Tag Archives: skinny

Bad Carbs (Refined) are Worse than Good Carbs. Why is that??

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  • Refined carbs are considered unhealthy carbohydrates (bad carbs).  Good carbs that had the fiber stripped away so they act as simple carbohydrates do in the body as they are digested rapidly.  This in turn causes a spike in blood sugar followed by a crash. They are empty calories!

refined-carbs

List of REFINED CARBS

Sweeteners

Table sugar and syrup other than natural maple syrup are refined carbs.

Natural maple syrup and honey are not refined carbs, but they are simple carbohydrates, and therefore, have an effect similar to refined carbs upon blood glucose.

Beverages

Any beverage that contains sugar or refined syrup is a refined carb food.

  • sweetened fruit juice, beer, wine, soft drinks and sweet tea.

Although 100 percent fruit juice does not have refined carbs, it does contain a high amount of carbs per serving size, which is why whole foods are preferred over their juices.

Fruits and Vegetables

Raw fruits and vegetables are an excellent source of good carbs, however, when canned or frozen, sugar is often added,  which turns them into bad carbs.

  • Examples of refined carbs in fruits and vegetables include canned fruit pie filling, applesauce with added sugar, frozen fruit with sugar added and sweetened canned fruit. Some canned or frozen vegetable blends may have sugar included along with other seasonings.

Grains

White flour is a refined carb, and anything made from white flour should be limited in your diet.

  • This includes bagels, bread, muffins and most packaged cereals.
  • White flour combined with sugar adds even more refined carbs to foods like cookies, cakes, cupcakes and donuts.

YOU COULD BE TRICKED!  To be certain grain based foods are not made from refined grains, look for the words “whole wheat” or “whole grain” on the label.

  • Foods with these words on the label are probably made from refined grains: “wheat flour,” “stoned wheat,” “cracked wheat,” “100% wheat,” and “multigrain.”
  • Other refined carbs in this category include white rice and pasta.

Snacks

Snacks are commonly high in refined carbs since they contain white flour or sugar.

  • This includes sweets like pie, candy, candy bars, fudge and jelly,pretzels and potato chips.

I personally keep ALL carbs down to between 50-100 daily to lose weight and higher near the 100 to maintain.  But, I try to just do the unrefined more natural carbs because they tend to put weight on you easier, regardless and the spike in my blood glucose and then the crash is an awful feeling, makes me tired, but then makes me want to eat more crap.  If you want to stay thin, then you have to give your body the ability to fight cravings.  Refined carbs cause cravings.  So, if you do carbs, stick with the good ones and keep grains to a minimum!  But, if you have them, count the carbs on them (Rice, cereal and bread has a lot!) and keep them whole grain or whole wheat.

How to Determine How Many Calories to Eat to Lose Weight and What Exercises Burn More Calories Overall

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You burn most of your daily calories with little to no conscious effort.  The calories used to maintain basic bodily functions throughout your day add up to your basal metabolic rate, or BMR.
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“These are couch-potato calories.  Your body uses amounts to 60 to 75 percent of the total calories you use daily, and there’s no physical activity required for this.  In other words, this is what you burn without lifting a finger. That’s why BMR is also is called the resting metabolic rate.

Knowing your BMR can help you create a more effective strategy for weight loss, allowing you to better keep your track of your calories and better understand the effect exercise will have on your waistline.

Calculating Your BMR  (get out the calculator)

The easiest way to measure your BMR is to use an online calculator, like the one at My Calorie Counter. This calculator factors in your height, weight, gender, and age, and activity level, then assesses how many calories you need to eat daily just to maintain your current weight.

You can do the math yourself, using the appropriate equation:• If you’re a man, your BMR is equal to: 66 + (6.23 x weight in pounds) + (12.7 x height in inches) – (6.8 x age in years). For example, if you’re 170 pounds, 5’11”, and 43, your BMR is 66 + (6.23 x 170) + (12.7 x 71) – (6.8 x 43) = 1734.4 calories.

• If you’re a woman, your BMR is equal to: 655 + (4.35 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) – (4.7 x age in years). For example, if you’re 130 pounds, 5’3”, and 36, your BMR is 665 + (4.35 x 130) + (4.7 x 63) – (4.7 x 36) = 1357.4 calories.Next figure out your total daily calorie requirement by multiplying your BMR by your level of activity: • If you rarely exercise, multiply your BMR by 1.2.
• If you exercise on 1 to 3 days per week, doing light activity, multiply your BMR by 1.375.
• If you exercise on 3 to 5 days per week, doing moderate activity, multiply your BMR by 1.55.
• If you exercise 6 to 7 days per week, doing vigorous activity, multiply your BMR by 1.725.
• If you exercise every day and have a physical job or if you often exercise twice a day, multiply your BMR by 1.9.z

This calculation gives you the number of calories you burn in one day at your current level of activity; in other words, this is the number of calories it takes to stay at the weight you are if you don’t change anything.

Applying Your BMR Calculation to Weight Loss

Once you know your BMR and the number of calories you burn for your activity level, you can improve your weight-loss efforts by setting a lower daily calorie-intake limit and crafting a plan for increasing your physical activity:

Set your daily calorie limit. To lose weight, you need to reduce your caloric intake below your total daily calorie requirement indicated by your BMR + activity level.

Putting yourself in a 500-calorie deficit every day should result in the loss of one pound per week (since there are 3,500 calories in a pound)

Adjust your exercise output. Our BMR calculator asks you for your level of physical activity for a very good reason. You can influence your BMR through exercise, spurring your body to burn more calories even after you’ve finished and are just lounging about.

• Aerobic exercise provides a temporary boost to your BMR, an effect sometimes referred to as after-burn or excess post-exercise oxygen consumption.  Your BMR will return back to its normal level anywhere between 15 minutes and 48 hours.

• Strength training provides a more-lasting boost to BMR by altering your body’s composition. Muscle at rest burns more calories than fat at rest. That’s why men enjoy a naturally higher BMR than women, as they tend to have more muscle mass.

• If you cut calories and increase your BMR by exercising, you’ll see results even faster. Increase the amount of calories you burn by 250 each day, and you’ll lose a half-pound more on top of the calorie cuts made in your diet. You could exercise longer or you could increase the intensity of your workouts to burn more calories — either way will increase the calorie deficit.

The advantage of knowing your BMR is that you can learn the number of calories you need to consume and expend to meet your personal goal for weight.

Look at the SKIN of SKINNY!

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There are foods that are not only bad for your waistline, but also for your SKIN!  The first three are not that bad for weight loss, but 4 through 7 are really bad!

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1.  Salt.   It will leave you puffy around the eyes and keep water retention and a bloated look.  It also is terrible for hypertension.  Try to cut down on salt.

2.  Shellfish.    Shrimp, crab, lobster — and also certain leafy greens like seaweed and spinach — are naturally high in iodine, and a diet with too much of this element can lead to acne.   Ok, this one is not high in carbs and you can maintain weight loss, but you could get acne.

3.  Milk.  There is a correlation with Milk and acne and rosacea, specifically skimmed milk.  Now, milk is a protein and you must have it in small quantities over the day.  Not bad on carbs, but it can cause skin issues.

4.  High Glycemic Foods (starches like white breads, pastas and cakes, and even corn syrup) are best avoided for good skin and for weight loss.  Foods that are considered high glycemic can cause rapid spikes in blood sugar.  You also may find yourself breaking out after eating something like French fries, it may be due to the starchy insides of the fries.

5.  Sugar.  If starchy foods that break down quickly into sugar are an issue, it’s no surprise that straight sugar can be problematic for the skin in much the same way.  High blood sugar can , weaken the skin by affecting tissues like collagen,  and leave you more vulnerable to lines and wrinkles.  It also causes a surge of carbs in your diet.

6.  Alcohol.  Not only does it trigger rosacea, but Alcohol is a diuretic, which means the more you drink, the more dehydrated you become. It saps the natural moisture from your skin as well, which can make those wrinkles and fine lines look worse.  Plus, alcohol has carbs and is terrible for weight loss.  You also don’t burn fat when your body is busy burning off the alcohol.

 

Sick of Grilled Chicken? How About Easy Tandoori Chicken?

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I have grilled chicken or turkey every day. I have to have 6 protein-based small meals a day to stay skinny, so sometimes things can get a little bland. There are things you can do to spice things up. I have done GRILLED chicken parmesan and other versions of chicken, but today I did easy Tandoori chicken to throw into a salad for my lunch. This took less than 10 minutes to do.

Chicken Tandoori made easy:


Get chicken breasts, Tandoori mix (I got this one from Target, in their Mediterranean food section) and Fage Greek Yogurt.

As the package instructed, I mixed the Tandoori mix with the yogurt, and covered all of the chicken breasts in it. Then, I llet them marinate in it overnight. But, you don’t have to wait that long. I have marinated for a short time and cooked them too.

So, today, I put them breasts (covered in yogurt and mix) on a pan and pan fried them in Pam. After a few minutes, I turned them over and did the same thing to the other side and POOF–you have Tandoori chicken in no time at all. I cut it up and put it in a salad. The following are some of my pictures in the order of how you do it. I recommend this highly. Tasty and low carb. Tastes really good with Tahini as salad dressing (also at Target). I love Target.

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Barriers to Weight Loss

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Complications can occur when you first try to lose weight and not much is happening. There are barriers to weight loss that cause complications.  But, if you know what they are and prepare for them, you can make it!

barrier

Barrier 1:  Not knowing what diet works for you.

People  need to learn a way of losing that works for them.  I have a client who swears that Weight Watchers works for her, but wasn’t working for her daughter.   reasons that was so was because:

1.  Her daughter was compulsively eating in times of emotional stress.

2.  Her daughter has an extreme sensitivity to sugar and wheat products and needed a Paleo diet.

Instead of being told this by Weight Watchers, the daughter continued to try their diet and felt like a failure.  I stepped in and pushed for the Paleo Diet and sure enough, it helps.  But, now the daughter is having to deal with the emotional issues behind the emotional eating through therapy and Overeaters Anonymous.  So her diet issues were two-fold.  Physical and emotional–mixed in with change of lifestyle choices.

I tried all diets, nothing worked until I went to Lindora and went on a carb-restricted diet.  But, by adding in my own restriction of wheat products, I managed to lose it all and keep it off for a year now.

You have to keep trying and not give up.  I will tell you though that if you followed the diet that I write about all of the time, you will lose, pretty much no matter who you are, unless you have the emotional barriers in the way.  I will write on that soon.

Keep motivated and re-read my blogs on the rules.  Here is a quick tip link.  https://skinny-rules.com/2013/02/02/eat-lunch-lose-weight-2/

Barrier 2:  You Need Some Basic and Easy Food to Prepare:

It is important to find recipes that work for you.  You need to not be lazy and prepare meals.  I always go shopping once a week minimally and have the ingredients to make easy quick meals.  If you don’t shop ahead of time, you are more likely to eat out, pick up junk food or eat something bad at home.  The lack of preparation is the number one killer of a diet.  I cook some things on Sunday night to prepare.

Barrier 3:  You Need a Weekly Basic Shopping List:

SHOPPING LIST:

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1.  Salad mix and delish salad dressing that is low in carbs.

2.  Chicken–bagged and one whole organic bird to cook in the oven.  So easy.  Throw into a pan of water quarter of the way up, salt the outside with kosher salt, stick a sprig of rosemary inside and cook for 1. 20 hours at 450,  How hard is that?  It is delicious and smells so good.

3.  Cheese–shredded, Baby Bell, string and slices

4.  Cauliflower for my cauliflower-based pizza (basil for flavor) and veggies

5.  Turkey burgers (I pan fry with seasoning–buy some.  Emeril makes a good one.  Garlic salt is good too.

6.  Turkey slices.  Get the better thick good stuff and not the cheap nasty sandwich meat.

7. Ground turkey meat to make meatloaf

8.  Shiritaki noodles and spaghettis sauce http://www.amazon.com/Tofu-Shirataki-Noodles-Angel-Shape/dp/B003H26J5I/ref=sr_1_6?s=grocery&ie=UTF8&qid=1359834639&sr=1-6&keywords=noodle+shirataki

9.  Pizza sauce

10.  Eggs (to cook and to have hard-boiled)

11.  Low carb bread or the Perfect 10 bagel from Western Bagel (for something different now and then)

12.   Low carb tortillas and enchilada sauce–plus taco seasoning.   Cheese and turkey is already on the list.  Pan fry it all inside of the tortilla.  Great food for under 10g of carbs.

13.   Low Carb Greek Yogurt like Dannon Light and Fit and some fruit like strawberries to make yourself a yummy dessert.

14.  Low Carb Ice Cream for an immediate dessert satisfaction need.

Barrier 4:  Being a Lazy Butt and Not Preparing Your Food Choices the Night or Days Before:

You don’t prep, you might eat crap.  If you really want to lose the weight, then you have to do this, otherwise, you are setting yourself up for failure.  Don’t procrastinate.  I buy my stuff at Trader Joes and I am not there for longer than 20 minutes.

Do it for yourself and do it to teach your loved ones how to eat right and how to stay motivated and follow up on something important like your HEALTH!  You are more likely to eat the foods if that is all you are buying and you make them because they are all very tasty.

Every weekend, go to the market with your list.

Barrier 5:  Not moving and not exercising.

MOVE YOUR BODY.  Take the stairs, walk a block if you have to, but MOVE.  Excuses that you are tired are excuses.  I have Fibromyalgia, work out and eat carefully and sometimes I am pooped and I still go to Pilates class.  If you can’t during the week, then do SOMETHING before you join the family for the day and move!  Go for a hike, walk, do some exercise from a TV show.  Move 3 times a week, if you can.

Barrier 6:  TV with food and not liquid–mindlessly eating while watching TV instead of eating with purpose.

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Eating in front of the TV, you might mindlessly eat.  Try eating with your family and talk.  Eat to eat, not to numb out.  Pay attention to what you are mindlessly eating and why you are doing it. Have fluids and keep drinking them instead of keep eating.

Buy some jars of things you like or put the right measured amount of something in a cup and only eat that.  I know people who eat peanut butter or other things like sauces from the jar–spoon after spoon, mindlessly, without counting the spoons.  If you are to have two tablespoons of peanut butter, then you need to COUNT.  Or you can buy the foods in small packs like what kids get in their lunch bags.  People who buy the big bag of chips (I never recommend chips), and not the small controllable bags are asking for a weight problem.  I have even seen little kids eat an entire large bag of Doritos because it was there to eat!

I buy a large thing of nuts from Costco and it would be so easy to mindlessly eat those all day long, but I pay attention the number of pieces I take and I only allow myself a certain amount in a day.  So, you have to pay attention.

Try all of these ideas for success!

BLOGGERS NOTE:  I am a hugely busy person.  I take care of a large house by myself, even the outside.  I have three needy dogs and one has diabetes, a busy therapy practice and I even clean my own office–and if I can find time to exercise 5 days a week, shop and prep my diet and still write this blog–and still get enough sleep…then what is your excuse if you can’t do any of this??

Measuring Food Tips

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If you’re on a diet, the best tool to help you start a diet and learn portion control is a food scale. Why?  Many people normally eat servings that are much larger than recommended amounts.

Food Scale: How it Works

A food scale will show you that the portion you thought was four ounces may actually weigh eight ounces. That’s the kind of mistake that could derail your diet.  Meat portions should be around 4 ounces.  Once you use a scale for a while, you can pretty much eyeball food portions and know if it is about 4 ounces or not.

A food scale is only one of the measuring tools you will need; measuring cups and spoons are also essential diet implements. Food scales are best for meat, which should weigh in at 4 ounces per serving, and cheese, 1.5 ounces per serving. Cups are best for fruits and vegetables — a serving is 1/2 cup on most fruits and about a cup on most vegetables, twice a day.

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Another Way to Eyeball Sizes:

–A serving of meat is about the size of a deck of cards

–A serving of pasta should fit in the palm of your hand, although I do not recommend pasta or rice on a low-carb diet.

Food Scale: Choosing the Best One

Food scales range from a small plastic cup on a small plastic base to old-fashioned metal scales with weights and measures to expensive, programmable digital scales that can give you the full nutritional information for each serving size. The best food scale for you:

  • Has numbers you can read easily
  • Has a cup or bowl large enough to hold the food you need to weigh
  • Is easy to clean and store

Eat Lunch, Lose Weight

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Of course the nutritional and calorie content of meals clearly affects weight loss, but a new study shows that the timing of meals may also play an important role in weight loss.  In a study of a Mediterranean population, those eating lunch later in the day were more likely to be successful in losing weight.

 

Eating a good breakfast and not skipping it and eating a lunch before 3pm was key to losing more weight and maintaining a balanced metabolism.  Timing on lunch was the only meal that really made a difference on weight loss.

 

So, eat your lunch at lunchtime.  NO skipping lunch!

 

Here is the article about why lunch is key to weight loss!

 

http://www.elements4health.com/what-and-when-you-eat-affects-weight-loss.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+elements4health%2FmTrh+%28Elements4Health+%29

 

Can a Plate Help You Lose Weight or Stay Skinny?

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You can gain weight eating healthy foods!  Why is that?  Because if you look at our mothers or grandmothers, their average calorific content a day was about 1800 calories a day on average.  Today, woman are eating about 2200 calories a day.  Since the 1950s, portion sizes have increased for women and men.

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Portion size is key to staying slim.

Six things you can do to eat the right portion size.

1.  Don’t use the regular sized meal plates.  If you use a smaller one or use older ones from an antique store, you will fill your plates and subconsciously think that it is a lot because your (smaller) plate is full.

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2.  Use a plate that doesn’t match the color of your food.  You are more likely to eat less asparagus (for example) on a white plate vs. a green plate.

3.  Don’t go to buffets.  Very dangerous and filling up those large plates again and again is going to make you gain weight.

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4.  When you fill your plate, the right way to do it for your diet, your body and your health and nutrients is to fill half of the plate up with vegetables, then the other half is divided into two parts–one part starchy vegetable and one part meat.  And you can foresake the starchy vegetable because most of us get enough carbs in other foods, so just get more vegetables.

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5.  Don’t fill your plate with pasta or rice.  If you must have those things (hopefully, not often), use the whole-wheat version (not white) and put it in the quarter where your starchy vegetable would go.  But, a whole plate of pasta is not the right portion size and this is why you are having weight issues.

6.  Eat slowly and chew well.  Give your body time to get the signal to your brain that you are full.

Try these ideas and see how well it works for you!

Jamba Juice. Can you stay skinny?

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Jamba Juice smoothies are made with sherbert, fruit, etc.–so there is a lot of sugar in them.  Some have more than others.  Here is a better one, and even a better one has a LOT of sugar.  You can order a Fit N Fruitful version http://www.jambajuice.com/menu-and-nutrition/menu/smoothies/fit-n-fruitful , which has this nutrition info for its Berry Blend Smoothie.

Calories 290
Total Fat 4.5g 7%
Saturated Fat .5g 3%
Trans Fat 0g 0%
Cholesterol 25mg 8%
Sodium 65mg 3%
Total Carbohydrates 52g 17%
Dietary Fiber 6g 24%
Sugar 37g
Protein 11g

That is a good amount of protein.  This has 52g of carbs and 6g of fiber.  So, that is 46g net carbs.  It is 37g of sugar.  That is like eating 9 sugar cubes.  Yes, it is better food, but it is still  fattening and too much sugar.  You are better off eating a piece of fruit and getting a 12g net carbs for an orange.  And this is the smaller cup at 16 ounces, not their regular cup.

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They have a new Make It Light option that you could request, where supposedly it is 1/3 lighter in everything.  So, even if that is true.  It would still be about 32g of carbs in a drink.  Now, if you are only allowed between 50g and 100g of carbs a day to stay thin, then your options for the rest of the day are small.

Again, if you had an orange and two low-fat string cheese sticks–you are looking at 14g net carbs vs. the 32g of net carbs for the Jamba Juice.  There are other options too for protein and carbs, but keep in mind that Jamba Juice should not be part of your diet unless you factor in the carbs for the day and you are exercising heavily.

That is my opinion.  I haven’t had Jamba Juice in over a year and I could have a few sips, but I would rather eat an In and Out protein style cheeseburger for 11g of carbs  and 18g of protein (there are chicken burger options out there too).  There are 7g of sugar in it or about 1 1/2 sugar cubes vs. the 9 sugar cubes or possibly 6 with the lighter option.

Seriously, which one will leave you feeling more full and satisfied?  Which one will leave you with a sugar high and a huge crash and a desire to pig out later?  (I hope you answered the burger for the first question and the juice for the second one)

It is all about knowing what is in what you are eating if you want to stay thin.  Healthy juice sounds good, but it can be fattening.  Just sayin….

 

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Can Vegans and Vegetarians Stay Skinny?

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It is easy to do a low-carb diet if you eat meat, but not so much if you are a vegetarian, and especially a vegan (no milk or eggs)–especially if you want to stay skinny.

So, if you want to be a non-meat eater, there are things you can eat that are high in protein and you NEED protein to maintain energy and keep your metabolism balanced–and still stay skinny.

You can eat certain berries, vegetables leafs that contain protein.  It  is your job to research online about how much protein you are getting.  I meet so many non-meat eaters who just eat whatever and never consider what they are eating and if it is enough to satisfy their body’s requirements.  You have to do some extra work if you decide to eat no dairy, eggs or meat.

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Keep in mind that you can eat beans and nuts too, but they are higher in carbs, so be careful and keep a check on how many carbs you are getting in a day.  You can’t just eat Beans and Nuts and lose weight.  You will have to eat a lot of grasses, lettuce, kale, etc.  And avocado is great, but high in carbs, so monitor yourself.

Spinach, for example, varies on the variety and if it is fresh or canned.  Some can be 1g of protein per cup and some can be 7g of protein.  Being a vegetarian requires homework!

Pasta has little protein, so don’t think you can be a vegan and eat pasta all day and stay thin.  It ain’t gonna happen!  You have to eat a lot of low carb vegetables and you can have fruit, but not a lot!  And watch Jamba Juice type smoothies.  LOADED in carbs.  Fruit, sherbet, milk–carbs!  You want fruit, eat one!  It is better for you, lighter in carbs and takes longer and lets you get satiated so you don’t eat a lot.  Have you ever eaten an apple and thought, “I want another!”  No!  But, you could drink 6 apples in a smoothie, no problem!!

So, be careful non-meat eaters!