Why You Should Eat Pumpkin Pie And Enjoy Every Calorie

Ask Keri: Pumpkin pie has a gazillion calories, and I’m trying to lose weight. Should I skip it? Keri Says: Pumpkin pie. Cranberry sauce. Stuffing. Mashed Potatoes. Butter. Butter. More butter. Thanksgiving is coming and you already have anxiety just thinking about the decadence that will be staring you in the face on the holiday table, right? You’re imagining the moment you’ll get to dig into your favorite pumpkin pie, topped with freshly whipped cream and surrounded by a crumbly, sweet, and buttery graham crust. You’ll “try to be good” and only have one bite. But when you wind up eating a whole piece, you won’t be able to enjoy it because you’ll immediately start kicking yourself for falling off the healthful path. You’ll say “I’ve blown it!” and maybe even have a second piece, because you know what? You “earned it.” And if everyone else can enjoy it then why can’t you? And you might as well enjoy everything on the table—twice—because Thanksgiving only comes once a year and you’ll just get back on track on Monday morning.  Sound familiar? The next day, when you step on the scale, you’ll throw your hands up in the air and curse yourself for eating that “dang piece of pie!” and blame it for the extra pound you’re up or shame yourself for staying the same when you’re trying to lose. Just thinking about all of this negativity is exhausting, isn’t it? Wouldn’t you like to simply eat your favorite piece of pumpkin pie one day in your life and not feel bad about it? Don’t you want—more than anything—not to feel disgusted with yourself and unhappy in your body and eat that piece of pie in peace? That’s not asking too much, and you can have that right now. How to Actually Enjoy Your Pumpkin Pie THIS holiday season, you just gotta try it the Nutritious Life way, and turn it into YOUR way. The Nutritious Life way means that you’re always working hard at living your most Nutritious Life. Most of the time, it has you feeling good about your food, fitness, and wellness choices. There are things that are super easy for you to do (i.e. have your favorite salad at lunchtime) and there will always be areas you need to work a little harder on (i.e. getting yourself to the gym before work). This is normal, and you don’t beat yourself up for not being “perfect.” You just keep trying and improving. Are you working hard on all of your nutrition and wellness work 90% of the time? Good for you! If you’re truly doing great health and nutrition work 90% of the time, you should be… enjoying dessert, a glass of wine, or a savory treat a few times every week. These are what I call conscious indulgences. What is a Conscious Indulgence? A conscious indulgence is a planned treat that you add to your lifestyle only because it’s delicious, makes you happy, and is a part of being an empowered eater.    So put that Nutritious Life hat on and change your thinking. Empowered You is now contemplating that same pie and thinking, “I cannot wait to eat a peace (pun intended) of my favorite pie! I’m going to savor every bite.” Empowered eaters can have their cake, pie, chips, or french fries and be satisfied once they’ve eaten it, rather than triggered to want more and more.  This mindset reduces stress over food because there’s nothing illicit about the gravy. You planned on eating it. This is the Nutritious Life way—a mindset—deliberate, planned and empowered. Try it out. You’ll see that you’re really proud of your good work and savoring and enjoying your conscious indulgences, and the negative brain power is a forgotten memory. You’ll continue to reach your weight and health goals. Farewell to the Frustrated Old You. You like this You much more. Have a healthful and fabulous Thanksgiving (to make it utterly spectacular check out my healthy Thanksgiving menu). Enjoy your holiday and your conscious indulgence.

Are There Really Good Calories & Bad Calories?

Today’s topic? Calories. Good calories bad calories, all calories. Is there even such a think as a good or bad calorie? Or is a calorie just a calorie? Though the way most people look at and think about them has shifted, calories (and the counting of them!) are still a hot topic that I get questions on all of the time. How many calories should I be eating to lose 5 lbs in 2 weeks? I eat this many calories, why can I still not fit into my jeans? How many calories are in my favorite chicken parmesan dish? I ate this bag of chips, how many calories are in it? Food is not calories alone. If it was, we would all be able to eat a certain amount chocolate cake and be perfectly healthy. And we know this is clearly not the case. All foods are not created equal. They are complex mixtures of a wide variety of nutrients, vitamins, minerals, fibers, and additives. Though I like to tell people to not focus so much on calories, I am still a dietitian after all, and calories do exist and can be used as a frame of reference in a healthy way. However, they don’t have to be the focal point. Let me show you why. The good calories, the bad calories, and the ugly.

Why You Should Stop Counting Calories

Ask Keri: If I eat 100 calories of jelly beans, isn’t that the same as eating 100 calories of another snack like turkey and avocado? Keri Says: There’s a reason why people say “a calorie is a calorie.” In all fairness, a calorie is a calorie in its most simple form. And for years, it was drilled into our heads that counting calories was the only way to lose weight. Calories are a measure of the energy generated from food once inside the body, and they abide by a simple law of physics: energy in minus energy out equals weight loss or gain.  This is true both in a test-tube and in tightly controlled weight-loss experiments, where people are basically locked-up and fed exactly the same number of calories from different types of diets. Time and again, subjects will lose roughly the same amount of weight, regardless of whether the calories come from low-fat, low-carb, or diets somewhere in between. However, this is far from the complete story. The human body is quite complex and there are many factors at play at all times. Hormones, emotions, cravings, and even our social schedule influence the amount of calories we consume and how our body processes them. So, I’m going to explain why 100 calories of jelly beans is not the same as 100 calories of fresh turkey and a slice of avocado. Stay with me. Why You Should Stop Counting Calories If all calories were created equal, many of us would choose to live in a land of gummy bears and Swedish fish. But food isn’t made up of calories alone. Let’s go back to those jelly beans. The only nutrient jelly beans provide is sugar. Sugar does nothing good for our bodies and actually does a whole lot of harm. During digestion, sugary treats stimulate the hormone insulin to be released. Insulin is good in the way that it helps cells uptake nutrients we eat, but it also inhibits the breakdown of fat and encourages the creation of it when we take in those excess calories. Translation: if we don’t need those jelly bean calories they’ll be turned to fat—fast. This spike in insulin and blood sugar also causes us to feel hungrier sooner, which likely means our hand goes right back into the candy bag and pops another 100 calories in our mouth before we’ve had time to even think about it. And the last nail in the coffin for living on calories from sugar alone is that we will actually die from it. Seriously… sugar alone would eventually kill us. We need nutrients, vitamins, and phytonutrients that real whole foods provide to fuel all bodily processes. Now, a portion of turkey and avocado can also provide the body with 100 calories. But, these calories are loaded with protein, fiber, healthy fats, iron, zinc, B vitamins, and many other vitamins and minerals our bodies needs to perform at an optimum level of health. These nutrients help with body processes from building muscle to improving energy to boosting the immune system to helping prevent cancer, heart disease and a whole host of other benefits. Guess what else these calories do for us? They help to keep you satisfied and full—so we aren’t as likely to go back for seconds—and they keep fat storage hormones in check. By helping to control blood sugar, our insulin release is more stable and we release less fat storage hormones. So, the important takeaway is to watch your total calorie intake, but most important is to eat whole, real, unprocessed foods. And, don’t forget to read the ingredient list of any packaged foods you do eat to get the full nutritional picture. Jelly beans can never replace the nutritional benefits provided by consuming whole, real foods—even if you eat the same amount of calories. Alas, a calorie is not a calorie!

How to Lose Weight With One Simple Change

I’m going to tell you how to lose weight, but we aren’t gonna talk about what you eat. Well, not yet, anyway. We’re gonna talk about what you drink. Beverage sales are through the roof all over the country. You see a coffee drink in every hand on your commute daily, energy drinks fuel a decent portion of our workforce every afternoon, and a soda with dinner is commonplace in many homes every evening. Not to mention the various bottles and cans than inhabit desks and car cupholders throughout the day. We’re all on something – juice, coffee, soda, sweet tea – so let’s take a minute to really think about what we’re pouring down our throats. I recently asked a client, “Is it acceptable to you to be drinking 4 Diet Cokes in the morning?” Her reply was that she hadn’t thought much about it. She was drinking them for the caffeine and it had just become a habit. It seems that this is common for many of us. Calories aside (yes, I know there are no calories in a Diet Coke), if you really push yourself, you’ll probably agree that it is not human nature to drink Diet Coke (or whatever is in your cup) at all. In fact, humans are the only animals that drink anything other than water or nursing milk in the food chain. Our biology agrees with that line of thinking: in nature, calories are designed to be metabolized through the foods we chew. The process of digesting and processing those calories starts in the mouth but most of the food molecules are broken down in our stomach and small intestine. When you drink your calories, the molecules are already mostly broken down and so they shoot right into your blood and don’t sit in your stomach very long at all. We now know that these calories get stored in fat cells more rapidly than the calories from food, which is why so many of us are trying to figure out how to lose weight. If you are thinking that your beverage doesn’t have calories in it, because it’s artificially sweetened, you’re not off the hook. Is it human nature to be drinking chemicals? Those chemicals are contributing to an increased appetite and cravings, and they may also be messing with your palate by keeping you from being satisfied from naturally sweet foods. How to Lose Weight With One Simple Change: Critical thinking 101: If you are chugging something (other than water) ask yourself  ‘is it reasonable to me to be drinking ____ x ____ times per day?’ Critical thinking always brings me back to human nature and biology — the only thing we should drink like water IS water. Still, we are at the top of the food chain for a reason, and so we should make the most of our critical thinking and large brain capacity. There is still room for delicious drinks in your Nutritious Life. I promise. Choose water, seltzer and tea the majority of the time. Incorporate greens juices and a glass of wine into your healthy eating plan. A glass of wine with a nutritious meal or an all green juice with a handful of nuts for a snack. Leave the juice, sports drinks, novelty drinks and the rest in the rarely to never category. Break your beverage habit. If you start with healthy drinking, it will lead to healthy eating, and you’ll find yourself suddenly with an overall healthy diet. I promise that if you go back to your natural drinking nature, you’ll shed some extra weight and feel like king of the jungle.