Determined To Succeed

Remember Saturday morning cartoons? I know, I know. They’re still on the air and Saturday mornings are probably still cool for kids. However I’ve noticed the shows and commercials on the “Big Three” networks are far louder, outrageous and more bombastic than the shows and commercials I grew up with, probably because they now have to compete with the glut of competition from cable.

Anywho, I bring this up because, for me, staples of Saturday morning cartoons were cereal commercials. Oh yes, you’d have Count Chocula, Frankenberry, Honeycomb (my personal favorite), Cheerios, Frosted Flakes and Tony The Tiger saying “they’re greeeeeeeeat!” And no matter which one you liked they all had the following line: “…part of a nutritious breakfast.” You’d see a nice glass of milk, a small glass of juice, a couple slices of toast and select fruit either on or next to the sugary goodness that was the cereal.

While it always struck me as funny that the phrase didn’t necessarily mean that the cereal itself was nutritious the concept of starting the day with breakfast was. Throughout my weight gain years I know I was not good at all about eating breakfast. I skipped thinking it would save calories, but all it did was make me eat the bulk of my calories later, especially at night, and made me snack on unhealthy crap.

These days we barely glance at the kitchen in the morning (guilty). Fixing breakfast takes up precious time that’s in short supply. But there’s tons of evidence (pun intended) that the simple act of eating breakfast is a big part of losing weight.

“People skip breakfast thinking they’re cutting calories, but by mid-morning and lunch, that person is starved,” says Milton Stokes, RD, MPH, chief dietitian for St. Barnabas Hospital in New York City. “Breakfast skippers replace calories throughoutcream cheese, the day with mindless snacking. They set themselves up for failure.”

Two studies in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association backed up this finding. A group of researchers analyzed data from a study that followed more than 2,000 young girls from ages 9 to 19. They found that regular cereal eaters had fewer weight problems than infrequent cereal eaters. Those who ate cereal occasionally had a 13% higher risk of being overweight compared to the regular cereal eaters.

Another research group analyzed government data on 4,200 adults. They found that regular breakfast eaters were more likely to exercise regularly. And women who ate breakfast regularly tended to eat fewer calories overall during the day. Those men and women who ate breakfast cereal had lower overall fat intake compared to those who ate other breakfast foods.

It makes TOTAL sense (get it? TOTAL?! A cereal reference?! Ah, never mind). Eating early in the day keeps us from “starvation eating” later on. It also jump-starts our metabolism, says Elisabetta Politi, RD, MPH, nutrition manager for the Duke Diet & Fitness Center at Duke University Medical School. “When you don’t eat breakfast, you’re actually fasting for 15 to 20 hours, so you’re not producing the enzymes needed to metabolize fat to lose weight.”

But before you go filling up a bowl with Cocoa Puffs or fruity-patooties (or whatever passes for cereal these days with kids and their new-fangled rock and roll) listen up. Breakfast is the best time to make wise food choices. That’s where fruits, vegetables, and whole grains come into the picture. Because these are high-fiber foods, they fill you up – yet they bring less fat to the table, says Barbara J. Rolls, PhD, the Guthrie Chair in Nutrition at Pennsylvania State University in Pittsburgh.

These high-fiber foods allow you to eat more food yet get fewer calories. It’s a concept called “energy density” – the number of calories in a specified amount of food, Rolls explains. “Some foods – especially fats – are very energy dense, which means they have a lot of calories packed into a small size,” Rolls says. “However, foods that contain lots of water have very low energy density. Water itself has an energy density of zero. High-fiber foods like fruits, vegetables, and grains have low energy density.”

Translation: If you eat foods with high energy density, such as bagels, you rack up calories quickly. If you eat high-fiber, low-energy-density foods – such as oatmeal, strawberries, walnuts, and low-fat yogurt – you can eat more and get fewer calories.

For example: A breakfast made up of 1 cup of oatmeal, 1/2lf cup of low-fat milk, 1 cup of sliced strawberries, and 1 tablespoon of walnuts has only approximately 307 calories total. Two multi-grain waffles, with 1 cup of blueberries, 3 tablespoons of light syrup, and 1 cup of plain low-fat yogurt have about 450 calories total. That’s almost equal to the standard bagel-and-cream-cheese breakfast – yet it’s much more food, and much lower in fat.

So what are some healthier breakfast suggestions? I’m so glad you asked that ’cause I just happen to have a few right here:

* Banana with peanut butter
* Banana sliced into yogurt
* Oatmeal with fruit — like apples, blueberries, or peaches (what I just had for breakfast)
* Small tortilla with a few tablespoons of peanut butter and chopped strawberries. Roll it up, slice it. It works for kids and adults.
* Breakfast smoothies — berries, ice, and milk or yogurt.

As for the much-beloved bagel – sadly, it’s the calorie equivalent of five slices of bread so just eat half. Better yet, go for smaller bagels, the little ones that are like hockey pucks. Spread some peanut butter on it instead of cream cheese. If you must have cream cheese, buy low-fat. Honestly there is no difference in taste. Add a little bit of jam, some sliced strawberries and you are good to go.

If on-the-run fast food breakfast sandwiches are your food of choice indulge them in a healthy way: whole-grain English muffins, a cooked egg, low-fat cheese melted on top – ham or Canadian bacon optional. It’s portable. You can drive with that. It’s got a good beat and I can dance to it. I give it an 87.

So, my friends. You can now see how important breakfast is and have some suggestions for what to eat. As for the sugary cereals we were fed as kids, some breakfast is better than no breakfast. The last thing anyone should do is skip breakfast. Otherwise, you’ll be eating something even worse later on – candy bars and potato chips – because you’re starving. But if you have time for that cereal take sweetened cereal and mix it with unsweetened cereal, or take unsweetened cereal and mix it with something a little sugary – like yogurt.

That may not please Count Chocula or the little dude from Lucky Charms but who cares. This is about you not them and losing weight is ultimately what is “magically delicious.”

P.S. – Always remember one simple rule especially at night: IF YOU’RE NOT HUNGRY FOR CEREAL THEN YOU’RE NOT REALLY HUNGRY.

It’s sad, indeed, when you wake up in the morning and the first thing you think about is what you’re going to have for dinner. I think that way sometimes, though. It’s not that I’m purposely starving myself or anything (not that I couldn’t stand to miss a meal, as they say) it’s just that I’m trying to be good and look forward to a healthier meal instead of the prospect of eating junk or ordering out.

When I saw the personal trainer the other day he promised he’d give me a list of suggested foods and meals for me to follow, and those combined with my exercise should help me lose weight. Since I’ll try anything once I said “O.K. lay it on me.” So yesterday I opened up my e-mail and there it was – a list of days with each day broken up into meals and what to have for each meal.

As I was looking over this list there wasn’t anything particularly peculiar about it. You know what I mean. The kind of peculiar that jumps up at ya’ and sends up a red flag and make you go “oh, c’mon! I’m not blending half an orange with grass from my front lawn with a dab of crushed red pepper for a ‘meal’ that’s supposed to fill me for the week.” Ok, maybe there was one thing – something called Metrix (a protein shake kind of thing) which I am replacing with yogurt. Other than that this list contained a good blend of carbs, fats and proteins broken down into meals and snacks that seemed to make sense. So I threw on my clothes and went shopping.

Don’t get me wrong. I have always eaten what I want, do eat what I want and will always eat what I want on my weight loss journey, but if I was going to try this personal trainer exercise routine I had to try his prescribed meal plan, too. So below, here is the plan I will be following (with a grain of salt, of course, and all puns intended) today:

Meal 1 Kashi Cereal or Special K (my preference is the Kashi “Warm Cinnamon” kind – very tasty)

Meal 2 Fruit (I bought strawberries, bananas, seedless oranges and clementines)

Meal 3 Chicken 6 oz., 1 cup rice, 3 cups broccoli

Meal 4 Metrix – Protein Shake (screw that. I’m having yogurt)

Meal 5 Chicken Cesar Salad, Sugar Free Jello with Cool Whip

So there it is. What Bill Ivory Larson is going to eat today. That, combined with my workout, should make me what John Candy was in “Stripes…” a lean, mean, fighting machine.” Well, theoretically, that is. Also, last night I made my lemon chicken recipe again and it was darn tasty. I added in some green pepper and fresh garlic this time for a little different flavor and made three portions so I could have one today for lunch and have another for dinner on the salad (or by itself).

Tomorrow I see the trainer, Jorge, for a second time for what he says will be a workout designed to work different muscles than we did the other day. While I am not in too much pain I certainly still feel Tuesday in my abs and shoulders. I will get to tell him I followed his meal plan and he’s supposed to explain to me other meal/food options, too (which of course I will share with you and hopefully new visitors through Technorati – 95FDGWY5MY9P).

So, I am ready to start my day. I’ve got my cup of Kashi Cereal in hand (which really is very good. I’m not blowing smoke about that) and am ready to learn some new eating tricks today. Hopefully it will help. These last remaining twelve pounds are really starting to annoy the crap out of me.

Bah! I have a cold.

Like all colds it started with that drippy feeling in the back of the throat, followed by my throat feeling lumpy and a general feeling of fatigue. So I did the only thing that made sense – I took the day yesterday to rest. It may have only been mid-day but I crashed on my couch, falling asleep to the remake of “Planet of the Apes” on HBO.

When I awoke sometime in the early evening it was time to eat. I had had a grilled chicken salad for lunch so I was in need of food, at least something palatable in my groggy, stuffy haze that remotely sounded good. Then for some strange reason that old phrase hit me – “feed a cold, starve a fever.” But why in the hell would I WANT to feed a cold? I mean, to me, you feed a guest you want to stick around, not some stupid unwelcome visitor you want to leave asap. And not just any unwelcome visitor but the kind you wish wouldn’t be hit in the ass  by the doorknob on the way out.

So as I ate  my canned minestrone soup (totally not worth the calories) I looked up that old phrase. No one really knows its origins, but most accounts link it back to as early as 1574, when dictionary writer John Withals wrote “Fasting is a great remedie of feuer.” In those days, medical wisdom dictated that a drop in body temperature caused colds, while fevers produced a temperature spike.  So the rationale behind “feed a cold, starve a fever” may have been that eating food and drinking tonic helped the body generate warmth during a cold, while laying off the calories helped temper the inner heat during a fever.

But is it true?

“Colds usually last longer than fevers,” says Denise Snyder, a nutrition scientist and clinical trials manager at the Duke University School of Nursing. “You need to be consuming food so you can fight it off — especially fruit and vegetable juices and warm broths.”

Further, Scott Joy, MD, Chief of Clinical Services with Duke’s Division of General Internal Medicine, adds “Drinking plenty of fluids also makes a difference because it helps keep the secretions thinner and allows patients to get them out of their system lot quicker, alleviating symptoms such as a cough or nasal drainage.” Joy also doesn’t want patients to get hung up on unproven treatments. “It’s important to stress what we know makes a difference, which is getting plenty of rest.”

Dr. Joy, I couldn’t agree more, which is why I am heading right back to bed. But before I do I am putting a “beware of sick curmudgeon” sign in the ground outside directed at the common cold, H1N1, bronchitis and whatever stupid sicknesses are out there fighting and clawing their way inside my nasal passages, throat and head. In the meantime, what will I be eating?

Heidi Skolnik, MS, CDN, a dietitian and author, suggests “to help keep the sniffles and sneezes away, shop for nutrient-rich foods and beverages.” She recommends foods that are high in vitamins A, B, C, and E and in potassium, zinc, and magnesium. “Live and active cultures in yogurt also pack a punch, as well as folate found in 100 percent orange juice and spinach,” she says. “Load your shopping cart with immunity heroes to help maintain good health.”

Top 10 Cold Remedy Foods

• 100 percent orange juice
• Avocado
• Spinach
• Tomatoes
• Bell peppers
• Broccoli
• Garlic
• Grapefruit
• Lean meat
• Yogurt

Jacob Teitelbaum, MD, an internal medicine specialist and author, adds you should avoid foods that are high in sugar because they can decrease your immunity. “The sugar in a can of soda suppresses immune function by 30 percent for three hours.” “Avoid excess milk products if you are stuffy. Milk protein thickens mucous and makes it harder to drain.” Water, on the other hand, will help keep mucus thin and easier to clear.

Damn. No Coca-Cola for me for a few days.

And what of my cans of chicken soup hanging out in my pantry?

Chicken soup has been praised as a cold remedy since the time of the ancient Greeks. Twelfth-century Jewish physician Maimonides recommended chicken soup for treating colds. A well-known study done at the Nebraska Medical Center researched whether chicken soup works as a remedy to fight colds. The study found that chicken soup contains a number of substances with healing effects — and the researchers concluded that chicken soup actually does work (and not just for the soul).

Sweet. I know what I’m having for lunch today. That is when I wake up from resting.

Happy Tuesday, my friends.  Today is going to be a busy day and there’s tons on my “to-do” list.

I have stuff to do for the website, errands to run and phone calls to return. And while all of that is all well and good that is basically a great cocktail (at least for me) to eat badly. And you know the kind of eating I mean. The mindless kind, where you’re working so hard you grab something handy and just sit back down to continue working. I can’t do that. I won’t do that.

Part of why I can’t do that is that I need to get my butt to the gym. I have been doing well lately changing up my exercise routine (man, I can really feel it in my legs) and I am watching what I eat (and trying to lay off the sodas/pops). But sitting at one’s desk does pose a challenge. I know how busy we all can get. I know when time is of the essence and things need to get done and how little time you have. I really do.

I remember a time in my life when I used to be so caught-up in work I just reached over while still reading my computer screen to gram whatever-it-was I had for lunch and shove it into my mouth. On some days it was pizza. Most days Chinese food. Man. Why wasn’t it ever a salad/ Why wasn’t it ever fruit or a veggie? Or even just less of what I was eating? I wish I could tell you. I hadn’t had my “epiphany” yet, that moment I knew I had to wrest control of my life back from me for me.

So do me a favor today. OK? If you have a busy day coming up today take a look at what you eat today and make a note of it. Then, when you do have time, ask yourself if there was a way to do that better. For example, if you know you’ll be running from meeting to meeting brown bag lunch and carry it with you throughout the day so you’re prepared. You know, that sort of thing.

And I will take today in hand, too, and do the best I can (as we all do) on this weight loss and maintenance journey. Which reminds me I need to add “run to the store for healthier snacks” to my “to-do” list for today.Another thing I am doing today is talking to a personal trainer about steps we all can take to get leaner which I will share with you when he and I finally do have a chance to sit down.

See, lots to keep track of. During it all I will keep track of the snacks I have, the meals I eat and the exercise I get. This way, at the end of today, I can look back and say “yes,” “no” or “eh, so-so.” So have a great day, my friends. And remember. The number one thing on the top of your “to-do” list has to be you. No matter what. Remember that and everything else will fall into place.

Well, here it is. The Monday before Christmas and I am stuck at 238. Bah (humbug).

I know.  It’s not that bad but still enough to make me feel like such a slouch going into the day when at least one large meal will be served.

That is funny. I actually almost said “…at least one large meal will be consumed.” See…that is how my mind works. I automatically default to thinking I HAVE to eat what is presented. And while it is glorious, very appreciated and wonderful I must be mindful of how much I consume. I (and we) do not HAVE to consume what’s in front of us. Take a bit, still eating what you want, but then wait 10-20 minutes to give your body a chance to “feel full.” I have to keep that in mind.

This morning I did my usual four miles on the elliptical, worked out with weights, did weighted sit-ups (I am doing those again to help flatten out my stomach) and my reward, the steam room. So I did good this morning. Now it is whether or not I will be a good little boy and STAY good when I eat the rest of the day.

That’s my constant dilemma. I worked out, burned about 500 calories so in my mind I have some room. Not so. This is a time when I need to re-commit to being good and not over-indulging. So that days like Christmas I can have ONE extra helping (not three), or a piece of dessert. Working out is not equivalent to a Christmas sale, where I take off so much calorically (like the discount they give you in stores) to get me to eat more (or in stores spend more).

I am constantly CONSTANTLY doing this in my head because it is a journey, and I stumble just like you guys do. But I have no “fat clothes” to fall back into (thank God) and I have no one to blame but me when my new, super nifty Conair scale is telling me I am still at 238. I also have to be good because Christmas meal or no Christmas meal, I should not be eating heavy at night. Instead, if the mood strikes I need to do a sit-up or six. Then have a piece of fruit.

So with Four days and counting I am counting my intake, too. I should. Because the best Christmas present I can give myself would be to get back to 235 by Christmas Day and maybe, MAYBE, 232, by New Year’s Day.

I will leave the sales in stores and the burned-off calories in the gym. Just because we can do things (like eat) doesn’t mean we should. It is then that we learn the true meaning of Chri…sorry…the true meaning of this, our weight loss journey.