Health4Tips: tips and tricks

Showing posts with label tips and tricks. Show all posts

Monday, October 20, 2014

Learning to love legumes - reblogging a great article by Sally Marchini

Well, seeing yesterday's post was about resistant starch and the gut microbiome, it's only fitting that today I want to share a post about one of the excellent natural sources of resistant starch- that would be legumes. Legumes are things like peas, beans and lentils and they are nutritional powerhouses with fantastic nutrient qualities, a great source of plant based protein, low GI carbohydrates and, you guessed it, resistant starch.

The blog I am sharing today is by my friend Sally Marchini - Accredited Practising Dietitian and the social media dietitian for Diabetes Counselling Online. Sally can be frequently found on social media and over at her own place, Marchini Nutrition, and she has a wonderful, practical and balanced approach to good healthy nutrition. Here's what Sally has to say about legumes (just click on the title below to go to the article)

Learning to love legumes

Her tips for using legumes in all sorts of ways are great and worth bookmarking for that day when you're all out of inspiration - I know I will.

Want to read more of Sally's great posts? A list of her blog posts can be found here - I recommend you have a look!
And don't forget to love your legumes!!

Lyndal @ Lean Green and Healthy

What does a balanced meal look like?

Privacy breakfast , dinner

I keep harping on about a balanced diet. Balanced this and balanced that. In my posts about breakfasts and even snacks, I keep referring to this. What do I mean?

I think its important to think about each meal as an opportunity to nourish yourself. To nourish your senses with wonderful colours and flavours, aromas and textures. And to nourish your body with an array of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients it needs. And finally you could also go as far as to say to nourish your soul with the pride of a home cooked meal, or the company of friends on a special occasion, or family around your regular dinner table or the quiet peace of contentedly eating by yourself.

Now not every single meal will do all of these things, but I believe its a great way to think about your food and how it nourishes you. But moving beyond these qualities of your meal, how much of everything do you include? Well this first post is about balance, then later we will talk about portion sizes.

Think about your plate like a clock face and divide it into quarters. Two of these quarters (half your plate) at every meal should be fruit or non starchy vegetables. One of the quarters should be lean protein, and one of your quarters should be starches - low GI carbohydrates. Add to this a small amount of healthy fats and oils and you have a balanced meal. This is how I try to plan every meal.

So what does this look like practically?

Well let's start with the easiest plate to imagine - dinner time. Here's a dinner photo I found off the internet:

This plate is about right with half the plate made up of salad, a quarter of lean protein (the lamb cutlets) and a quarter of low GI carbohydrates (the tasty looking wild rice mix). But most of us don't get this right at dinner - we tend to eat too much carbohydrates (how much pasta do you pile upon your plate? how many potatoes? what about bread?) and also too much meat - imagine how large a big steak would look on a plate like this. And rarely do we as a population eat HALF of our plate as fruit or vegetables. But these are the simple changes in proportions that will make all the difference when you're watching your weight or improving your health.

So that's some ideas for dinner, the easy one, but what about the other meals? You see EVERY meal should be in balance like this. Over 90% of Australians don't eat enough fruit and vegetables a day, and this is the case for most other Western countries. Do you eat fruit and vegetables with every meal?

Here's a breakfast plate to show you- its a photo I took when I was eating out for breakfast with my husband. Half the plate is vegetables (spinach, mushrooms and tomatoes) with lean protein (eggs), low GI carbohydrates (the beans) and some good fats (avocado). Granted it is quite a big breakfast, but it was also delicious!

Or if cooked breakfast isn't your thing, what about cereal? how much do you eat? Most processed cereals are very highly processed, high GI and loaded with sugar and fat and usually doesn't cover our other bases. Here's another balanced breakfast plate. Note that half the bowl is filled with fruit (in this case strawberries, blueberries and raspberries) and the other quarters (piled on top of each other) are the protein (Greek yoghurt) low GI carbs (muesli) and good fats (in the seeds and nuts). This is what I have for breakfast most days of the week.

Getting the picture?

Lets do one more. How about the lunch I had today. You should be getting good at this by now!! This is a bit trickier because its all piled in a heap, but can you pick out the different foods?

I started with the vegetables by piling the bowl full of spinach leaves and tomatoes. Then I added the low GI carbs (can you see the sneaky chick peas? there are about 3 tablespoons of chick peas in the salad). Next came the protein - a small can of tuna and some feta cheese. Finally I topped it with some good fats in the form of sunflower seeds, pepitas and avocado. Oh and the raisins on top are a little more fruit!

Now whether you are eating a salad bowl or breakfast like me, or a big grainy sandwich, or a baked dinner with all the trimmings, think about the balance on your plate. Half non-starchy veggies/fruits, quarter protein, quarter low GI carbs and some tasty healthy fats and you will be on the way to great balanced health. This is an easy change you can make right now :)

So, in summary!

1/2 Plate Vegetables
Fill up your plate with raw or cooked vegetables for nutrition, taste and healthy filling fibre. Remember to include many different colours and types for a full array of nutrients.

1/4 Plate Lean Protein
Lean protein will help you to stay satiated, sustain your energy throughout the day, and protect your heart and waistline. This can be lean meats, fish and also non meat sources of protein such as soy, nuts, tofu and others. Remember, twice as many vegetables as protein.

1/4 Plate Healthy low GI carbohydrates (or starches)
Whole grains, like brown rice, contain fibre to give you long-lasting energy, stabilise blood sugar and provide B-vitamins to protect your heart. Try quinoa, sweet potatoes, pumpkins and more! Legumes are excellent for this also. The more colourful your starch, the better!

We will talk soon about portion sizes. In the meantime if you want to know more about the foods we should be including daily, check out the Australian Healthy Eating Guide. And if you need more specific advice tailored to you, see a dietitian!

Bon appetit!

Related posts:
What to eat for a healthier you
To snack or not to snack, that is the question
The beauty of breakfast

Lyndal @ Lean Green and Healthy

Focus on the journey NOT the destination

Privacy motivation , tips and tricks

Every time I hear someone say - I have 20kg to lose, or I have 100 lbs to lose, it always worries me. How do you work on such a huge goal? How do you stay motivated for the months or years that that will take? And what happens if you lose only 18kg, or just 90lbs (both an amazing achievement)? Does that mean you failed? And how arbitrary is a goal weight for you anyway? We know statistically what BMI means for populations and that people within certain ranges are at decreased (or increased) risk of disease. But does that mean that YOU need to be a "certain weight" to be healthier than you are now? Possibly not.

Stop with the unachievable goals. If you really need a numerical goal then make it something you can achieve like 5kg or 5lbs and then readjust when you get there. But to be honest, your goal should be to make healthy changes in your life. Make your targets tangible. I will eat less fast food this week. I will drink more water tomorrow. I will walk 3-5 times a week. I will aim to go to bed earlier tonight. I will eat 5 serves of vegetables today. You can succeed at those things and you can succeed at them TODAY. And you know what? The evidence is clear that those changes WILL make you healthier and decrease your risk of disease. And you will probably lose weight in the process anyway, but you are much more likely to be happy and consider yourself a success, and that's important.

Focus on the journey, not the destination.

Lyndal @ Lean Green and Healthy

Relax - its Friday! (but don't relax too much!)

Privacy tips and tricks ,

Time to relax... its Friday!

I hope your weekend is enjoyable and relaxing, but don't get too slack! Weekends are about letting your hair down a little, but don't abandon all your healthy habits. Some studies show people generally take in more calories on Friday, Saturday and Sundays and also exercise less. Abandoning your healthy lifestyle plan for those two days can undermine all your hard work on the previous days. This can just slow down progress towards your health and fitness goals and make it harder to get focused again on Monday.

You are not a machine and you don't have to be perfect all the time. Enjoy a drink or two, a dinner out or tasty dessert with family, but remember to counteract that with a nice long walk, a yoga class, some dancing or swimming, a lovely light lunch and some great restful sleep. I will be having eggs and bacon and a big cappuccino for breakfast with my husband in our favourite cafe on Saturday morning ... as I do every Saturday morning. And we will just have a light salad or some fruit for lunch to balance it all out and I will go for a run on Sunday. Remember this is not about a Monday to Friday extreme diet then "cheating" on the weekends. This is about sustainable lifestyle change every day of the year.

Enjoy your weekend!

Lyndal @ Lean Green and Healthy

Stop dieting now. PLEASE!!

Privacy diet , healthy eating

STOP DIETING NOW. Please. With a significant and growing proportion of our population now overweight or obese, I’m urging you, please, don’t go on any more diets.
Now before you think I’ve lost my mind, let me explain why.

You may have read my previous post on why "one-size-doesn't-fit-all" when it comes to diets. One of the points I make in that post is that the word "diet" traditionally just meant the food we eat every day, our daily menu so to speak. But in modern times this word has been charged with so much more meaning (and judgement). We now refer to a "diet" as a restriction of our food, as a set of rules or choices, as a formula or requirement to eat a certain way, and the implication that by "dieting" we are somehow restricting or depriving ourselves. And finally there is the Diet with a capital D - the food plan that comes with a name, a trademark, a book, a TV show, a range of supplements and a one true faith to believe in, often with a cult like fervour and a celebrity to endorse it. And in many cases it is sold as the one, the only, way to eat. Diet has become a dirty four letter word and can fill people with fear and dread.

So if we agree on that definition, and knowing that I'm a doctor and I want you to be as healthy as possible, then why don't I want you to go on a diet?

Firstly, "diets" make you gain weight. Yes, you heard right. I'm not talking about gaining weight during the 12 weeks you are doing the particular plan on the internet or the 60 days you follow the book or the three months you attend the meetings. Most diets, no matter how intense or how crazy, will help you lose weight during that time. I'm talking about afterwards. People who follow a restrictive "diet" generally end up fatter than people who don't in the long run.

The weight-amplifying effect of dieting was evaluated in a study in 2011 based on over

2,000 sets of twins from Finland. The results indicate that dieting itself, independent of genetics, is significantly associated with accelerated weight gain and increased the risk of becoming overweight. The researchers concluded, “It is now well established that the more people engage in dieting, the more they gain weight in the long-term.” This study adds to a body of research which shows that dieting and the ensuing cycling of losing weight, re-gaining weight, and gaining more weight with each subsequent diet, ratchets the baseline weight up even higher, beyond the original weight.

How does this work? The first issue is that very low calorie diets can cause the body to lose a disproportionate amount of muscle mass (which is not the type of weight that any one wants to lose). People are happy because they lose weight fast (on the scales) and look smaller but it is our muscle mass that actually burns the most calories for us in the background. Lose fat AND muscle and you end up thinner, but utilising less and less energy on a daily basis and therefore require less and less calories just to stay the same. After a while the weight loss slows, then stops then people start to re-gain weight even if they are eating the same amount. Do this cycle enough times and you end up with someone who is strictly dieting AND overweight at the same time.

Secondly, extreme caloric restrictions are a physical stress on your body. In patients on low calorie diets (and interestingly also in patients on a ketogenic low carbohydrate diets) some studies have shown markedly increased levels of cortisol, a stress hormone. Cortisol raises blood sugar, and stimulates laying down of fat, especially around your abdomen where it is most dangerous. The other metabolic effects of "dieting" can also cause a change in the hormones that control satiety and hunger - patients are more preoccupied with food, feel more hungry and are less likely to feel full, and this can continue for some time after their "diet" is over.

The statistical bottom line is that the vast majority of short term diets don't work. Sure you will lose weight short term (probably water, fat and muscle), but within 2 years the vast majority of people are the same weight if not heavier than they were before. Funny enough, we seem to know this intuitively, yet we still try keep getting back on the diet cycle. A current Australian weight loss company are using a celebrity in their advertisements who previously and publicly lost a significant amount of weight on their program, has regained it, and is now on their new TV campaign starting again, because she "knows it works". Really? Depends on your definition of "works" I guess. Her weight gain is nothing to be ashamed of and is not her fault, in fact its almost standard for any short term extreme diet, but I find it interesting that it is part of the TV commercial to sell the program. How many people do you know that have weight problems that say they are going to weight watchers again or signing up for another 12 week body transformation program again "because it worked last time". Did it really? If it worked, why do you need to sign up again?

Blogger Ragen Chastain actually describes this really well. She says "I think the diet industry continues to be so successful is that they have found a way to take credit for the (typically successful) short term results of dieting, but blame the client for the (typically unsuccessful) long term results. They know that almost everyone can lose some weight in the short term on almost any diet. They also know that their 5 year success rate is less than 5% but somehow they managed to convince people that the other 95% just didn’t doing it right, and should buy their product again. And we do!"

So if I don't want you to diet, what do I want you to do?

1. Firstly I want you to avoid a fad diet. According to the Better Health Channel Victoria, A fad diet generally has some or all of the following features:

Promises a quick fix
Promotes 'magic' foods or combinations of foods
Implies that food can change body chemistry
Excludes or severely restricts food groups or nutrients, such as carbohydrates
Has rigid rules that focus on weight loss
Makes claims based on a single study or testimonials only.
Is anything that you cannot maintain for the rest of your life without restriction, unhappiness or difficulty

2. I would encourage you not to focus on a diet but instead on a healthy eating plan. My eating prinicples are listed on my blog here, but the general principles for any health eating plan include:

Plenty of vegetables, legumes and fruits.
A variety of grains preferably wholegrain, low glycaemc index and minimally processed
Lean meat, fish, poultry or alternative sources of lean protein.
Milk, yoghurts, cheeses or alternatives sources of calcium.
Plenty of water.
A moderate amount of total fat and limited saturated fat.
A limited amount of salt.
A limited amount of processed and refined sugars, and food and drinks containing added sugars. In particular, limit sugar-sweetened beverages.
Limited alcohol intake, if you choose to drink.
Portion sizes appropriate to your size, age and exercise level.
Flexibility to enjoy treats in moderation.

3. I would like you to try and be mindful of your eating, responsive to your body and don't follow strict eating plans that are not tailored for you. No diet or meal plan from a book or off the internet could possibly “know” your hunger and fullness levels, or what satisfies you. Only you know your eating triggers, your personal likes and dislikes of food, and how foods impact on you physically and emotionally. If you need more structure and support than general principles, then I would encourage you to see a qualified dietitian to have an individual plan tailored for you.

4. Whatever changes you make, make them for life. Don't start doing something you can't continue. Don't get suckered into short term fixes, supplements or snake oil unless you plan to do it forever. Because when you stop these extreme measures, you may be worse off than if you never started. Small, sustainable changes are the key to long term success.

5. Be realistic and focus on the process. Patients who eat a balanced diet and exercise regularly are healthier than those who don't, no matter what their weight is. Obesity is much more complex than just calories in versus calories out - environmental, cultural, genetic and epigenetic, health, socio-economic and lifestyle factors all contribute. So don't focus on the numbers too much. Concentrate on making healthy choices every day. Chances are you will lose weight in a slow and sustainable way and keep it off and get closer to a healthy weight for you. But no matter how much weight you ultimately lose, you will definitely be healthier, and isn't that the ultimate goal?

Lyndal @ Lean Green and Healthy

Health4Tips

Monday, October 20, 2014

Learning to love legumes - reblogging a great article by Sally Marchini

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

What does a balanced meal look like?

Saturday, June 7, 2014

Focus on the journey NOT the destination

Friday, June 6, 2014

Relax - its Friday! (but don't relax too much!)

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Stop dieting now. PLEASE!!

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