4 Reasons NOT to Go On a Liquid Cleanse Diet

  Q: What are your thoughts on doing a liquid cleanse diet? A: I’m a fan of a cleanse diet. However, I’m not a fan of a liquid cleanse diet. It’s hard to feel empowered when you’re drinking your breakfast. And your lunch. And your snacks. And your dinner. . . I need to chew. You?   I prefer a real food cleanse diet. I believe in eating whole foods to fuel and energize your body. Eating proper portions of fiber rich, high antioxidant foods such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, and also eating lean protein and healthy fat, will give you the results you want for your health and weight for the long term. You don’t need to go to the extreme of liquid cleansing to achieve this. Yep, as boring as it may sound, eating healthy foods as part of an overall balanced diet is the best way to lose weight and keep it off.  4 benefits from a real food cleanse diet for a few days include Now, there are exceptions to every rule. I may green light a liquid cleanse for a specific situation or condition such as an individual needing to recover from GI distress. Sometimes bowel rest can be helpful to get a client back on a healthy track. Very infrequently I may have a client who needs something extreme to break a cycle and get to a new starting point on a healthy diet and a food cleanse isn’t an option because they’re overwhelmed by the prep (simple as it may be) or really resistant to alternatives. But, 99% of the time I recommend a whole, real solid food cleanse, not a liquid cleanse. Here are 4 reasons why I don’t like a liquid cleanse diet: Steer clear of liquid cleansing. If you want to take your healthy diet up a notch and give yourself a nutrition boost and weight loss push, try one of my real food cleanses!

Don’t Sabotage Your Diet By Eating Late At Night

Ask Keri: Is it bad to eat past 7 or 8pm?And will eating late at night ruin my diet? Keri Says: Maybe you worked late last night and needed extra fuel. Or you had a dinner date across town that didn’t start until 8:30 p.m. Or you had 10 errands to run before you made it home to whip up dinner. Whatever your reason for eating late at night, (whether it’s your actual dinner or an after-dinner snack) the good news is that your body does not have a built in calorie clock. The bad news is, this doesn’t mean you can eat whatever you want whenever you want. You knew this bad news already, so no surprise there.  Your body processes and manages caloric consumption over many days, weeks and months. It’s not the exact time you stop eating that’s most important. It’s about not eating more calories than you need and about eating the right types of calories. I don’t advocate counting calories. Keeping your calories in check is going to be a result of eating whole real foods, consistently through the day and listening to your body.  If you are a late sleeper, you may start your day at 10:00 a.m. and have dinner later than 8:00 p.m.—that’s potentially okay. If you eat breakfast within and hour and a half of rising and eat consistently through the day your lateish dinner may be perfectly acceptable. And if you’re an early riser, your dinner may be at 5:00 p.m. and an 8:00 p.m. nutrient-dense snack may be just what your body needs.  The problem isn’t necessarily what time you’re eating dinner, it’s that most calories eaten after dinner are additional calories that you don’t need and they’re usually the wrong types of calories. Cheese fries sound familiar? Nibbling post dinner or eating late at night is commonly mindless eating due to a habit, boredom or other emotional eating. Regardless of the reason, it’s generally additional calories you don’t need. When you eat late at night you’re usually also missing out on the break to the digestive system that we could all use. Even if you’re not an intermittent faster, most of us could still benefit from a 12 hour fast. If you eat your dinner at a more traditional time, but find yourself still hungry later on, you need to be aware of the why you’re hungry. Did you not eat consistently throughout the day? Did you get in adequate protein throughout the day? Was your dinner well balanced and proportioned? Is your stress level off the charts? Are you eating healthy foods and an overall healthy diet or are you shoveling in mostly highly processed foods?  Reflect on your day, and as a rule of thumb, you should fuel your body with healthy snacks or meals every three to five hours. It’s a better guideline than the time on the clock. If you find yourself walking to the kitchen but you shouldn’t really be hungry, check in with your emotions, tweak that night time routine and go for a cup of herbal tea instead. If you’re starving because it’s 3:00 a.m.? Go to bed! 

Will Hanukkah Ruin My Diet?

Ask Keri: Will indulging during Hanukkah completely ruin my diet? Keri Says: People always ask me, “how bad is it to eat chocolate every day?”  I also hear things like, “I know it’s bad, but I have to have a cookie with my tea in the afternoon.” I think what’s actually being asked is: will indulging in some of my favorite things undo all my weight loss or healthy weight maintenance efforts? What if I have something decadent every day? I’m opening up this topic once again because a client I worked with recently has lost 40 pounds this year and is worried that celebrating 8 nights of Hanukkah will set her way back. I’m sure it won’t surprise you that when she asked, “Can I truly celebrate all 8 nights without ruining all of my hard work?” my answer was a resounding YES! I have tons of experience navigating holidays and celebrations with clients successfully. YOU can do it, too. Here’s how. Step 1: Eat as clean and simply as possible during the day. You should have one or two go-to healthy breakfasts, healthy lunches, and healthy snacks that you enjoy and can bounce between. For example: Breakfast #1: 6 oz Greek yogurt, 10 almonds, 1 cup blueberries Breakfast #2: 2 hard boiled eggs, 1 cup spinach, 1 sliced tomato Lunch #1: 5 oz grilled chicken, 2 cups kale, tomatoes, cucumbers, sprouts, ⅓ avocado Lunch #2: 12 oz turkey and vegetable chili, celery and carrot sticks, 1 tablespoon sour cream Snack #1: Green apple and 2 teaspoons nut butter Snack #2: Crudités and 2 tablespoons hummus Step 2: Make dinner a party of lean proteins, such as beef, chicken, beans, fish, or lentils over a piled-high plate of salad greens and veggies prepared with little added fat.  Step 3: Make a promise to yourself (and with us as your witnesses) that you will NO LONGER call your indulgence “bad” but will now call it what it is: a “conscious indulgence”. And make that indulgence part of your celebration, with not a speck of guilt or judgment in sight. RELATED: Why You Should Eat Pumpkin Pie and Enjoy Every Calorie So, go ahead and add a planned treat to your meal—maybe a slice of challah, a perfectly fried latke, or a little bag of Hanukkah gelt (90 calories, 5 grams of fat). There is definitely room in your clean and beautiful day of eating for a planned indulgence. Since you get 8 nights, you don’t need the latke, challah, and gelt all at once. You can spread them out with one treat each night. Just like you did with your Halloween candy, you decide if it’s “better” to indulge in one day, like we do on Christmas, or stretch out the pleasure of the food over 8 nights, Hanukkah style. Whatever you choose, make a plan to stick to your healthy way of eating and plan your conscious indulging mindfully. Happy holidays!

What Yo Yo Dieting Does to your Body and Why the Holidays are a Trigger

You’re officially familiar with yo-yo dieting if you’ve ever said something like this more than once: “I want to be X pounds by Christmas.” “I want to wear my size X dress to the holiday party in 3 weeks.” “I refuse to get rid of my smaller belts because I know they’ll fit when I get back to working out this spring.” All of these quotes come from actual clients of Nutritious Life founder and celebrity nutritionist, Keri Glassman, MS, RD, CDN. They’re familiar, or at least very relatable, to so many of us who work hard to lose weight, only to have it creep back on (plus a few more pounds), to then again buckle down to lose again, gain again, lose again… sigh. We can all agree this is a really frustrating cycle, and there’s no more dreaded time for this challenging head/body game than the holiday season. And here we are, in the thick of the season, trying once again to figure out how to lose weight. But between the lingering Halloween candy, the leftover Thanksgiving pie, and the endless Christmas cookies, you’re exhausted from the overload of constant hard choices you have to make—eat it, don’t eat it, eat just a little, skip it altogether, ok have a nibble, cut a whole piece, no wait a half piece, maybe if I eat it fast enough it won’t count, get it away from me because if I see it I’ll eat the whole thing, can I have just a taste, darn I can’t believe I ate that, ugh my pants are getting tight… Have you ever said or thought these things? Same here. So obviously losing and gaining weight messes with your head, but did you know that yo-yo dieting really messes with your body, too? What Yo-Yo Dieting Does to your Body Hormonal Havoc Extreme dieting, including severe calorie restriction and dramatic dietary changes can increase the hormone cortisol, which wreaks havoc on your health—to the tune of increasing your risk of developing certain diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Yikes! There are tons of evidence that people who live the longest, with the best mortality rates, are those who are constantly eating slightly less than they need to be satisfied, and who maintain a low body weight for their height. This is, in part, due to hormonal actions being optimized. If the caloric restriction is too severe, hormones don’t work as efficiently and health is compromised. You can see this as nutrient deficiencies that pop up with symptoms such as dry skin, brittle hair and nails, and poorer immune functioning. The bottom line is that seriously decreased caloric intake negatively affects hormones that you need for good health. RELATED: What to Eat for Better Balanced Hormones Metabolic Meltdown Here’s the deal: if you over-restrict your calories, your body responds by slowing down your metabolic rate, or your ability to burn calories. It also causes muscle loss. The truth of the matter is that yo-yo dieting doesn’t appear to permanently ruin metabolism, but the process of losing muscle (which is what your body uses for fuel when there isn’t enough food calories coming in) is damaging to your wellness. You need your lean body mass to support your bones and keep you fit, strong, and burning calories, so don’t compromise it by breaking it down to use for fuel! A word about exercise too, here: Try reframing your view of exercise as a way to lose weight and think of it more as maintaining your lean body mass (which helps with weight loss). This will help keep your brain focused on your fitness, and feeling fit is a great motivator to say no thank you to the second helping of those not-so-healthy side dishes. Nutritional Neglect Extreme weight loss is hard on your vital organs, including your brain, heart, liver and kidneys. These organs need carbohydrates and calories to do their jobs. Without enough nutrition, these organs are at risk for damage. Severely decreased calories can also lead to nutrient deficiencies, which, in prolonged states, may cause damage to bones, skin, and immune functioning. Do yourself a favor and don’t cut out all carbs or fats. Reduce ‘em, (the “bad” ones), yes. But eliminate a whole food group entirely and you’ll end up back on that whole yo-yo dieting cycle again, guaranteed. RELATED: Why Healthy Fats Don’t Make You Fat How to Get Out of the Yo-Yo Dieting Cycle Rather than dramatically reducing calories, or dropping all fats or carbohydrates, try eating a little less of everything at every meal and snack, so that you’re ‘satisfied’ rather than ‘full’ in order to get and keep a healthy weight. Eat a balanced diet and choose clean, healthy foods. This is something Keri always stresses when she has her clients gauge their appetite using the hunger quotient (HQ). Of course, implementing all 8 pillars of living a Nutritious Life will keep you off the yo-yo cycle too. So, to summarize: rather than binging on candy, mashed potatoes, latkes, or fruitcake through Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, or Christmas, and then sticking to 600 calories a day for the next two weeks, choose to eat a little less all the time, and strategically place your indulgences. This is easier said than done, but it can be done. Stay focused, consistent, and patient. Listen to your body telling you it is “slightly satisfied” and “slightly hungry”. And plan for your indulgences. Yo-Yos are toys for kids—they’re not how you should manage your weight. This holiday season, choose to focus on your healthiest goals and your weight will find its perfect place. Learn More About Nutrition and Wellness Love nutrition and wellness, and want to immerse yourself even more? Our Become a Nutrition Coach certification course gives you a solid foundation in nutrition science, plus techniques for coaching clients so you can share your knowledge and earn an income, if you choose to. (Or, you can use the information for

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)

4 Reasons Why It’s Hard to Lose Weight in the Fall

You spent the whole summer on point with your wellness routine, and you’re determined to not let a single extra pound sneak onto your frame now that it’s fall. But you know what happened last year. (Five—or more—pounds crept on, are we right?) So why is it so hard to lose weight in the fall? And what can you do about it? We’ve rounded up 4 reasons why it’s hard to lose weight in the fall, plus some dietitian-approved tricks for how to combat the oh-so-infamous holiday weight-creep.  1. Marketers are really good at what they do. All summer, we’re bombarded with reminders to stay accountable to our wellness goals. The swimsuit ads, produce-pushing recipes, and beach vacation plans motivate us to stay on track. It’s easy to choose the unsweetened iced green tea or pick up the light and refreshing salad for lunch when these reminders are in your face all season long. But then autumn comes along. The sweaters come out and rather than seeing Instagram posts of your friends’ toes on a beach, you’re seeing snuggly socks in front of a fireplace. Fall advertisements push comfort foods, hot sweet drinks, and pie. Lots of pie. Don’t fall for the slick fall marketing! Stick to what you know works for you all year round, making simple substitutions here and there, but without too much deviation from the Hot Girl Summer track you’ve been on. PRO TIPS:  Instead of summer berries on your morning yogurt, toss in some diced apples.  Go for an ounce of cheese on a high-fiber cracker with a thin slice of pear instead of the harvest Danish you might otherwise grab in a fit of fall-foodie desire.  Don’t swap your morning oatmeal and walnuts for a pumpkin muffin—add this healthy pumpkin pie spice to your oats instead.  RELATED: Healthy, Gluten-Free Morning Glory Muffin Recipe 2. Holidays overstay their welcome. Doesn’t it seem like the candy jar is just emptied from Halloween and you’re already cooking your Thanksgiving bird? Do turkey leftovers feel like they linger into Christmas and you’re still eating Valentine’s chocolates when Easter rolls around? Sometimes it feels like a big blur of holiday foods, sweets, treats, and free-for-all buffets from Halloween until Easter. It’s hard to lose weight in the fall (and winter) when you’re surrounded by holiday foods and festivities. PLAN FOR THIS. PRO TIPS: Decide how you’re going to handle the holidays before each one creeps up on the calendar. Our reco? Start planning now, because you know how quickly the holidays creep up. Consider doing a gentle food-based cleanse in early fall. It’s a great way to reset your habits and energy before the holiday swirl begins. You’ll go into the season feeling refreshed, in control, and already on track. Learn more about our 5-Day Nutritious Life Cleanse here. At Halloween, allow yourself five pieces of candy. Eat them all at once, or one per day, it’s up to you! At Thanksgiving, make a no-leftovers rule (except for Grandma’s cranberry sauce or this cranberry relish).  Whatever your plans are, tell them to a buddy so they can help you stick to it! 3. Coats and sweaters do a great job of hiding things. Maybe you’re thinking that nobody can tell you put on a few pounds because you’re layered up and coated in outerwear. And it’s true—maybe they can’t see it, but YOU can. Knowing you’re carrying extra weight may make you feel lousy and less fit, and it can definitely mess with your head. PRO TIPS:  Keep yourself in check by actively not hiding. Keep one item you feel great in (maybe a pair of summer shorts or a dress or a swimsuit you’d typically hide away in the fall) some place where you can see it all year long. Try your special summer article on from time to time to keep yourself honest. Maybe even wear it underneath your long johns to remind you there is no hiding from yourself.  Or, just go ahead and sit in front of that fire in your bikini. Yes, you can wear socks, and no, we won’t laugh.  4. Nobody wants to put Baby or pie in the corner. We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: it’s no fun depriving yourself. There’s not a lot of immediate glory in not eating the caramel apple pie. Nobody is going to give you a prize for saying no to the mouth-watering pumpkin-spiced latte with whipped cream. You have to be your own biggest cheerleader when the treats are calling your name, and that’s not easy. PRO TIPS:  Instead of having that yucky deprivation feeling, focus on what you CAN have, and you’ll find great satisfaction.  You can have a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar on your ricotta with diced apples.  Pumpkin (straight from a can, who needs to put in all that work?) can be a super healthful and delish seasonal ingredient in everything from soup to muffins to pancakes.  Even cocoa can be healthful if you indulge consciously.  RELATED: 6 Genius Ways to Use Canned Pumpkin Keep lacing up those sneakers every season of the year. Keep drinking the same green tea throughout the year and just add ice cubes when necessary. Keep eating the oats for breakfast and switch up whether they come out of the microwave or the fridge before hitting your mouth. Stick to what works, and learn to indulge consciously, rather than constantly. Cheers to a great fall and congratulations on preventing those five pounds from finding their way onto your body this season. Doesn’t it feel great? Make Nutrition and Wellness Your Career Learning about how food and nutrition support a healthy body and lifestyle is such a joy. Bonus? It’s something you can share with others… and make money while doing it. Our Become a Nutrition Coach course gives you everything you need to turn your passion for wellness into the career of your dreams. Request a sneak peek of our program today and

8 Important Factors That Affect Weight Loss

How each of Nutritious Life’s pillars relate to reaching your ideal weight.

Diets Decoded: Here’s What You Need to Know About The Volumetrics Diet

We’re going to let you in on a little secret. Most popular healthy diets that are touted for weight loss—from Paleo to Mediterranean and vegetarian—share many of the same basic principles. All involve eating whole foods (as opposed to packaged and processed) and filling your plate with quality sources of protein, healthy fats, complex carbohydrates, and vitamin-, mineral-, and fiber-rich vegetables. However, each proposes a slightly different path that leads to fulfilling those principles. In this column, we’ll be breaking them down for you, one by one, so you can figure out which (if any) is right for you. We’ll explain the facts and then provide quick, actionable tips on how to follow the diet as part of a Nutritious Life. If cutting calories isn’t helping you hit your weight loss goals, we’re not surprised. An alternative strategy that might work for some people is eating for volume, which involves including healthy and filling foods with each meal–that just happen to be low in calories. This is called the Volumetrics Diet. Read on to find out how it works, and then decide if it’s right for you or not. What is the Volumetrics Diet? As with any diet, the Volumetrics Diet simply offers one approach to attaining your weight loss and health goals. Not a new diet by any means, this tried-and-true diet, which was created by a nutrition and obesity researcher at Penn State, follows a rather simple principle. By including high-volume (think filling and nutrient-dense), low-calorie foods at each meal, you can keep your calorie intake in check without feeling unsatisfied or deprived. On this diet, you can plan to eat three full meals and two snacks daily, with the option for adding desserts some days–as long as you’re staying within your caloric recommendations. Nothing is off-limits on this eating plan, but there are some foods that you’ll want to limit or avoid. The Volumetrics Four Food Categories Successfully following this plan requires an understanding of its four main categories of foods, with most of your food volume coming from foods in category one, and the least of your foods (if any) coming from category four. The goal is to stay within your unique daily caloric intake recommendations. These categories include: Category 1: Very Low-Density Foods Think non-starchy fruits and vegetables such as berries, melons, cucumbers, asparagus and broth-based soups. These foods can be eaten in higher quantities throughout the day when following this diet because they are high in nutrients and water and low in calories. Pile these on your plate! Category 2: Low-Density Foods These foods include whole grains (brown rice and whole wheat pasta, for example), starchy fruits and vegetables (such as bananas, corn and potatoes), legumes, lean proteins and low-fat dairy products. These foods can be eaten in reasonable quantities, paying careful attention to how they affect your daily caloric intake. Category 3: Medium-Density Foods These foods include full-fat dairy products, meats with higher fat content and breads. These foods can be eaten on the diet, but not as often as foods from categories one and two due to their lower nutrient density and higher caloric density. Category 4: High-Density Foods While there aren’t any foods you can’t eat on the Volumetrics Diet, high-density foods should be limited. These foods contain the fewest nutrients and the highest levels of calories, so you want to avoid them when possible. Some examples of high-density foods include crackers, chips, candy, cookies, (all the highly-processed foods we always think are best avoided!) nuts, butter, and oil. (Technically, alcohol falls into this category, except it really doesn’t offer any nutrients and is full of calories. It’s best to keep this out if you’re really trying to lose weight.) What You Eat on the Volumetric Diet High-volume, low-calorie foods tend to contain higher amounts of water and fiber, so these are the foods you’ll focus on eating the most while on the Volumetrics Diet. Why? Because when you eat foods high in water and fiber, you feel fuller faster, meaning you don’t have to eat as many calories to feel satiated. RELATED: Only 5% of Americans Eat Enough Fiber—Here’s Why You Should Eat More Foods with lower amounts of fiber and water, on the other hand, require you to eat more of them to feel full, regardless of how many calories they contain. Here’s a potential list of foods to include plenty of in your daily meals on this diet: Fresh fruits and fresh or frozen vegetables (especially those high in water and fiber) Beans and legumes (in moderation) Whole grains (brown rice, quinoa, oatmeal, whole grain bread) Low-fat dairy products (low-fat Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, kefir) Lean meats and proteins (chicken without the skin, lean beef, low-fat fish, egg whites) Water (vs. soda or other sugary drinks) Notice that the medium- and high-density foods aren’t listed here? They aren’t 100% “not allowed,” but the more you eat lower-density foods, the better. What You Don’t Eat on the Volumetrics Diet We’ll repeat it–there are no strict rules around what you “can’t eat” on the Volumetrics Diet, but there are foods you’ll want to avoid or limit if you want to see the weight drop faster. As you can imagine, higher-calorie foods that are low in nutrients shouldn’t take up a lot of room on your plate, but if you must include them, you’ll want to limit them and make sure they fit into your daily calorie goals. Here are some examples of high-calorie and low-volume foods to avoid on the Volumetrics Diet: Full-fat dairy products (full-fat yogurt, sour cream, and cheeses) Fatty meat (regular ground beef, bacon, sausages, chicken with skin) Processed and sweetened foods (cookies, candy, soda, sweetened coffee drinks) Refined foods (white bread, cake, and other baked goods) Sometimes we all need something sweet or that we know isn’t the healthiest option. One thing that works for many people on this diet is that the rules aren’t super strict. So if you really want to have a

Diets Decoded: Macro Counting

Is Macro Counting Healthy? We’re going to let you in on a little secret. Most popular healthy diets that are touted for weight loss—from Paleo to Mediterranean and vegetarian—share many of the same basic principles. All involve eating whole foods (as opposed to packaged and processed) and filling your plate with quality sources of protein, healthy fats, complex carbohydrates, and vitamin-, mineral-, and fiber-rich vegetables. (Again, we’re talking about the ones that fall somewhere on the healthy spectrum, not unhealthy fad diets like, ahem, the Grapefruit Diet.) However, each proposes a slightly different path that leads to fulfilling those principles. In this column, we’ll be breaking them down for you, one by one, so you can figure out which (if any!) is right for you. We’ll explain the facts and then provide quick, actionable tips on how to follow the diet as part of a Nutritious Life. You’ve probably heard fitness influencers or healthy eating enthusiasts talk about “counting their macros.” But what does that really mean? Essentially, they are monitoring how many grams (and calories) they consume from the three macronutrients—carbohydrate, protein and fat. The idea is that if you create a calorie deficit and properly proportion how much of each macronutrient you eat in a day, you’ll achieve your desired weight and, at the same time, reach other health goals—including maintaining or building muscle. Here, we have Macro Counting decoded. What is Macro Counting? Macros aka macronutrients are the calorie-providing nutrients that your body needs in large quantities. The three macronutrients—protein, carbohydrate and fat—each play a unique role and are essential for optimal health.  To calculate your calorie needs and macro proportions, the specific target numbers will depend on sex, age, physical activity and weight and fitness goals, so there’s no one-size-fits-all formula.  It’s recommended that you aim to get 1 gram of protein for every pound you weigh. The remaining number of calories will be made up of carbs and fat set to round out your daily calorie intake. For example, you may determine that you need 1800 calories per day, so those calories should be 40% carbs (720 calories), 35% protein (630 calories) and 25% fat (450 calories).  Instead of counting your total caloric intake for the day, you’ll be counting the macros.  What You Eat You can eat anything as long as you stay within your target numbers for each macronutrient. Check out the popular #ifitfitsyourmacros for inspo. There are no specific recommendations on the types of foods you should eat, so you decide how you want to meet your proportioned daily macro amounts. What You Don’t Eat No foods are off limits in macro counting. You can enjoy all your favorite foods as long as they don’t put you over your macronutrient target numbers. Want a slice of cake after dinner? Go for it! But if you’ve already consumed all your carbs for the day, you’ll have to skip that cake. Pros and Cons Tracking your macros can help you pay more attention to what you eat and provide clear guidelines when making food choices. Unlike many popular diets today, macro counting doesn’t eliminate or demonize any foods. The flexibility and ability to tailor your intake to your own needs and goals means this approach may be more sustainable than other weight-loss diets.  However, there’s no evidence to suggest that specifically monitoring macronutrients will provide greater weight-loss benefits than other calorie-restriction diets. A 2-year clinical trial randomly assigned participants to four different reduced-calorie diets varying in macronutrient composition; however, they didn’t find any clinically meaningful differences in weight loss. Plus, calculating and monitoring your macro intake can be time-consuming and tedious. While there are apps and fitness trackers that can help, it still requires a lot of legwork on your part. This monitoring can also promote an unhealthy obsession with food and induce stress and anxiety, which makes it more difficult to stick with it for the long haul.  It’s important to note, while macro counting is a step-up from calorie counting, it still ignores micronutrients and overall food quality. Eating 100 grams of carbs from bagels, chips and cookies will not provide the same health benefits as eating 100 grams of carbs from whole grains, vegetables and fruit. Research shows that quality, not just quantity, matters when it comes to your diet’s impact on your overall health. The Bottom Line There’s nothing magical about this diet approach— you’re creating a calorie deficit and eating a specific proportion of macronutrients.  If you find tracking your intake helpful and consume mostly whole unprocessed foods, then counting macros can be an effective and flexible way to lose weight and get lean.  If calculating and monitoring macronutrient intake sounds difficult and stressful, then you’ll probably be better off focusing on eating whole foods and listening to your hunger and fullness cues to monitor your intake.

10 Smart, Healthy Ways to Lose 10 Pounds

We don’t talk about weight loss often. Instead, we embrace the idea that if you live a well-rounded nutritious life 24-7, a healthy weight will naturally follow. But no matter the approach we preach, everyone wants to know how to lose ten pounds. Look, we get it. Maybe you had a particularly stressful month, leading to sky-high cortisol levels and overeating. Maybe you went on the Italian vacation of a lifetime and decided pasta was going to be a main food group for that period of your life (duh). Or maybe you’ve simply been sticking to healthy habits but still feel like there’s just a little bit of extra weight that won’t budge. The fact is: there’s nothing wrong with setting out to drop a few pounds if you do it in a healthy way while respecting your body. But crazy diets that lead to yo-yo dieting are not the answer; the key is figuring out how to lose 10 pounds without losing your sanity, self-esteem, or social life. Try these 10 steps, first. How to Lose 10 Pounds the Healthy Way 1. Learn to calculate your Hunger Quotient. Learning how much to eat by listening to your body is key when it comes to losing weight. I teach my clients to rate their hunger using the ‘Hunger Quotient.’ This is the number (related to a feeling) that describes how hungry you truly are. You want to aim to be between a 6 and a 4 at the beginning and end of your meals and snacks. A 6 is “slightly hungry” and a 4 is “slightly satisfied.” When you skip meals and snacks during the day, your HQ gets thrown off, and you end up making poor food choices and overeating. 2. Set and stick to a bedtime. When you sleep more, you simply have less time to eat, and studies have shown you may also make better food choices. But it’s deeper than that. Those who are sleep deprived have higher levels of ghrelin—a hormone that stimulates appetite—circulating in their blood, which causes an increase in hunger. In other words, your body’s hormonal response to being tired is to tell you to eat more. Give it a rest, instead. It’s really just as critical as choosing kale over cookies. RELATED: The 4 Most Convincing Reasons You Really Need to Get More Sleep 3. Put orgasms on your to-do list. Ok, maybe not literally, because that may take some of the magic out of it. But when you have sex—and orgasms in particular—your body releases a hormone called oxytocin. Oxytocin chills you out and reduces levels of cortisol, the stress hormone that makes you hold onto belly fat. So not only will you feel amazing, you can write off time in the sheets as part of your weight loss regimen. (And don’t forget the fact that you don’t need a partner to take advantage of this happy tip.) 4. Start your day with water and drink it consistently. Drinking water is important for all cellular functions, and hydration aids in weight loss. One reason? That 3:00 pm slump may actually be due to dehydration, but many people confuse thirst for hunger and end up eating extra calories. Aim for 64 ounces a day. 5. Eat your veggies first. During meals, fill up on greens first. They’re packed with fiber and water volume, both of which help you to stay full and regular. So, you’ll find that you naturally begin to eat less of other less healthy food groups. Greens are also high in antioxidants, which fight inflammation, that nasty process linked to obesity. Foods high in the antioxidants vitamin C, E, and beta carotene—like greens!—may even help reduce fat storage by regulating your body’s use of the hormone insulin. RELATED: The 5 Most Filling Vegetables 6. But also prioritize protein and fat. Studies show that eating protein for breakfast may help increase how satisfied you feel throughout the day and help prevent nighttime noshing. It also helps build muscle, and more muscle means more fat burning. Fat, meanwhile, also helps you burn fat! Portion control is key, but be sure to get about 30 percent of your calories from fat, and eat it consistently throughout the day. 7. Meditate. Diet and exercise are important but if stress is throwing your hormones out of whack, you’ll still be out of luck in terms of weight loss. Prolonged excess stress not only causes an imbalance in your hormones which can lead to weight gain, it can also lead to emotional eating. Meditating, even for just five minutes a day, has been shown to reduce anxiety in really impressive ways. RELATED: 3 Reasons Stress is Tied to Weight Gain 8. Exercise regularly, but don’t overdo it. Set a workout schedule that fits into your life (i.e. you’ll actually stick to it!) but that doesn’t leave you exhausted and starving, AKA ready to emotionally overeat. Doing High Intensity Interval sessions seven days a week, for instance, will just send you off a cliff and stress your body. Instead, alternate high-intensity workouts with rest days and lower intensity forms of exercise like LISS Cardio and yoga. 9. Make friends with a foam roller. Most people ignore their lymphatic system, but it needs to function efficiently for the rest of your systems to work well. Pros like Lauren Roxburgh say that stimulating lymph—by foam rolling regularly, for instance—gets rid of waste buildup that may be causing your body to hold onto weight. While there isn’t a lot of research indicating a direct link, research does also show foam rolling affects the nervous system, stimulating a relaxation response—and you know what we said earlier about how crucial stress relief is here. 10. See yourself succeeding. Finally, your mind is a pretty powerful tool. If you start out assuming you’ll never figure out how to lose ten pounds effectively, you probably won’t. Try using visualization to picture yourself happy, at a healthy weight, thriving in that beautiful

Can Food Journaling Really Help You Lose Weight?

Q: Can food journaling really help me lose weight? I despise it and never seem to stick with it. A: You know I hate to be the bearer of bad news. Of any kind. But, this bad news (for all of you despisers out there) isn’t too bad. You may even turn into food journaling lovers by the end of this blog. Food journaling can be your weight loss secret weapon for a whole lotta reasons, and it’s been around since, well, forever, for good reason: it works. So just like you may not love flossing routinely, you do it because it’s good for you and you want a pretty smile too. Need more specific reasons than that to break out a new food diary? Here ya go. 3 Reasons Why Food Journaling Can Help You Lose Weight Accountability.Whether it’s a drill sergeant friend, your nutritionist or simply your sturdy Ticonderoga pencil keeping tabs on what goes in your mouth, accountability works. Food journaling is definitely one way to be accountable either to yourself or to whoever is reading them. One study showed that keeping a food journal doubled a person’s weight loss. It found that the best predictors of weight loss were 1) how frequently food diaries were kept and 2) how many support sessions the participants attended. Those who kept daily food records lost twice as much weight as those who kept no records at all. Another study showed that the more food journals people kept, the more weight people lost. So basically those that maintained focus, diligence, and consistency with journaling were rewarded with fitting into smaller pants. Also, if you’re working with a dietitian or health coach, you’ll get a lot more out of that partnership if you’re sharing all your food deets. The good, the bad and the in between. Putting it all out there will help your nutrition guru help you. Food journaling can be kinda like getting a new gym membership and a fresh pair of kicks…you’re all excited to use them for the first few weeks, but when the novelty wears off, often so does your motivation and consistency. You gotta find a way to get comfy in your new kicks, even after they’re not new anymore, and realize that the more they get broken in, the better you might look in your LuLus. Honesty. Always a good thing, right? Food journaling keeps you honest – even if it’s just with yourself. When I ask clients about a typical a day of eating, I often get this for an answer: “I eat really well, not sure why I’m not losing. I eat a couple eggs for breakfast with a slice of whole grain toast, a kale salad, usually a few nuts for a snack and pretty balanced dinner of some kind of protein and usually a little rice or potato and a salad.” When I have them write down every detail, and I mean every detail, it goes something like this: “Two eggs prepared with butter and a drop of cheese. Slice of toast and two bites of my son’s waffle. Kale salad with dressing and parmesan cheese (I usually skip the cheese though), croutons and chicken. Three handfuls of nuts, diet soda and three bites of my daughters chocolate chip cookie (it was her friend’s birthday)…” You get where this is going. It’s easy to think you eat super clean but until you really hammer it out on paper, you often unintentionally don’t even realize just how much (or in some cases how little) you’re eating. Honesty and food journaling is always the best policy. Besides, your waistline is terrible at keeping secrets. Growth.Growth in all areas of life is always good idea. When it comes to weight loss, health, and food journaling, food journaling can be a wise sage that guides us in a new right direction. Food journaling allows us to reflect and analyze. What worked? What didn’t work? And, finally, how can I improve what I’m eating or the behaviors and habits I’m exhausting? There will come a day when you’ve nailed your diet and you don’t have to spend time food journaling anymore. That’s the ultimate goal, right? But there also may come a day when you need to go back to basics and clean things up again, and food journaling is the first thing you should turn to. It’ll be like riding a bicycle. It’ll feel familiar and easy even if it’s been a long time, and you’ll quickly remember how great it feels to have that wind in your hair…in a smaller pair of shorts.

One Surprising Reason to Have a Healthy Sex Life

I talk a lot about having a healthy sex life and the benefits of sex, but today’s reason might surprise you. Did you know that having sex improves your sense of smell? After sex, there is a surge in the production of the hormone prolactin, which causes your brain’s stem cells to form new neurons in the olfactory bulb, also known as the brain’s smell center. Why am I talking about this? Well, you know I always support having a healthy sex life, because research shows it’s a best way to lose weight. And we know that how well you can taste your food is tied to how well you can smell. Research also shows that there are certain aromas that will actually curb your appetite. So, the more sex you have, the better your ability to smell these foods, the more weight you may be likely to lose!  Now if that’s not a beautiful trifecta of benefits, I don’t know what is.   How a Healthy Sex Life and a Better Sense of Smell Relate   One study showed that strong aromas can cause you to grab a smaller forkful of food, so think chiles and onions if you need a little help in the not devouring-your-meal department. Another study found that the smell of bananas and green apple can actually curb your appetite, so reach for a whiff of these when you’re trying to lessen the amount of times you open the pantry door every afternoon. Licorice works well here, too. Grapefruit has been shown to lower appetite and weight. I love having my clients eat half of a grapefruit with cinnamon as a snack when they are cleansing or trying to lose weight. And here’s a fun fact: my mom started dinner every night with a half grapefruit on all of our plates. I have no idea why, and it had nothing to do with weight loss, but there is a special place in my heart for these citrus powerhouses. So, back to why I originally started writing this. You should have more sex. It’s part of a Nutritious Life, and there are so many other benefits we didn’t cover here today. Clients always raise their eyebrows when I ask them about sex in our nutrition counseling sessions but it truly does have a place in a nutritious life. I don’t want the private details – I want to know they are using it as a secret weapon to manage stress, burn some calories (sexercise, anyone?), and in the end, lose more weight. See, it’s not all about the food.