum.

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I Want To Lose Weight, But I Can’t Seem to Do It With My Chips and Ice Cream!

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I was talking with someone the other day about losing weight.  They have a desire to do it, but they aren’t willing to learn new habits.  They are in a rut.  They need to re-learn how to eat a healthy lifestyle diet and not just eat foods for a “diet.”  These people want to “nosh” on things when they are home, and they are all comfort foods:  Chips, crackers, ice cream (low-fat).  Their health is not as important as that need to satiate their addiction to carbs, sugar, salt and fat

Wrong  Philosophy Makes You Stay Fat:

chips

If you are eating potatoes of any kind (chips included), and you aren’t putting in any exercise, then you will not lose weight.  You most likely will gain.

Some people think that if food is from Trader Joe’s, that it is good for them.  However, if items have flour in them and are processed, no matter where they are from…they are not good for your diet.

Some people think that low-fat is good way to diet.  I have news for you, NOPE!  Read about it online.  It is an advertising scam that we all fell for and that is why everyone got fat.  We eat low-fat, but they replace things in food to taste good that are high in carbs to make up for it (like Fructose Corn Syrup) and that is the stuff that is making us all fat and getting diabetes.

If you read anything that Dr. Mark Hyman writes about in his Blood Sugar Solution, he talks about how you need to eat food that is fresh and covers a wide variety of colors in the rainbow–eat, not juice and drink.

Let’s look at Empty Calorie Snacks:

1.  Lay’s Baked Potato Chips:  1 ounce bag or about 15 chips:  24g of carbs

2.  Ruffles Potato Chips: 1 ounce bag:  15g of carbs and believe it or not, the light, no fat is more at 17g carbs.

3.  Cheese Its Crackers:  29 crackers:  20g of carbs. (Reduced fat is the same)

4.  Trader Joe’s Mini Cheese Sandwiches:  13 crackers:  16g of carbs

5.  Trader Joe’s Multigrain Crackers:  14 crackers:  22g of carbs.

(AND THERE IS LITTLE TO NO PROTEIN in crackers, so you are eating empty calories.  If you ate something good that had protein, you would be less likely to be too hungry again later and scarf your next meal.  You would be better off making a turkey sandwich on whole wheat or a pita, for the same amount of carbs than to eat a bunch of white flour that does nothing but bloat you.  Eating mindlessly does nothing to help your diet or your health.  If you learn to have a nutritional snack between lunch and dinner and after dinner and stay away from snacking on bad foods, you will feel and look better.)

6.  Dreyer’s Reduced Fat Slow-Churned Vanilla Ice Cream (12g of sugar or about 4 sugar cubes):  for half a cup (have you seen how small half a cup is???):  15g of carbs.  If you eat it like most people, you are probably eating 1 1/2 cups at 45g of carbs.  The three main ingredients of this are all forms of sugar.

Fat doesn’t matter!  THE REGULAR DREYERS is 16g per half a cup.  You are NOT going to keep your weight down with the slow churned REDUCED fat ice cream.

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Better Choices:

1.  There is Breyers Carb Smart Vanilla ice cream and that is a better choice if you have to have ice cream.  It is 4g of carbs per half cup.  That is a huge difference.  Less carbs means less sugar–less fat on the body.

2.  A low-carb tortilla or sandwich bread protein sandwich.

3.  A protein salad.

4.  Western Bagel Perfect 10 Bagel at 10g of carbs per bagel.  You could even melt some cheese on it!  Make your sandwiches with it! (sold at Western Bagel or Westernbagel.com)

5.  A low-carb protein bar or shake.

6.  Two low-fat string cheese or slices

7.  Low-carb Greek Yogurt and some fruit

8.  Measured out nuts (look at the label on how many nuts equals how many carbs).  Try to keep your snack under 15g of carbs, which is a lot, considering that if you want to lose weight, you must have between 50 and 100g of carbs per day.  But, if you have most of them in this one snack, it messes up your whole day.

Eat a good protein lunch with salad and veggies so you aren’t starving before dinner and a protein snack will be enough for you until dinner time.

Try this:

(LC) A low-carbohydrate diet minimizes sugars and starches, replacing them with foods rich in protein and healthy fats.

(RF) “Real food” means choosing foods that humans had access to throughout evolution. Processed, unnatural foods with artificial chemicals are avoided.

LCRF is not a “diet.” It is a way of eating, a lifestyle change based on bulletproof scientific evidence.

For more information:

http://authoritynutrition.com/how-to-eat-healthy/

 

 

 

Frozen Burgers Are Diet-a-licious!

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There are a lot of people who work a lot and are in a hurry, but get really stuck on what to do for a quick protein to eat every 3-4 hours throughout the day.

Protein ideas:

I have written a lot about protein ideas, such as eggs, low-fat cheese, nuts (measured), low-carb protein bars, low-carb and high protein shakes, and different meats.

Sometimes people want a patty or a burger (without the bun).  Trader Joe’s (and other stores) have plenty of frozen foods that are a great selection for low-carb and high protein foods.

I have seen beef burgers, buffalo burgers, turkey burgers, chicken burgers and even Mahi-Mahi burgers.  These foods can be served with vegetables and it is like having a delish cooked food, but it can be grilled quickly or even microwaved because they are cooked and frozen and ready to go.  I have had them.  YUMMY!

In a quick amount of time, you can have a good lunch or dinner meal.  Kids and adults can enjoy them.  Yes, there is sodium in them to freeze them, and are not as “healthy” as a fresh piece, but you will not be doing it daily and you sometimes need this because they are good for a DIET.  They are extremely low-carb–barely 1 or 2 carbs per item.  Check out the boxes next time you are shopping.

meattj

Eating the Coconut Squares Is A NoNo!

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A client of mine went to Trader Joes before coming into my office. Her friend came with her and had a bag of Trader Joe’s lightly sweetened coconut strips.

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The friend offered me some, telling me that she had been eating them and that they are delicious. Apparently, she does not read my blog.

Here Are The Issues

1. A coconut is a fruit, a fruit high in carbs.
2. It is sweetened. Always go for unsweetened.
3. Fruits should be natural, no sugar added and eaten in measured amounts, knowing the carb amount.

I took the bag and looked. 1/4 a cup was a total of 24 grams of carbs. 6g of fiber is good, but only 2 grams of protein (you should be eating MORE protein, less sugar). It also had 16g of sugar, or approximately 4 sugar cubes per 1/4 a cup. And 1/4 a cup is teeny!

Guaranteed, that this lady had no knowledge or desire to know what she was eating. The only real concern was hunger and taste. “This tastes so good.”

I am going to guess that this lady either had no breakfast or ate a little carby food item before venturing out with her friend, causing her to have a sugar roller coaster affect, and a major sugar low and a need for something sweet (more of the hair of the dog that bit her). And what a shame too. She is getting over a major illness and should be focused on eating right, not eating sugary coconut strips.

Issue 4.

Just because Trader Joes or Whole Foods sells an item, it doesn’t mean that you should eat it, that it is good for you, or you will lose weight.

What To Eat When You Are Hungry

I have discussed substitute snacks many times. A snack between each meal and after dinner. They should all be protein based, low sugar. If not dairy products cheese, cottage cheese, etc) eggs, or meat. There is also low-sugar protein bars or protein drinks, low-sugar or carb Greek Yogurt, measured out nuts or peanut or almond butter. If you have a piece of fruit, eat a natural one, not dried and a small piece mixed with some form of protein, your body will feel full longer with protein, not sugary fruit alone.