Anyone else snack even when you aren’t hungry? This is the main reason I don’t keep junk food in the house. Be it chips or cookies or ice cream, if it’s in the house, I’m probably going to eat it whether I’m hungry or not. But as it turns out, I still engage in minor mindless snacking even without the crappy food, albeit it less so. I noticed this the other day. I had just eaten a nice lunch and then about 20 minutes later, I popped into the kitchen to grab a little something. But really there was nothing worth grabbing. I went into the cupboard, pulled out the jar of raisins and grabbed a small handful. As I was doing it, I started to think. I wasn’t hungry, and I wasn’t eating anything I particularly craved or cared for. I was just eating for the sake of eating.
Is it habit? Boredom? Filling some psychological void? I have no idea. But it occurred to me that I am probably carrying a few unnecessary pounds as a result of useless and rewardless snacking. Mindless eating at its best.
Then I thought of a simple approach to combat this problem. So simple, that I think all of you should try it too. And so I take out my glove and challenge you!
Okay, not a glove slap or pistol duel at dawn. Much easier (but unfortunately less hilarious).
I challenge you to delay all mindless eating episodes for 15 minutes. That is, every time you go to get something to eat when you aren’t hungry (be it junkie or healthy food), make yourself wait 15 minutes. Don’t set an alarm, but do look at the clock and note when your 15 minutes are up. Don’t go back to the snack source until after that time.
That’s it. After the 15 minutes are up, if you still want to have whatever you were going to have, go for it. If you’ve forgotten or talked yourself out of it, even better.
This is a 30 day challenge. At the end of the 30 days, see if you have managed to make a difference in your mindless eating habits, and if you have made a difference in your waistline. I’ll post my own update 30 days from now and hope to see others.
Who’s in?
Elsbeth Vaino is an Ottawa-based personal trainer.
We love new beginnings. Fresh starts. Another chance to get it right. With another new year approaching, it’s resolution time! Because most of us are overweight and underactive, changes to fitness and nutrition habits are very popular resolutions to make. Unfortunately they are also very popular ones to break.
If “lose weight and get fit” is going to be your resolution this year, I have a request for you: Please reconsider. No, I haven’t gone to the dark side. I still believe exercise and healthy eating is the best gift we can each give to ourselves. But I also believe that well-intentioned promises with a very slim chance at success are a bad idea, and that’s what “lose weight and get fit” is. In fact it tops last year’s Time Magazine’s top ten list of broken resolutions. Eat healthier and diet makes it in at number 4.
For anyone who is thinking of lose weight, eat healthy or exercise more as a resolution this year: is it your first time? Or does this resolution get dusted off every year or two? If it’s not your first time, what is different this year? My goal here is not to make you feel bad about your self-improvement goals. In fact I applaud them! So much so that I want you to succeed. But an overhaul of your eating and exercise habits is a big change. The reality is that big change is hard. Little changes, however, are manageable.
Whatever you are considering as a resolution, instead of saying: “On January 1st, I will eat well and exercise regularly”; say this instead: “On January 1st, I will eat well and exercise regularly, and continue to do so for the rest of my life”. Now be honest: Can you even say the words? If not, that’s a powerful sign. Are you feeling doubt? Starting to think about foods you love that you’re not sure you’re willing to give up? That’s okay. In fact it’s quite normal. It’s very important that you be honest with yourself now, as that will pave your path to success later.
Now, let’s reconsider the “eat well and exercise” as a new year’s resolution.
If you are very confident that you can do it and sustain it, then go for it! You probably will succeed. If not, break it down! Pick something small but achievable. For some reason we have a “go big or go home” attitude about new year’s resolutions, which unfortunately lead to going big and then going home.
Here’s the thing:
- A small resolution that you do for a long time becomes a big change.
- A big resolution that you do for a short time becomes a small change.
If you resolve to, say, have dessert half as often, and you stick to it for all of 2012, it will be equivalent to having quit dessert entirely for 6 months. If you resolve to give up dessert entirely, do you think you will make it until the end of June? There are some people who can say “I’m going to stop eating junk food now” and they just stop forever without problems. Odds are, that person is not you. If this is not your first “eat well and exercise” resolution, then that person is definitely not you. Accept that and work with it.
Whatever you chose as a resolution, say it out loud and add “and I will do this for all of 2012″. If you can’t say it out loud, you definitely can’t do it. Break it down until you have a resolution that you can say with confidence that you will sustain for all of 2012.
Don’t be among the 99% who make big resolutions that are lost before March.
Be the 1% who makes a small resolution and turns it into a big change.
I love food. I particularly love the trifecta of food: delicious, nutritious and easy to make. I haven’t always done a lot of cooking. Or I should say, I used to be a much lesser cook. I’m not really sure what happened. It’s almost as if I used to think that really delicious meals took hours to cook and required some sort of refined skill. And so I didn’t cook really delicious meals. Instead I stuck with a few very basic meals that took very little effort. They were relatively healthy (back in the day I thought a bowl of pasta with tomato sauce was a healthy meal), and they were definitely easy to make. But they were far from delicious. They lacked…the third heat.
Maybe the relevance of that clip is a stretch…but what can I say? I’m a fan of hilarity. But back on topic…
I’m not sure when I made the discovery that truly delicious (but still nutritious) food can actually made with little effort and little time. But it’s something that can’t be unlearned. And so now I cook delicious and nutritious meals often; but I am far from a slave to the kitchen. In fact most of the meals shown in the photos scattered throughout this article took about 30 minutes to make. That’s 30 minutes fridge to fork (F2F); not 30 minutes once you’ve already cut and measured everything like you see on most cooking shows.
It recently occurred to me that many fitness gurus and those who live healthy lifestyles don’t really know how to make great food. I’m sorry if I have offended, but it had to be said. I see some truly horrible recipes masquerading as healthy and “delicious”. And on the other side of the coin, a lot of great chefs don’t seem to understand nutrition well. Somehow it is difficult to have taste and health in one recipe. It would sure be nice to see a cookbook collaboration by a great nutritionist and a great chef. Imagine a John Berardi and Jamie Oliver cookbook. That would be awesome!
But in the meantime, I will try to fill a bit of the void by sharing some of what I’ve picked up about cooking over the years, combined with some of what I know about nutrition. I am fortunate to have some truly great cooks among my friends and family, and I’ve learned from all of them. This is actually volume two of this list. Volume 1, Real world tips for healthier eating, has a bigger focus on the nutrition side. The 10 tips below relate more to the delicious cooking side:
1. Just cook already. It’s actually faster than you think. In fact if you really think about it, it’s probably faster to cook something than it is to drive to the nearest fast food outlet, stand in line to order your take out and then drive home. It’s most definitely healthier and tastier. Plus there’s the added bonus that you get leftovers. Delicious, nutritious and quick to reheat leftovers. I had leftovers for lunch today: steak with pasta and salad. How about you?
2. Cut onions with swim goggles. I figured this one out shortly after buying a pair of swim goggles with the intention of swimming several times each week and then realizing that I really don’t like swimming. My eyes are quite sensitive, so cutting onions is typically a cry-fest for me. But no more. Yes, it looks ridiculous. But cutting onions is now an easy and enjoyable task (enjoyable on account of I get a little chuckle over how ridiculous I know they look).
3. For stir-fry, cook the vegetables first. Most people cook the meat first and then add the vegetables. Probably because vegetables tend to take less time to cook. Solid reasoning, but not a good idea. Unless you want your stir-fry to have a runny sauce. Vegetables are largely made up of water, and when you cook them, much of that water leaves the vegetables and enters the pan. Cook the vegetables first, take them out of the pan while you cook the meat, and then add them back at the end, and your meal will live up to its deliciousness potential.
4. Meat goes on sale. I’m curious to see if I’m the only person who is suspicious of sale meat. Anyone else? Until recently (like really recently), I thought that whenever meat was on sale, it was because it was going bad. So obviously, I avoided it like the plague. And of course, I looked with judging eyes at those of you who were smart enough to buy your meat on sale. I was shopping with a close friend when I made a comment about not getting some meat because it was on sale and she looked at me like I had two heads. Then she laughed. And finally she explained to me that I was being ridiculous, and that I should actually give thought to my theory: we live in Canada where there are health laws and selling expired meat is not okay. She picked up one of the packages of sale meat and pointed out that the best before date was in fact in the future. It was a huge “ah-ha” moment for me. Now when I shop, I look to see if any meat is on sale, and often let that guide what I’m going to cook. Some of the sales are unreal: I bought pork tenderloin last week for $2.99/lb!
5. Use a screen. That is, the thing that looks vaguely like a tennis racket but with a metal screen. It’s pretty cool – it keeps stuff from splattering from the pot or pan onto the stove. This is particularly useful when cooking anything in oil (even if it is not much oil), and when making sauces or soups. Much easier to clean the stove later!
6. Frozen vegetables. Fresh rules in summer, but frozen is an amazing option in the winter. You know how annoying the fresh (“fresh”) vegetables are in winter: they don’t taste very good, they are very expensive, and they go bad so fast. In fact I suspect frozen vegetables are healthier than “fresh” in the winter if you live in a winter climate. I just can’t imagine that the truck ride from California makes for great quality produce. And remember that frozen vegetables are much better than they once were. Individual flash freezing has done wonders for them. They are easy to use and quite delicious. And you may even be able to find a brand that were farmed nearby, like the Arctic Gardens ones for me. I love that my winter vegetables are local.
7. Use reputable recipes. It’s really easy to follow a good recipe, and your success rate with cooking good recipes should be very high. To help ensure your recipes work, avoid using recipes from random websites. At least until you get the hang of cooking. There are many recipes online that either don’t work or just don’t taste very good. When you have been cooking for a while, you can recognize recipes that won’t work well. Until then, stick with known quantities. I have two go to recipe books that I’m going to share:
Another place I go to for great recipes is allrecipes.com. There is lots of great stuff here. If you decide to get recipes here, look for ones that have hundreds of reviews but still have an average rating in the 4-5 star range.
8. Make roasts. I’m guessing your mom and dad never shared how easy they are to make because it would make it seem like they didn’t slave over Sunday dinner. But here’ s a secret: they didn’t slave over Sunday dinner. Roast is delicious, inexpensive, nutritious and easy to make. Try it.
9. If you are cooking beef and plan to have leftovers, lean toward rare for the first cooking, because reheating it will cook it a bit more. That is as long as you are okay with rare.
10. Get a good meat thermometer. People who cook without meat thermometers tend to overcook meat because they worry that they’ll get sick if the undercook it. People who cook with meat thermometers enjoy tender and juicy, perfectly cooked meats. It’s up to you. Now the meat thermometer will only help if you know what temperature the meat should reach. You can google this, or consider getting a reference cookbook like:
The Fanny Farmer Cookbook. This is a must-have in the kitchen. I don’t find the recipes here are amazing . In fact they are a bit boring by my standards. But it is full of the basics, like how to cook corn on the cob, and liquid measurement conversions. Get your copy.
11. Grate is far from great. I’m talking about parmesan. I love parmesan. But I’m a bit of a snob about it. And if you’ve tried freshly grated parmigiano reggiano, then you know what I’m talking about. If you use parmesan, please, I beg of you, stop buying the grated stuff, and buy a piece of the good stuff and then grate it yourself just before you use it. I suggest this primarily because the difference in flavour is so extreme that I am having trouble coming up with a comparison that does it justice. Imagine the best meal you’ve ever eaten, and now imagine the worst. It’s like that. The other reason is that the pre-grated stuff doesn’t last well. I suspect it’s due to the air that ends up in the container. Personally I find the pre-grated stuff does not last well in my fridge, but the chunk does. Now if you are thinking that yours doesn’t go bad, it’s probably because you buy the Kraft stuff from the shelf in the middle of the grocery store. Think about that for a minute though. It’s cheese. But it doesn’t require refrigeration. You sure that’s something you want to eat?
Hopefully some of these tips will help get you into the kitchen and creating some delicious and nutritious meals for you and your family. Because the thing is, junk food is much less appealing when it’s up against delicious home cooking. And home cooking really doesn’t have to take long.
Did you enjoy this article? If so, please click on one of the buttons below to let the social networks will know about it. I would really appreciate it!
I was at the bike store-coffee shop this morning for an Americano between clients (Cyclelogik has great Americanos – featuring beans from Francescos….mmm…) and was feeling a little snacky. It was almost 1130 and I had another couple of assessments before lunch. So I noticed the snack offerings they had today: a big oatmeal raisin cooking and a protein bar. Not thrilling, but I considered them enough to look at the nutrition numbers for each. The power bar looked decent: less than 250 calories, and it was somewhere in the 3:1 to 4:1 carbohydrate to protein ratio. It has fat, but fat is really not such a big deal – unless there is so much that it increases the calorie content too much. In fact some would call fat essential. And by some, I mean smart people who understand nutrition: The “Essential” in Essential Fatty Acids is not just a marketing thing. Read more…
Organic foods have become very popular as a result of a trend toward wanting cleaner, healthier foods that have less of an environmental footprint. But does the organic label necessarily mean it is healthy? I tend to think so. But my peanut butter experience this morning taught me a valuable lesson: even though the food is organic, it is not necessarily a quality product. Read more…
I am a food lover. I truly love the taste of food. I suspect I am not alone in my food-love, or in the challenges this presents in terms of maintaining a healthy weight. Or maybe it is that you are very busy and don’t have time to keep great food habits. Or you don’t know the reason, but for some reason, you just have a hard time with food. The reality is that for many of us, it can be tough to adhere to a nutrition plan. Food is hard for most people.
Many years ago, a friend made me realize that I was not alone in my food challenges. He had spent the past several months at a Buddhist monastery in England where they basically ate one meal a day of rice and vegetables. That’s tough! But it wasn’t just the food that was hard. He had hours a day of meditation, chores, and for one week he took a vow of silence. At the end of his vow of silence, he describes having gone down to “the big bacon hut” near the monastery and was shocked to see two of the senior monks devouring big bacon sandwiches. When he asked about it, they said that they still found food the most challenging of all of the hardships they have. Read more…
I just realized this week that I have the perfect body. It was an a-ha moment that followed a long period of small but important realizations. When I was a kid and through being a teenager, I was a bit chubby. Or at least I always perceived myself that way. I think clinically I would probably have been in the early stages of ‘overweight’. It certainly didn’t slow me down! I played and loved every sport I could, and I was good at them. But I occasionally got a comment from another kid about being fat. That sucked, but thankfully it was infrequent. Fast forward to my early 30s, and I was doing some renovations on a house I had just bought. Somehow in a short period, I had gained 10 pounds. Gaining that weight made me say “That’s it! No more!” And so I made changes. I changed my eating habits, and I changed the way I workout, and over one winter, I lost 25 pounds while gaining muscle. It was surprisingly not that hard. Friends and family that I hadn’t seen in a while were quite surprised at the change. Read more…
If you listen to Gary Taubes (author of Why We Get Fat, and Good Calories, Bad Calories), you would believe that the reason we are fat is because we eat too much carbohydrate, and that the way to solve the problem is to stop eating carbohydrates.
I’m not sure that the facts exist to support Taubes’ thesis. One hole, is that we in North America are fatter than virtually everyone else in the world (32% of men and 35% of women in the US are obese), but we eat less bread than they do. In fact North Americans ate an average of 60 lbs of bread per capita in 2000, which is less than half of what the skinnier Spaniards (15% of men and 21% of women are obese), Danes (no data found), and Germans (20% of men and 21% of women are obese) ate.1,2 Read more…
It’s been one week since I started my Precision Nutrition journey (click here to start at the beginning). All in all a pretty great week. Some ups, a few downs, but all in all a pretty great week.
I have avoided cottage cheese my whole life. I was probably 12 the last time I had it. And even then, it was only because I didn’t make the household food decisions. When I saw cottage cheese in the PN program, for some crazy reason, I decided it was time to give it a second chance. Read more…
I wonder if there is statistical information about how long most people last before falling off the wagon on a new nutrition approach? I’m going to bet 2 days is pretty accurate. I had hoped to jump right into precision nutrition, but the reality is, it’s a lot. It is a complete program, and with a complete comes a lot of information, and likely, a lot of changes. Read more…
