There's Weight Loss Magic In The Food Diary/Journal

There's some magic in keeping a food diary - one study found it can double a person's weight loss! The researchers discovered that the more food records people kept, the more weight they lost. Published in the August 2008 issue of American Journal of Preventive Medicine, the study adds more evidence to the notion that the simple act of writing down what you eat encourages people to consume fewer calories. This is an added bonus to people with diabetes who are also trying to trim off a few extra pounds.

I've included journal type forms in a few of my books (Tell Me What To Eat If I Have Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Tell Me What To Eat If I Have Acid Reflux, Tell Me What To Eat If I Have Diabetes, etc.) for the purpose of taking note what type of foods, food amounts, and times of day might be contributing to the condition in question.

I admit the idea of writing down what you eat, how much, and other items (like your level of hunger) might feel like a punishment and might put you in a "dieting & deprivation" frame of mind. But if you approach it more positively, like a tool to help raise your awareness about some of your food behaviors and a way to increase your weight loss success, it's definitely worth giving it a try!

Related Topics:

• 8 Tips for Making a Food Diary Work for You
• WebMD Tools: The Portion Size Plate
• Healthy Cooking Newsletter - recipes, kitchen & shopping advice in your inbox!

What to Look For in an Energy Bar

When traveling or spending a day hiking or wherever your summer plans lead you... packing a couple of energy bars along can come in handy. They have to taste good to you, of course, but what about what's inside?

According to the American College of Sports Medicine (and shouldn't THEY know what to look for in an energy bar) if exercising, it's important to select a bar (PDF file):

• With about 25-40 grams of carbohydrate


• With less than 15 grams of protein, because it's not a crucial fuel source during exercise.


• Without too much fat (some bars can pack a wallop of fat grams) because fat slows digestion and isn't helpful as fuel during exercise.
  

They also suggest eating one bar about an hour before a long workout and if exercising for more than an hour, eat one high-carb bar per hour of exercise (and don't forget to drink ample amounts of water too).

Do my favorite sports bars follow all of the above?

• Luna Iced Oatmeal Raisin: 28 grams carbohydrate 10 grams protein, 3.5 grams fat


• Clif Bar Blueberry Crisp: 43 grams carbohydrate, 9 grams protein, 5 grams fat
  

Do yours?

~~Elaine

Related Topics:

• Sports Nutrition: Energy Food Fuels Busy Lives
• Energy Drinks for Sale

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Taste Test Tuesday: 5 Bites of Heaven

Dove Miniatures come in vanilla, double chocolate and my favorite...cherry royale!

If you ever find yourself face to face with a Dove Miniature, (individually wrapped chocolate covered ice cream pieces) promise me you won't shove the whole thing in your mouth and swallow it within about 10 seconds.

Instead, get in a "mindful" space, just be aware of your taste buds and what they are tasting, and literally take small mouse-like bites, savoring each small bite. Roll the small bite around with your tongue and really experience the creaminess and the hint of dark chocolate blanketing each bite.

I was able to enjoy about 5 heavenly bites in one Dove Miniature. What did
these 5 bites of heaven cost me? Are you ready?

60 calories
4 grams of fat
2.5 grams saturated fat
5 mg cholesterol
6 grams of carbohydrate
1 gram protein

A small price to pay, don't you think?

~~Elaine

Related Topics:

• Dark Chocolate is Healthy Chocolate
• Recipe: Vanilla, Chocolate or Coffee Ice Cream

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The Soda Fountain Gets a Makeover

What screams "ice cream social" or "American soda fountain favorite" more than a root beer float? With the awesome light vanilla ice creams out now and a couple of diet root beer sodas on the supermarket shelves, a totally cool but low cal root beer float is only a minute away. Here's how to put one together for only 100 Calories!

The 100-Calorie Root Beer Float

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup (ice cold) diet root beer
1/2 cup scoop of light vanilla ice cream or low fat frozen yogurt

Directions:

1. Pour ice cold diet root beer into a tall mug or glass (ice cold root beer so the vanilla ice cream won't melt as quickly).
2. Plop in a scoop of light vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt into the glass. Serve with a long spoon and/or a straw.

Yield: Makes 1 serving

Per serving: 100 calories, 2 g protein, 17 g carbohydrate, 3 g fat, 1.5 g
saturated fat, 10 mg cholesterol, 0 g fiber, 90 mg sodium. Calories from
fat: 27 percent calories from fat.

~~Elaine

Related Topics:

• Frozen Treats Pack Calories
• Cool Summer Treats That Won't Wreck Your Diet

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Breakfast Skippers Listen Up!

The good news is there are some great-tasting whole grain cereals in the supermarket aisle and they do offer people who might normally be skipping breakfast a "better than nothing" breakfast choice. A recent literature review found that breakfast skipping is rampant in the U.S. and in Europe.

The irony is that some people skip breakfast in an effort to lose weight and the opposite appears to be true. Twelve out of 16 studies recently reviewed suggested that breakfast skipping was actually associated with an increase in body mass index.

What could be easier than making yourself a bowl of cereal in the morning? If you are late and trying to get out the door, take one measly minute to pour some cereal in a bag. You can enjoy it by the handful without milk on your way or enjoy it once you get to work with some milk from the cafeteria or snack bar.

When choosing your breakfast cereal look for:

• cereals made from whole grains (a whole grain should be the first ingredient in the ingredient list)


• it would be great if your cereal serving contributed 5 grams of fiber or more to your daily fiber total


• cereals with enough sugar that it tastes appealing but not too much (look for the % calories from sugar to be 25% calories from sugar or less - this might be higher if the cereal you choose contains dried fruit, which counts toward the total sugar grams)
  

To calculate the % calories from sugar take the grams of sugar (from the nutrition facts label) and multiply by 4. Divide this number by the total calories per serving and multiply by 100 to get the % calories from sugar!

~~Elaine

Related Topics:

• The Most Important Meal of the Day
• Healthy Briefcase Breakfasts

Technorati Tags: breakfast, cereal, diet,

Grown Ups Can Order Kid Meals, Too

My secret is out. I often order kid meals at restaurants for myself, clearly I am not a "kid" since I'm in the "forty-something" group. But what can I say? This is the perfect amount of food for me! I appreciate that the kid meal comes with a small drink and usually a mini sized dessert too! I draw the line at the cute little toy surprise though (LOL). I usually offer to pay extra especially if the waiter or waitress looks at me funny.

One of the burger restaurants near my house started officially letting grown ups order the kid meals; they just tack on a couple of dollars. That seems fair to me. Especially when it comes to ordering burgers at a restaurant. I'm not a big meat eater and the smaller-sized burgers are just the ticket! Ordering the kid-size meal can help someone eat a healthy "comfortable" portion of food.

I think most of us would agree (and research backs me up) that the more food that is served to you and sitting in front of you on your plate, the more food you are likely to eat. So, don't be afraid to demand to be served smaller, more reasonable portion sizes in restaurants, by ordering the kid meals! The restaurant chains usually have a kid menu (Elephant Bar, Claim Jumper, Applebee's and Denny's - to name a few).

I'm one of those annoying guests who also ask for fresh fruit instead of French fries. Oh well, at least I'm a big tipper! How do you keep yourself from eating too much when you go out?

~~Elaine

Related Topics:

• Fast Road to Fat City
• Healthy Restaurant Lunches

Technorati Tags: portionsize, diettips, kidsmeals

Two Choices for Coconut Milk

If you cook Thai dishes sometimes or if you gravitate toward tropical-style flavors, there will come a time when you are asked to add coconut milk to your recipes. I know it sounds innocent enough but coconut milk is LOADED with calories, total fat grams and saturated fat grams. You don't believe me? Well, 1 cup of canned coconut milk usually contains 445 calories, 48 grams of fat and 43 grams of saturated fat.

See what I mean?

But, you have two light options. You can do what I've always done and that's use fat free half and half and add coconut extract to make my own "coconut milk" or you can use a lite canned coconut milk. I believe there are at least a couple of brands out there doing this but the one I used last night while testing a Light Coconut Cream Cake for the WebMD Weight Loss Clinic was from Whole Foods.

"365 Organic Coconut Milk Lite" (made in Thailand) comes in a can and 1 cup of this stuff contains 160 calories, 16 grams of fat, and 12 grams of saturated fat. This is still a respectable ingredient, adding fat grams to your recipe, but it's definitely a lot less shocking compared to regular canned coconut milk.

~~Elaine

Related Topics: Ethnic Eating Out Tips, Recipe: Coconut Custard Pie

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Taste Test Tuesday: Pick Your Poison - Yellow, Blue, Pink or White

When in restaurants and cafes and you need to choose your sweetener for your hot/cold tea or coffee, you usually have a choice. There's the yellow bag (Splenda), the pink bag (Sweet 'n Low with saccharin), the blue bag (Equal or NutraSweet), or of course the white bag (the real white stuff, also known as sugar).

Everyone I've noticed has a certain color bag they are looking for. My husband, daughter and sister prefer the pink bag, one of my friends yells for yellow, while another friend of mine packs the little blue bag in her purse just in case they don't have any where she's going.

I guess it all comes down to what alternative sweetener you are used to, what you think is the safest choice and which one tastes the best to your particular set of taste buds.

I just did the finger test. You lick your finger and dip it straight into each colored packet. In between each packet I cleansed my palate with some iced green tea.

This is what I thought:
PINK packet (Sweet 'n Low) = intense sweet flavor, only a slight possible aftertaste for me but my daughter thought this one did not have an aftertaste.

BLUE (Equal) = sweet flavor, very desirable, no aftertaste for me but my daughter thought it did have a little aftertaste.

YELLOW (Splenda) = This one tasted closest to real sugar to me and it didn't seem to have an aftertaste (which surprised me because when I bake with it I definitely notice that there's something different). My daughter still liked Sweet 'n Low the best.

Bottom line: I think each person has a different taste perception and is sensitive to various aspects of each one.

What's your color?

~~Elaine

Related Topics: Is Sucralose Safe?, Are Artificial Sweeteners safe?

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Make 1/2 Cup of Ice Cream Seem Like More

Who here (raise your hand)thinks 1/2 cup of ice cream is a reasonable sized serving? I'm used to this amount as a serving but I'm guessing plenty of you out there think 1/2 cup is a joke, right? This is the size of a normal scoop of ice cream which is about the size of two large eggs.

Go ahead, find that 1/2 cup measuring cup and take a gander at what amount of ice cream this really translates into.

In case this doesn't seem like very much ice cream to you, we have ways of making 1/2 cup of ice cream seem like more:

* Serve your ice cream in a cute little dish (1/2 cup will fill it up fine)
* Top your ice cream with lots of fresh fruit like blueberries and sliced strawberries over vanilla or raspberries over chocolate ice cream.
* Enjoy your ice cream with an extra small spoon, so you are savoring each little bite and there will be more bites per dish than if you used a big spoon.
* Choose light ice creams that are truly satisfying! If it doesn't taste awesome, a small serving will not seem as satisfying.
* Precede or follow your small ice cream serving with a nice cup of hot or cold green tea or another no calorie beverage. The liquid in your stomach may help give you a feeling of fullness and taste satisfaction.

~~Elaine

Related Topics: Easy Ice Cream Sodas, Make It Yourself Frozen Treats

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