Think you can’t cook a healthy meal? Think again!

Think you can’t cook a healthy meal? Think again!

     One of the biggest dis-incentives to lifestyle change is the belief that cooking healthy meals is too difficult for you. These few tips can dispel some of the mystery, and show you how easy it can be.

1.    Not all prepared foods are bad.

2.    Use your microwave.

3.    Include a couple of things from the fresh-veggie aisle.

 

     Use frozen foods. This seems to go against the general philosophy of eating fresh and natural, unprocessed stuff, but there are some frozen products out there that can help you get a healthy start in the kitchen. No doubt you have already used a lot of frozen foods, such as chicken wings and other appetizers, and maybe some entrees as well. You are going to pass right by these old favourites in the freezer section – no doubt their heaping helpings of fat, sugar and salt helped you to get into your present poor condition anyway – and look for something different. A real favourite of mine is chicken breast strips – skinless, boneless, and precooked with no breading and no sauce. A handful of these tidbits makes a serving, and takes only about 2 minutes to reheat in the microwave.

     Use packaged foods. Again, these are not the same ones you are probably used to, with their yummy sauces and extra fixin’s. For example, find some reasonably-priced plain taco shells (not a “kit” and probably not a name brand). Whole grain would be best if you are able to tolerate wheat; otherwise you will need to make do with pure cornmeal. These do contain fat; make sure it is not the saturated variety. A taco shell takes 40-60 seconds to heat up in the microwave. Two make a good-sized meal for one.

     Cheese substitutes made from soy are not cheap, but they will spare you the saturated fat found in real cheese; if you can tolerate the extra fat, you will find that the “real thing” is usually cheaper than the vegan type. Soy cheese products come in a variety of flavours, imitating cheddar, mozzarella, havarti, Swiss, and other popular styles. Buying pre-shredded cheese will cost you more; buy a small cheese grater instead and grate your own. 

    Make friends with sweet peppers. The green ones are the usually cheapest, but sometimes you can get a package of red, orange and yellow peppers for a very reasonable price. Sweet peppers are jam-packed with vitamins and fibre, and are a versatile addition to your crisper. 

     These ingredients will give you what you need to make a tasty meal with more nutrients and less cost than a typical take-out version. And here’s how to make it! 

     For one person, take a handful of precooked chicken breast strips out of the freezer, spread them out on a plate, cover with paper towel, and reheat according to package directions – usually about 2 minutes in the microwave. Reserve. Meanwhile, grate about one-quarter to one-half cup of cheese. Heat 2 taco shells in the microwave, according to package directions, which usually would be for about 40-60 seconds. Meanwhile, cut half of a small sweet green pepper into thin strips. Place in a microwave-safe bowl with a tablespoon of water, cover, and cook 1 minute. Drain and pat dry carefully. To assemble, place the pepper strips in the bottom of the taco shells. Cover with the cheese. Top this with the chicken strips. Place the meal on a plate, cover with paper towel, and microwave about 45-60 seconds, until the cheese is melted. For a larger meal, serve with a green salad on the side – you can buy one in a bag.

     Healthy cooking is not that hard. You can use carefully-chosen prepared foods, use your microwave, and choose a few fresh veggies. Now you are on your way to being a healthy cook!

Is Journaling Too Hard For You?

Is journaling too hard for you?

     If you think that keeping a food and exercise journal is too difficult, here are three tips to make the experience not only easy, but enjoyable.

1.       Choose a book and pen that you like

2.       Keep it simple

3.       Write every day

     First, choose a book. I have kept journals in many forms over the years. I started out keeping track of my exercise sessions on the computer. I noted how I felt after exercise, and how I felt in general about my programme. I noted generally what I ate, or planned to eat. For me, the disadvantage of this method was that typically I was only able to sit down at the computer once a day. I arranged to do this right after my exercise session. This was not the best way to keep track of what I ate and how I felt over the course of the day.

     My next journal was a form I created on the computer and printed out page by page. The form had the hours of the day printed right on it, so I just had to fill in my activity or feelings in the right space. I included columns for exercise including reps and weights used, and for calories burned or consumed, as well as for recording my physical and emotional reactions. I used this for several years. I printed out a month’s worth of pages at a time, and mounted them in a soft duo-tang binder that was not too difficult to take with me. Since I was self-employed and working from home at the time, I usually did not have to take my journal very far! When I accepted employment outside the home, however, I found that this format was too big to have with me at all times. And your journal will be most effective if you can jot things down as they occur, not as you remember them at day’s end.

     For Christmas, my son and daughter-in-law gave me a stationery set which included a coil-bound notebook about 6 inches wide by 6 inches long, a more manageable size than my 8.5 x 11 inch format. I found it quite attractive, and the quality of the paper invited the use of my nice, new roller pen. The stationery set also included a box of non-stick memo squares, which a removable-glue stick turned into sticky notes. I could take a few of these with me anywhere, jot things down, and stick them into the notebook later.  This is a format that I continue to the present day – an attractive notebook from about 4 x 6 to 6 x 8 inches, and a set of sticky notes. The notebook can go most places; if I absolutely have no room for it, I can use the notes, remembering to put the date and time on each note. When I had used up the original notebook, I shopped at Value Village and Thrift Store to find a replacement – very cost-effective.

     You could use an app on your phone or computer or some other device. These things are easy for recording but not so much for reviewing, and your journal will not help you much if you do not review it regularly. Another thing you could do is use a free wall calendar and a pad of sticky notes, recording your events on the notes and sticking them on the calendar. You could even make your own sticky notes by purchasing a removable-glue stick and cutting up scrap paper to the size that you wish to use – cost effective and environmentally-friendly to boot.

     What to write in your journal? Don’t obsess over it.  I did not find that there was much to be gained by recording the caloric value of every bite – and every step -- I took. Instead, I kept one part of my journal for a “master list” of foods and portions that I was likely to consume, then I just had to record which foods I ate in my daily entry. Keep it simple. Record what you eat and when, when you exercise and for how long, and how you feel physically and mentally/emotionally during the day. Read over your entries every few days and see if you can determine any patterns. If you are trying to lose weight, write your weight down once a week. Easy-peasy. As you go along, you might find that there are more things you’d like to keep track of. By all means, customize your content to suit yourself.

     Write every day! It is essential to write in your journal every day, as each event occurs. Take your journal with you everywhere, or at least take a pad of sticky notes with you if your journal just won’t fit in. Make several entries over the course of the day. Write down what you had for lunch. If you are falling asleep at your desk by 3 p.m., write that down too. Now see if there is a correlation between what/when you eat, and how you feel in a couple of hours. Keep track of your exercise. If you only have time for a couple of 10-minute walks in a day, write them down as they occur. Next time, make an effort to squeeze in just one more minute in each session. The time spent exercising will add up! Write down how you feel after your walk or workout. Hungry? Tired? Relaxed? Happy? A couple of hours later, check in with your feelings again. See if at 3 p.m. you are more energized after a 20-minute noontime workout or after a couple of coffees and a croissant. Then govern your actions accordingly. 

     Follow these three simple guidelines and you will soon find that you have created a journal that is an invaluable aide on your journey toward better health. Find a format that you enjoy and will use. Keep your entries simple. Write every day, as each event occurs. You are on your way to a healthier you!

Read the Label

Read the Label

     Since the road to health is paved with the foods you eat, it would be a good idea to learn to read the labels on those foods.

     Most of the things you eat should be in their natural state, and so will not have labels. Fill your plate with fresh vegetables, fresh fruits and lean cuts of meat such as skinless, boneless chicken breast, or eye of round steak, and you won’t have to bother with labels. Sometimes, though, you will consider eating some sort of processed food – mayonnaise, salad dressing, whatever – and you will want to compare brands to see which has more healthy stuff in it, or less harmful stuff. The most important thing to look at first is the portion size. If the portion size on a salad dressing, for example is one tablespoon, then the food values given will be the amount found in one tablespoon of that product. Things that you want to see on the low side are sugars, sodium and fat. If the product says “sodium, 10% of daily value” , for example, then you know that in one tablespoon (or whatever the portion size is) you will be getting a tenth of the sodium that you can safely consume in a day. Then if you choose to have TWO tablespoons of that product, you will be consuming a fifth of your daily allotment of sodium in just that one product. That’s a lot.

     If a product is labelled “gluten free” then you may assume that the recommended portion size has no measurable gluten in it. It is not enough to look at the ingredients list and see no gluten-containing ingredient (as far as you know) because sometimes  producers can include a small amount of an ingredient without listing it on the label. Bear this in mind if you are dealing with food allergies, too.

     Fat is generally considered, for various reasons, to be something we eat too much of. That does not mean that there should be absolutely no fat in our diet, but it does mean that we need to be aware of how much we are consuming, and what sorts of fats we are consuming. Saturated fats and trans-fats are types that we should avoid. Monounsaturated fats and Polyunsaturated fats (fish oil, krill oil, peanut oil, olive oil, for example) are healthier. If you are trying to be healthy, dodge the saturated and trans fats. If you are trying to lose weight, pay attention to how much fat you are consuming in relation to protein and carbohydrate. In the calories-in, calories-out model, fat is considered to contain nearly twice as many calories per gram as protein or carbohydrate, so you would need to “burn” more calories to stay in balance.

     For many people who are trying to lose weight, sugar in any of its many forms is especially problematical. Some people respond to sugar as though it is addictive. If this is you, then you would be safer with a sugar-free product even if it has more fat than another comparable product. There is some evidence that chemical sugar replacements (such as aspartame) also have addictive-like properties.  Here is where a food journal is an invaluable asset. Record what you eat, and when, and how you feel throughout the day. You may find that even a sugar-free drink makes you cross and tired later on, and sends you into a seek-and-destroy mission to the doughnut shop! For some people this is not a problem. For some people it is. Know thyself! It is worth the time and trouble.

My First Fitness Journal

     The following is an excerpt from my first fitness journal, dated Feb. 6, 2007. I started following The G I Diet and walking on my treadmill for 30 minutes per day. Ultimately, the program that I started  on Feb. 4, 2007 resulted in a weight loss of 95 pounds, and a huge increase in physical, mental and emotional health. This is how it all began.

  I have now stuck to my exercise schedule for 3 days. I have a stack of magazines with different "success stories" about folks who exercised and ate better and lost weight and improved their lives. I read a different one each day while walking on the treadmill. There are different strength-building routines in the magazines too, using different types of props, so I try a different one each day, or just do my old standby free-weights routine. I might settle on a different routine for each day of the week, or something.

  On Sunday I used the upper-body free weights routine I used to use, and then the floor routine I used to use. It’s a long time ago, nearly 20 years I guess, since I got my first exercise bike and we got our first set of free weights. I used to read the success stories in Shape magazine, and I was shocked that people (they must be rich people, surely, with nothing better to do) actually had that much time to devote to exercise – over an hour a day! Twenty years ago, only a dedicated fitness magazine would suggest something so outrageous! Other magazines offered 20-minute shape-ups, or even 10-minute ones. Well, when I really got into it, I was riding my exbike for half an hour and working with weights for 30-45 min., plus whatever time was needed to move from one activity to another and stretching before and after, and a shower – closing in on 2 hours a day.

  The popular magazines that I am reading now, like People and Good Housekeeping, in their success stories are quoting at least half an hour of cardio per day, plus resistance training 3 or more times per week, and most promote some other type of activity (like a sport) as well. The “new” approach to dieting is to NOT diet temporarily, but to improve one’s eating habits for the long term. There are still many different “diets” but there is less emphasis on the one-week fad and more emphasis on being aware of what and how you eat every day.

  I need to move onto the GI Plan slowly, because I have a lot of bad habits to break. I don’t want to just jump right into a whole new style of eating and all new foods, all at once. I’ve been there, done that, and got the t-shirt – and a lot of unused “diet foods” too! First I need to get used to eating breakfast, lunch and dinner, with 3 planned snacks, instead of starving all day and eating nonstop all evening. So far, I have been having one thin slice of homemade bread and one thin slice of ham for breakfast. Today and yesterday I had one thin slice of homemade bread and some salmon & olives with lo-fat mayo for lunch. No morning snack; I was too busy. Must remedy that in future, but for now just to have eaten twice before 2 p.m. is pretty good!

  Yesterday I cooked a chicken in the big crock pot with onions, celery and sweet potatoes. We ate half for supper yesterday, and will eat the rest tomorrow. This afternoon we need to deliver the newsletter from LAST week to Woodlands and Warren, and then go to Stonewall for a Legion meeting, so will eat at Sing Fei or one of the other Chinese places in town. Too challenging to try to do the GI thing there so soon, so I’ll call it a holiday from my “diet”!

  Sunday was an all-meat supper – fondue shrimp and steak – but the sauces likely had a fair amount of sugar. Also, had ice cream for dessert.

  I need to back away from some favourite foods:  coffee and popcorn will be the hardest. Then there’s Costco cookies, but we only have them for a few days once a month. And ice cream, but ditto we don’t have it very often. I think I can replace beer with no-alcohol beer like O’Dhouls, if that’s permitted. Or red wine. Or just leave it out. However, I would need to take some tea bags and/or my own water with me to the Legion as there’s just coffee and de-alcoholized beer and alcohol and pop to drink.

  As for coffee, I have cut back to ONE cup per day, first thing in the morning, and then I dump the rest and wash the pot. The rest of the day I have tea. Most of the time it is decaf, but if I feel myself fading, I have Constant Comment or another tea with caffeine.