Developing A Diet You Can Live With

I use the term "diet" to mean what you eat, we all adhere to a "diet" of some sort, it may not be a restricted calorie diet, but whatever you eat can be referred to as your "diet".

Here are a couple definitions of diet:

1. the foods eaten, as by a particular person or group: The native diet consists of fish and fruit.

2. food or feed habitually eaten or provided: The rabbits were fed a diet of carrots and lettuce.

So, if you want to maintain a healthy weight and heart and also look damn good, you really should be aware of your diet and make sure that you are choosing the right foods and the correct portions. This all starts with either hiring a nutritionist or dietitian; or doing a good deal of research on your own. I have done both.

I first worked with Kim Porterfield from The Institute of Eating Management and Relapse Prevention Center, in Houston,  Texas about a year and a half ago. Kim reviewed my goals, my current diet, my lifestyle, and more importantly, my commitment level to help me to come up with a diet I could live with and enjoy. I went from 13% bodyfat to 8% in three weeks. And I was never hungry.
 
I still work with Kim every couple of months when I need some advise or tweaking, she always sets me on the correct course. Everything is over the phone, we have yet to meet each other (although we chat on face book occasionally).

I have also developed some "diets" for others who want to lose weight and they have been very successful and happy with the plan. You can do that too.

First, I have found that it is best to start in the exact opposite starting point than most books will tell you. I do not believe that you should sit down and all of a sudden start eating certain foods, foods that you would never think of eating, to lose weight. You certainly could do this, but how long do you think you would stick to this? How long do you think you would be happy?

Instead, start looking at what you enjoy doing right now, and then evaluating how you can make small changes to create a diet you still enjoy, that is healthier for you.

Take one week out of your life and record everything you eat or drink and the times. Be honest, this is for you only. You will need to record the food, and the amount. It's OK to estimate. Food is a very emotional issue so it is helpful if you can remember to write down moods too, and when you feel hungry or particularly "starving"

Now, ideally you would create a spreadsheet and record the macro nutrients, but I won't go into that here, it is a bit complicated for one post.

Look at the daily foods and determine if you are getting a lean protein, a complex carbohydrate and healthy fats at each meal. If it seems out of balance, adjust it.

Now I am not saying it is easy, it takes a lot of work in the beginning, but eventually it becomes habit (hopefully).

For instance, if you enjoy pasta, there is no reason you need to eliminate it (unless you are pre-competition); however, most people eat a far larger portion than they should. Go pick up a box of dried pasta from your cupboard and check out the nutritional facts. A 1 pound box of penne says it serves 8 people. Now, honestly, when was the last time you cooked 1 pound of pasta for 8 people? Never!

But that small suggested serving size gives you 41 grams of carbohydrates, far more than I ever eat in any one meal. It also has 200 calories, and that is just plain pasta.

So, you can certainly enjoy some pasta, but stick to the serving size. This means you cannot fill up on a bowl of pasta, you need to have other things with it. You will need a lean source of protein (fish, chicken or turkey breast) and a vegetable.

A good rule of thumb is your protein source should be about the size of your open palm (that's the palm only, no fingers). Your carbohydrate source should be about the size of your closed  fist and you can have as many vegetables as your healthy heart desires! Skip the butter and oil though.

You can enjoy a glass of wine occasionally, but not everyday, and certainly not a bottle every Friday night.

If you eat cereal, look at the serving size and stick to that. Most granola's suggest 1/4 cup! That's not much is it? So you will need something else to fill you up won't you? Egg whites can be purchased in cartons and used in place of whole eggs, or you can mix one whole egg with egg whites to measure a cup, and then scramble that or make an omelet. Use low fat cheese.

We all know that candy  bars, chips, any fried foods, butter, oil and fatty meats, none of it is good for you. Avoid those and save them for a special occasion.

Your main drink should be plain water. No soda and not coffee all day long. Get to love water.

Avoid packaged prepared foods, they tend to be loaded with fats and excessive carbohydrates.

Learn to cook, eat what is in season.

Experiment with cooking, it is an art not a science, there are no hard fast rules (except in baking, that IS a science).

Read labels. If you cannot pronounce it, why would you eat it?

Black Forest Muffins

The other day my nutritionist, Kim Porterfield (The Institute of Eating Management and Relapse Prevention Center) sent out a recipe for Black Forest Protein Muffins, and they sounded delicious but were protein only, no carbs and I wanted muffins that were a compete meal, something I could make ahead and then take with me to work for a complete morning meal.

I came up with this recipe based on her idea. My 16 year old son said “these are actually very good” and my husband said “I could eat these with a cup of coffee”. He then proceeded to eat several after dinner, while I typed this up. Considering these are a total healthy meal, contain all of the complex carbs and protein that you need, this is high praise!

This will make 24 muffins and the nutrient breakdown is as follows:

Men 6 muffins Calories 308.8; carbs 36.8 g; protein 30 g; sugar 4.5 g, fat 4.5 g
Women 4 muffins Calories 205.9; carbs 24.5 g; protein 20 g; sugar 3 g; fat 3 g

Don’t forget after an intense weight training session you really should have more carbs, so immediately following your workout you should be ingesting a carb/protein drink with a ratio of 4 to 1 (carbs to protein) and then eating this as your breakfast within the next hour and a half.

You must use aluminum muffin liners (it changes the consistency).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Ingredients:
4 cups liquid egg whites
1 1.4 ounce package sugar free instant chocolate jello pudding
1 20 ounce can Comstock lite cherry pie filling (buy sugar free if you can locate it)
2 cups Quaker oats
2 Tbsps baking powder
4 Tbsps unsweetened cocoa powder
8 Tbsps Splenda

Blend all ingredients (except pie filling) in food processor or blender until smooth. Pour into a bowl and allow to rest about 5 minutes until thickened, stir in pie filling. It will be thick like cake batter.

Place the aluminum cupcake liners into a cupcake tray, then spray with cooking spray. Fill each muffin cup up completely to the top.

Bake 25 minutes, let muffins rest in pan 5 minutes then remove muffins to a rack to cool. Bake second batch.

Muffins will be puffy and beautiful when they come out, and then fall and look just a little wrinkly when they cool.

My husband suggested slathering them with peanut butter, I think that sounds great, but maybe only a little bit of it!

Turkey Chili

This is a recipe adapted from one that my nutritionist, Kim Porterfield gave me. I love chili, but most chili is fairly loaded with fat and calories. This is healthy and even kids will eat it!







2 pounds ground turkey breast
2 cans chicken broth or 30 ounces water
2 cans chopped ready cut tomatoes, or any flavored cut tomatoes
4 tablespoons chili powder
½ tsp cayenne pepper
1 cup diced onion
1 cup diced carrot
1 cup diced celery
4 diced jalapenos (or use canned)

Brown the turkey, break into small pieces. When cooked through add remaining ingredients, bring to a boil. Cover and simmer 15 minutes. If too thin once done, remove lid and simmer until some liquid has evaporated. Remember that you will add beans later so you want some liquid. I like mine fairly liquid, so use less and add more later if you like, cooking is an art, baking is a science!

Add beans prior to serving, warm through.

If pre-making making this for your dinners and lunches, measure into equal amounts (I eat 4 ounces protein at a meal, so I would measure this into 8 equal zip lock bags), then freeze them. When ready to eat, empty contents into a pot, heat through then add your beans (I add 4 ounces beans before lunch and 3 ounces beans for dinner).

Top with hot sauce, fat free sour cream, diced onions, and jalapenos.

Here I am having it with a salad and balsamic vinaigrette (balsamic vinegar, pepper, mustard and splenda) along with a big glass of water.

Where do you start? Hire a Nutritionist

I think that depends on where you are now physically, emotionally and financially. My hobby for years has been cooking, I can go to any restaurant, try any dish and re-create it at home and get pretty darn close. Ask SC (Strength Coach), I re-created a green salsa for him, he seemed to think it was pretty amazing, it was a cinch.

I love food and I love to eat. I love textures, runny eggs, raw fish, rare meat, you name it, I will eat it. Here I am making cassoulet, you can't get much fattier and high calorie than this.

You need to assess where you are, what your lifestyle is and what your goals are. I certainly don't starve myself, but I don't eat cassoulet more than once a year either.

I decided that I had been lifting weights for a long time, I looked good, but there was something missing, and I had to learn to successfully maintain this amazing thing called the human body.

The best thing I ever did for myself was to work with a nutritionist, and one who had been a Figure Competitor herself. She knew what I was trying to achieve and helped me figure out how to get where I wanted to be.

Kim and I have never met in person, we did all of our consultations over the phone and that worked fine for me. If you are a person who needs more hand holding through a new process, this may not work for you.

Kim taught me how to eat to fuel my body. She provided me with encouragement, she made me ask myself tough questions, she gave me honest answers. I have a book full of recipes that I still use to this day, over a year later that I still enjoy. What did it cost me to do this? About the price of a nice pair of designer jeans, the choice is yours.

If I were to do it all over again, this is where I would start.

Decide what your goals are. Do you want to lose weight, lose body fat, increase weight (she taught me how to do that too, and I do that intentionally part of the year).

If you will be working over the phone or Internet, make sure you have all of the information he or she will need. Accurate pictures of yourself (be sure your body is visible, even if you are not happy with it), current body fat, current weight, a log of everything you have eaten and at what times for the last week. This is not a time to try to fool anyone, be honest.

Give Kim Porterfield a call at The Institue of Eating Management and Relapse Prevention Center