9 Weight Loss Tips During Thanksgiving
You’re looking for weight loss tips because you want to do Thanksgiving differently this year, right? Usually, you eat until you’re stuffed, fall asleep on the couch, and wake up in the 4th quarter of some football game. If this is you, we promise you, you’re not alone. If football’s not your jam, you might retreat to a bedroom and pass out in a food coma on a proper bed. You tell yourself it was all that tryptophan from the turkey. But does the tryptophan in turkey really make you feel tired? Not really. Turkey contains an essential amino acid called L-tryptophan, which the body uses to produce the brain chemical serotonin. Serotonin can help us sleep by improving our mood and promoting relaxation. As it turns out, turkey contains almost the same amount of tryptophan as chicken, pork, and beef. What’s more, egg whites, soybeans and cheddar cheese have even more tryptophan than turkey. So, what are the real culprits behind your post-Thanksgiving marathon nap? Aside from typical overconsumption of food and alcohol, it’s usually just the result of too many carb-heavy foods and throwing your healthy diet out the window. Mashed potatoes, corn bread, stuffing, and apple pie—oh my! All of those starchy carbs can quickly raise blood sugar and may encourage sleep. This year, begin a new tradition. Eat a little less, drink a little more (water!), feel a lot better, and maybe you won’t even need the nap. You’ll be ready to show Black Friday who’s boss. 9 Weight Loss Tips During Thanksgiving 1. Begin with breakfast. Eat consistently throughout the day beginning with a well-balanced, healthy breakfast. 2. Eat before you party. Choose from your arsenal of healthy snacks before you go to a holiday dinner. To control hunger, try eating two high-fiber crackers with 2 teaspoons of natural nut butter or a hard-boiled egg as a pre-party snack. 3. Offer to bring a dish. There may not be many healthy foods offered at your party, but that’s OK. By bringing your own healthy dish, at least you’ll have one go-to—and you’ll know exactly what’s in it. 4. Turn on your healthy food radar. Load up on lighter and cleaner appetizers with healthy fats, such as crudité with a portion of hummus. 5. Set your sip limit. Give yourself a drink maximum before the meal begins. Remember to sip slowly and choose lower-calorie and low-sugar options such as vodka and seltzer or wine spritzers. 6. Exercise! An hour spent burning calories will also motivate you to make healthier choices later in the day. 7. Control your portions. This includes veggies. Unless you’ve prepared them, they could be loaded with sneaky ingredients such as margarine or sugary sauces. (Here’s a handy portion control hack for you to try.) Don’t let desserts derail your healthy lifestyle either. Slice your own pie so you can control the size. And skip that crust. 8. Listen to your body. Stop eating once you’re slightly satisfied. Period. You’ll have much better memories of a meal enjoyed than a meal overindulged in. Focus on your family and friends, not food. 9. Drink plenty of water. Drinking adequate water promotes what’s known as a thermogenic state, which increases your metabolic rate. This will help to keep you from overeating and help you feel full, so you don’t actually stuff yourself full. 10. Enjoy your day. And here’s a bonus tip for you. When it comes to Thanksgiving or any gathering of family and friends, don’t forget to enjoy your day. Consciously and wisely (with the tips here) indulge in your favorite foods and have a very happy Thanksgiving. Take Your Hunger for Nutrition and Wellness Knowledge to the Next Level If you love learning about the best foods, drinks, and lifestyle habits for total wellness, think of how awesome it would be to learn and share this life-changing info as a side hustle… or even your full-time job. Our Become a Nutrition Coach certification course gives you a solid foundation in nutrition science, plus techniques for coaching clients and growing your new business—all within a community of passionate, like-minded friends. It’s the perfect way to inspire the next generation of healthier people all across the globe. Request a sneak peek of the Become a Nutrition Coach program here and see how you can put your passion for wellness to work. (Images: Shutterstock)
Dr. Jordan Metzl’s High-Intensity, Fitness-Focused Nutritious Life
Dr. Jordan Metzl’s mom had a motto that clearly stuck with him: “Rest means rust!” The esteemed sports medicine physician, popular fitness instructor, athlete, and best-selling author almost never stops moving, and his new book reflects that ethos. Dr. Jordan Metzl’s Workout Prescription: 10, 20 & 30-minute high intensity interval training workouts for every fitness level brings the science of high-intensity exercise to the busy masses, with workouts you can do quickly, wherever you are, no equipment required. To celebrate the launch, we asked Dr. Metzl to share how he lives his own most Nutritious Life daily, and he dished out the details on how he swims, bikes, and runs all over the town, the foods he eats for fuel, and more fun facts. How Does Dr. Jordan Metzl Live a Nutritious Life? If you had to name your healthy diet, what would you call it? “Dr. Metzl’s A Little Bit of Everything Diet.” I’ve done 14 Ironman triathlons and 35 marathons, and food is fuel to me. I love all different kinds of food, and the more efficient I make my body, the more foods I can enjoy. What’s the one food you always have in your fridge? Greek Yogurt. It’s simple, fast, and packed with protein. The one food you’d never buy? Peanut butter. I hate it! What do you eat before and after a workout? I like doing the “naked workout” once or twice a week—as in working out on an empty stomach. If I do eat before a workout, it’s usually some type of complex carbs like whole wheat bread with honey and coffee. Afterwards, if it’s been a serious training session, I usually go for the first thing I can get my hands on. Your favorite food indulgence? Ice cream. Other than water, what do you sip regularly? Coffee. How often do you exercise, and what’s your workout of choice? Every day. I try to never miss a day. I vary my workouts regularly. I run, swim, bike, and I’m obviously a huge fan of HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training) that focuses on strength. My latest book is all about that. Which workout would you NEVER do? There isn’t a workout I wouldn’t try at least once. How do you stay active outside the gym? I’m hardly ever in the gym! I get around New York City on my bike. If I have a meeting or an event downtown, I’ll put clothes in my backpack and run to the closest Equinox. I keep it moving all the time. My mother always says, “rest means rust!” What’s your go-to tool for managing stress? Exercise, 100 percent. How do you express and spread love? I try and do it as much as I can. I smile and high-five every single patient I see and every person I interact with. I try to build that same idea within my IronStrength fitness community, too. We do a lot of partner workouts and supporting and cheering each other on. Which healthy habit do you wish you had more time for? Sleep! Lighting Round Meditation or massage? Massage. A hot shower or a soothing bath? Shower. Almond butter or peanut butter? Neither! Coffee or tea? Coffee. A long run outside or a dark spin class? Run. “How Do You Live a Nutritious Life?” is a recurring column. Featured guests complete a questionnaire and select answers are then chosen and edited to share, here. Are you a wellness pro interested in sharing how you live a Nutritious Life? Email lisa@nutritiouslife.com to be considered.
5 Ways to Find Workout Motivation When It Feels Impossible
Workout motivation is often tough to tap. Maybe the days have gotten shorter and the winter chill is making you want to stay snuggled underneath a fuzzy blanket, or your work and social schedule has gotten so crazy you barely have time to slip on sneakers. Whatever the reason, there are specific tactics that can help you continue or even start exercising when it feels impossible. Try these 5 workout motivation boosters, now. Schedule it. Setting and maintaining a consistent exercise schedule turns it into part of your day. In other words, prioritize working out as if it were a doctor’s appointment, no skipping allowed. Just remember that it’s important to make a schedule that’s realistic and can be maintained. Some weeks require morning workouts, others midday. Over time, an extra day can always be added to your schedule, but don’t start out with goals you can’t reach and end up discouraged (i.e. are you really going to get up at 5:00 a.m. for spin class the morning after your weekly work happy hour?). Invest money. Paying for a gym membership or buying classes at a boutique fitness studio is not always cheap, and not everyone has this option. But if you do have some disposable income (hey, how many nice bottles of red wine did you pick up last week?), maybe paying for a personal trainer is what you need. Money has a way of changing your perspective because no one wants to waste it. Think of it as the best kind of investment—in your health. Switch things up. If you dread your sweat sessions, get creative and try something new. It could be that you just haven’t found your workout motivation sweet spot yet. Love cardio? Look into spinning or boxing. Want to tone and tighten? Try a barre class. Hot yoga might be what your body needs on a cold, winter day; lifting heavy at a CrossFit box might feel better during summer. Find a workout partner. Working out with a friend creates accountability—it’s harder to bail when you know you’ll be letting someone else down by not showing up. Bonus: research has shown that exercising with a partner can push you to work harder during the sweat session, and it’s bound to be way more fun, too. Treat yourself (post-workout). Choose something to serve as a reward after working out (no, not a gallon of ice cream). Think along the lines of a warm shower followed by a great face mask, or bigger treats for hitting specific goals. At the end of a really successful week, for example, you could buy yourself those pumps you’ve been coveting or a bold new lipstick.Think of something that really resonates with you, personally, that makes you proud of breaking a sweat and working towards those bigger health and fitness goals. About Jane: Jane Hanisch is a Nutritious Life Certified personal trainer and yoga instructor based in Charlotte, NC. She holds a degree in Exercise Science and is an exercise physiologist through ACSM. As a former professional ballet dancer, she witnessed the dangers of resorting to unhealthy diet tricks in order to maintain a certain weight. The experience showed her that food could not be the enemy, and after stepping away from the dance world, she began a career in fitness and nutrition to help other women live healthy lives. Follow Jane on Instagram @janehanisch or on her website www.corefitactive.com.
Should You Exercise With a Cold?
You’ve been kicking booty at the gym and are finally in the habit of daily exercise when ka-BOOM, you wake up with a sore throat and a stuffy nose. You feel deflated because you were finally starting to see the results of your hard work. You sit on the edge of your bed, holding a box of tissues, thinking to yourself, “Should I exercise with a cold?” The docs will tell you that if your symptoms are above the neck like a sore throat and a stuffy nose, it’s okay to workout. If your symptoms are below the neck, like a fever, a cough, body aches or worse, the docs want you to stay home and chill. As a Pilates Instructor who has had plenty of clients show up for class with a cold, I have some added advice. When you have a cold, it’s a sign that your body is trying to cleanse itself. It’s looking for rest and rehab vs. the rigors of your usual workout. Does that mean that you need to sit at home? No way. My favorite ways to exercise with a cold: Go outside for a heart-pumping walk or easy jog. Do an online yoga class in your living room. Bounce on your trampoline in the backyard. Take your bike out for a spin. Keep up your usual healthy eating habits and add more fluids to help flush the congestion from your nose. These low-intensity workouts will allow you to exercise with a cold while you body’s trying to recover. Do you notice what else these types of workouts have in common? They involve NOT going to the gym, the indoor cycling studio or the barre class. That’s right! While rehabbing your body, you’re keeping your germs to yourself. And because not everyone has good manners like you do, here are my top ways to avoid catching a cold in the first place: Carry antibacterial wipes and wipe down the spin bike or other equipment before using it. I used to think that I looked crazy, but when my friends started to ask me for a wipe, I knew I was smart. Drink tons of water and add some fresh, vitamin C-containing lemon slices to it now and then. Take a probiotic daily. Get 7-8 hours of sleep. Make it a priority. Meditate daily to quell your stress level. Workout regularly! When you exercise, your circulation and blood flow is increased. This means that your immune system is also circulating and working at its peak. If you still feel like you’re dragging, and the above suggestions don’t feel right, it’s OK to give your body a few days off from all workouts. A short break won’t unravel all of your efforts. You should feel empowered that you listened to your body and return to your usual plan with positive energy both mentally and physically when the time is right. About Cassie: Cassie Piasecki, NLC is a Pilates Method Alliance, Certified Pilates Teacher, personal trainer, and Nutritious Life Certified Nutritionist based in Newport Beach, California. With over 24 years of experience, Cassie has taught fitness to over 10,000 people! She now connects with clients both in the studio and online via her website. Her favorite quote comes from Joseph Pilates, “Physical fitness is the first requisite of happiness.”
Sexercise Your Way to Happier—and Yes, Healthier—You
Sexercise. You either just blushed when I said it, or you already have your pants unbuttoned. No judgment either way, but, full disclothesure (ha!), I’m going to try to convince you to get comfy with the concept. I may not be Dr. Ruth, but this I know: A healthy sex life is an important part of living your most Nutritious Life. Is it as important as eating empowered, sleeping deep, stressing less, and all of my other pillars? You bet. Sex is good for you. It helps you recover from stressors better, strengthens your immune system, benefits your heart health and lowers blood pressure. Need more sex benefits? Benefits of Sex Sex prevents prostate cancer in men. It prevents bladder cancer in women. It’s a mood booster. It’s a pain alleviator. It can help you lose weight. It can help you look younger and sleep better. Sex as Exercise And there’s one more tiny detail we don’t focus on enough: Sex is actually a form of exercise as well. It strengthens muscles and burns about 3-4 calories per minute, kind of like biking at a light to moderate pace. So if you haven’t been biking because your tire is flat or your chain is loose or your handlebars are rusty, no more excuses. You don’t even need a bike. There’s plenty of sexercise apps out there to help you calculate your, er, expenditure and keep track of your favorite ways to do it. Yep, there’s an app for that. There’s a sexercise website devoted to helping you and your partner record those passionate calories burned. It even plots it on a graph for all you visual learners out there. It also tells you the equivalent exercises that would have burned the same amount of calories, and how many ounces of red wine you burned off. There’s probably a lot of other resources out there, but I don’t want to get you in trouble if you’re reading this while at work. You can do that research on your own. Speaking of research, it tells us that the more lovin’ you get in, the more lovin’ you’ll enjoy. It’s a self-fulfilling wellness wheel that you should climb on responsibly. Basically, sexercise should fit neatly sometime between waking up and falling asleep, like brushing your teeth or checking your email. If you tend to brush your teeth or check your email a lot, bonus! Exercise to Sexercise Now, I’m not saying that sex is itself the best form of exercise. But many of those other forms have an impact on your physical health, and improving your health can make you better at sex—it’s a really pleasurable circle of great benefits. For example, cardio (such as running, cycling, power walking) increases endurance, which understandably connects to bedroom activities. (Some people even experience “coregasm” during their cardio!) Also, for men, moderate to high-intensity aerobic exercise improves erectile dysfunction. Another great activity that leads to increased sexual function: kegel exercises. Doing kegels strengthens the pelvic floor muscles, which support the uterus, bladder, small intestine and rectum. A number of factors, from childbirth to surgery to aging (and losing estrogen), contributes to these muscles weakening. Often recommended as a strategy to help fight incontinence, kegel exercises are generally believed to improve sexual performance, not just in women but in men too. Then there are routines that improve your strength and flexibility. It’s not hard to imagine the extracurricular benefits of Pilates: Poses like the Pilates V (or Frog) build up core strength, which is great—and maybe it will also inspire some new sexy techniques to practice with your partner? Then there’s yoga, with plenty of stretches and poses that will both make you more limber and firm up your glutes. Most of us just think of the fun side of sex, not the fact that it’s actually good for your health. I’m not telling you to skip your morning run, or that you don’t need the spin class. I’m just saying that maybe it’s time to enhance your workout with a little between-the-sheets cross-training. Now stop blushing, keep unbuttoning your pants, and get your sexercise on. (Image: Shutterstock)
Why You Aren’t Losing Weight…Even Though You’re Exercising!
Have you been sweating it out at the gym in the name of squeezing into smaller jeans? And do those smaller jeans always seem to be too small, no matter how many walking lunges you suffer through? Unfortunately, for anyone overweight, exercise alone doesn’t do the best job of shedding extra layers of padding…and working hard and not losing weight is so frustrating. See, your muscles respond to exercise pretty quickly (the soreness means those muscles have been worked!), but your fat is less responsive to the charms of strength training and feeling that burn.{Tweet this} If you’re only exercising to lose weight, it’s probably not going to work. Not buying it? You should. Here’s one possibility of why you are not losing weight, even though you’ve logged so many hours in the gym this month: Science has already proven that our bodies are not caloric bank accounts. We can’t put in food (calories) and “burn” them, or take them out, with a “you just burned 500 calories” workout on the treadmill. It doesn’t work that way. Storing fat is a complicated process, and it’s even more complicated to take that fat out of your cells and use it for energy. You have to factor in your hormones, metabolism and genetics. Sorry Charlie, none of those are yours to control. There is some truth to eating less and moving more, but that moving more part is tricky. See, exercise stimulates your heart. Your muscles. Your immune system. And, it stimulates your appetite. The harder you exercise, the hungrier you’ll be. This makes it really, really, really hard to stick to your controlled meal plan, which leads you to feeling like a failure for the extra spoonfuls of peanut butter at the end of the day. If you set your mind to it, you can do it, though. After all, you’re a warrior who would rather be fit and strong with a few pounds to lose, than an out of shape underweight cake for breakfast eating wimp, right? If you have those few pounds you need to obliterate, it’s the food work that will get you most of the way there. Still, exercise helps, so I want you to use it wisely. For now, intense exercise isn’t the best bet. Stick to low intensity activities. Taking fat out of your cells and using it for fuel requires a lot of oxygen, so make sure you can take good breaths. If you’re panting like a dog, you’re not gonna burn fat. Also, 15 minutes isn’t going to do the trick. A 30 minute or longer walk won’t stimulate your appetite and it’s long enough to kick into fat-for-energy mode. My best advice for you: maximize your genetic potential. Just as you may never get to be 5’10”, your body may be designed for strength and power (read: muscular) and not endurance (read: lanky), or vice versa. Look at your body for what it is built for and embrace it. Make it as fit as possible. Don’t waste your time aspiring to make your body into something it isn’t. Being strong is fierce, even if it doesn’t translate into you looking like an underwear model. {Tweet this}
Are Your Healthy Habits Being Blocked By Digestion?
By Ashley Koff, RD You are what you eat, well, not quite… On your path to a nutritious life you’ve been learning about all the great foods you can and should eat. Keri and her team are amazing at coming up with fun and delicious ways to get these foods into you for a healthier, happier you (and family). Are you eating your kale and quinoa, drinking your water with lemon, and using coconut oil on your bod and in the pan? These things are amazing for you IF they get where they need to go in the body. And that, my friends, is where so many of us have problems these days. Last week, as us RD gals caught up, I shared “I know they say ‘you are what you eat’ but I say ‘ you are what you digest and absorb’” to which Keri said “love it! Will you guest blog for me and explain why.” So here I go: Did you know our digestive lining is meant to be like mesh (think panty hose) but many of us have the start of a run or worse, have runs that aren’t just letting some skin show through – they are actually letting the nutrients we want in our digestive tract to “leak” out along with stuff we should be eliminating too – this is creating a hot mess of intolerances, skin irritation, bloating, and suboptimal nutrient absorption. But if I eat right and exercise, why would this be happening? Stress – even the good ‘I did a triathlon’ or ‘I birthed a baby’ stress – is often the culprit, along with medications we took when we needed (antibiotics, steroids, birth control) and those unfortunately coming in by way of our adulterated food and water (we know today to choose antibiotic-free meats and dairy but most of us have been consuming it for far longer than not). UGH! So what can I do and does it mean I have to buy a whole new digestive tract? LOL! No. But we do need to start today to add to all the smart Nutritious Life steps, the step called – repair work – as in ‘How to heal and promote a healthy digestive tract’. This begins with an assessment – ideally monthly – to see how things are or are not moving, and how they are or are not smelling. If there’s something going on all the time, you would do best to talk to an RD or MD who knows about digestive issues ASAP. But for all of us who just feel we need and want to optimize our digestion to get all the benefits that go along with it (better energy, healthy immune system, healthy skin, and better body composition results – think bye bye belly fat) when combined with optimal nutrition, fitness, and sleep, we can consider adding the nutrients that work together for optimal digestion. Symbiotics combine nutrients such as Lactoferrin, Immunoglobulins, and Proline-Rich Polypeptides – which are big words for nutrients the body uses to promote a robust intestinal lining and healthy intestinal flora – net, net, think of it as beyond the nail polish you would use to stop a run, it’s the goods that deliver a whole new pair of pantyhose without you having to go to the trouble of getting a new pair! So consider that while we love an organic kale juice and water with lemon, part of a Nutritious Life is making sure your body gets the great nutrition you are bringing into it.
