There are so many moments during any given day where we have to make choices about our health and wellness. Even NOT doing something is making a choice. I have a lot of head knowledge about health and fitness and diet– I’ve actually taken nutrition classes and health classes. But putting that knowledge into practice? Not always easy.
It’s all about the decision that’s in front of you right now. This moment. When you’re staring in the fridge because you’re bored. When you mosey down the chips aisle at the grocery store. When a frappuccino is somehow screaming at you from down the street, calling your name in that sweet, sultry voice that it knows draws you in every time.
Here are 6 simple things you can do (and not do) to help you achieve your nutrition goals:
1. Get salad dressing on the side. In reality, most restaurants these days serve salad dressing on the side. But KEEP it on the side. I get a salad when I go to Moe’s, a fresh-Mex quick food establishment. They hand you two little cups of salad dressing when you order a salad. Once upon a time, I would put the dressing ON the salad, and I would use both little cups. That’s 300 calories per cup, 280 from fat. So what started out as a nutritious 450 calorie salad with 17 grams of fat, turns into a 1,050 calorie salad with 79 grams of fat. What the WHAT? Now, I keep the dressing on the side, and dip my fork into the dressing before loading it up with lettuce, chicken, and cucumbers, and only use half a serving. That’s a HUGE cut in calories and fat, and I don’t feel deprived.
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| Add some lemon to spruce up your H2O. |
2. Drink water. Remember that scene in Pretty Woman where Julia Roberts goes into the boutique that refused to serve her, and now she has all these mongo bags from hoity-toity other boutiques and lets them know they made a “Big mistake. HUGE mistake. Huge HUGE mistake!”? That’s the image that should come into your mind every time you think about grabbing a soda instead of water. Do not skip water. Whether you’re working out regularly or not, water has GOT to be your go-to drink. I cringe when I hear people say, “I just don’t like water.” If that’s you, I’m gonna tell you what I tell my kids when they say they don’t like something: You don’t HAVE to like it. You just have to drink it. Do you like going to the gas station once a week to fill up your car’s gas tank? Probably not. But you have to do it because your car needs it. Add some freshly squeezed lemon if you need to. Get a cute, new, reusable water bottle. But you’re being counterproductive if you’re watching your food intake and exercising, but aren’t drinking water.
3. Keep track of what you eat. It’s tedious, I know. But it WORKS. If you’re trying to lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you’re eating. Even if you’re not really exercising, simply understanding your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)– the number of calories your bodies burns just to stay alive, will help you reach your goal. It works two ways for me: 1) It forces me to read labels and get a better understanding of the nutritional (or lack thereof) value in the food I’m eating; and 2) It discourages me from grazing because I do NOT want to waste time logging two cookies that I just nonchalantly would have otherwise grabbed and stuffed in my mouth without realizing that I was adding 140 calories of mostly fat to my hips. There are some great apps out there that make it easy to keep track of food. I use The Daily Burn, which is great because it also tracks nutritional content, not just calories. So if you’re trying to eat a certain amount of protein because you’re doing a lot of weight lifting, you can include those as target goals. I also use a fitbit, which keeps track of my calories burned, including my BMR, and then compares the calories I’ve burned with the calories eaten, so I can see my deficit. The fitbit has really changed the way I think about calories– I highly recommend it.
4. Control your portions. If all you’re eating is fruits and vegetables, you can pretty much eat as much as you want. But throw in carbs, fats, and proteins– and things can get sideways pretty quickly. Beachbody has a great system for managing portion control, with color coded containers that help you measure out portions. My lunch, just about every day, is 1 red container of roasted chicken, a yellow container of steamed sweet potatoes, and a green container of broccoli. If you’re focused on eating clean, whole foods, and you’re it’s easy to eliminate things that don’t belong in your diet– because there won’t be a container for it.
5. Plan to cheat. You know Saturday’s coming. And you know you’re going to want to eat a couple of slices of pizza and take the kids out for frozen yogurt. So bank those calories throughout the week. The average slice of pizza is around 280 calories. One slice of pizza for a meal is a pretty reasonable calorie intake for a meal, coupled with a salad and lots of water. For that extra slice and some frozen yogurt, you’ll need to cut back about 75 calories a day during the week to stay under your calorie goal, or work in an extra 30-40 minutes of exercise. Remember– your body keeps track of the calories even if you don’t.
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| Oatmeal is a great way to get your metabolism running! |
6. Eat. And Eat Early. This is one of those areas that’s really hard for me because my day starts at 3:00 AM. I tell myself it’s too early to eat, that if I eat so early, I’ll wake up my metabolism and I’ll end up overeating. The problem is that if I don’t grab something to eat when I get my coffee, I’m not taking advantage of time when my metabolism could be working for me. Plus, I don’t end up getting hungry until noon or so, so I go 7 hours without eating, which makes my body go into survival mode. This past two weeks I’ve changed that up, grabbing some instant oatmeal, a banana, or a yogurt first thing in the morning. Nothing big, right around 200 calories, just enough to get me going. You know what ends up happening? I get hungry. I’m ravenously hungry after just a couple of hours. You know why? MY METABOLISM IS WORKING! This is a new revelation for me, so my apologies for screaming. But seriously– why do we complain when we feel hungry when we’re eating right? Your metabolism is finally kicking into gear– feed it with healthy stuff to keep it running!
If you keep doing the same things, you’re going to keep getting the same results. It’s a tired old quote, but when it comes to nutrition, it’s really very true. So, make some small changes to the way you think about nutrition, and your fitness and weight loss goals will be easier to achieve.
Cheering for you!
Jenna
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