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Showing posts from January 10, 2010

Day #12: Enjoy a homemade healthy dessert, once a week

My typical evening routine goes as follows: 5pm-come up with something creative to cook for dinner by getting inspired by my favorite recipe websites: fatfree.com, Cooks.com, allrecipes.com 5:15pm-prep and cook dinner while watching the Ellen Show(which I DVR everyday). She makes me smile and love life. 6pm-walk up to the Trek store w/ Campy (1.1 miles). Hang out until Karel gets off work. 7:05pm-Karel gets off work and he drives us home. 7:15pm-eat dinner and watch The Office (DVR) As for after dinner, I always look forward to my after-dinner snack. Typically it's low fat yogurt, greek yogurt or homemade fat-free pudding w/ fruit or nuts on top. I don't think there is anything wrong with an after-dinner snack but I try to wait 30 minutes after dinner before enjoying my snack, I keep the snack less than 150 calories (mostly protein and/or fruit) and I make sure that I have at least 1 hour before bed to digest my snack. When you think about dessert, I think a few stereotypical d

Day #11: Never go into a meal starving

What an easy trick. You are about an hour away from lunch or dinner and your tummy beings to growl. But in an effort to not add extra calories to your daily calories, you just sit and watch the clock tick by until it is time for lunch. If you packed your lunch, it is likely that you will have no trouble overeating. You can only eat what is available to you. But what if you are going out for lunch with your co-workers. While you may have all intentions to not eat from the bread basket, not order an appetizer or ordering only a salad, your tummy and brain takes over, excuses are made..."I'll burn it off later" "I didn't eat that mid morning snack so I have extra calories"....and you indulge in a high calorie, high fat meal. What about dinner. You are coming home from the gym/training and you are starving. You feel as if you could eat anything and everything and by the time your "healthy" dinner is ready you are ready to indulge in "unhealthy&quo

Day # 10: Keep a food Journal

Are you training for an upcoming athletic event? Are you working out on a daily basis? Would it frustrate you if, day after day, you never saw any changes in your performance? Well, if you did the same thing every day, you should expect the same results. But wouldn't it just be super frustrating if you changed up your routine and still saw no gains in power, strength, speed or endurance? Not sure about you, but I would feel really unmotivated to continue with my current training routine if I wasn't seeing progress. Sure, I'd still train, hoping that one day I would improve, but I wouldn't like the feeling of giving my all and receiving nothing back in return on race day. When it comes to athletic performance, it is vital that athletes understand what they consume before, during and after workouts in an effort to plan nutrition for race/competition day. The day after my IM races, I always write down exactly what I had during the race so that I can have a solid template f

Day #9: Re-creating your favorite meals

Do you ever wonder why you crave sweets around 3pm? Do you ever wonder why you eat chips or pretzels with sandwiches? Why is it that you always have pancakes after your long Sunday ride? Why is it that you have to top yogurt with granola or dry cereal? Why is it that you have to have jelly with peanut butter? Why does lemonade always sound good after a hard and hot workout? Why does hot chocolate taste so good on a snowy day? I'm sure you have heard the expression "it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks". I think it would be true to say everyone has habits in the diet (good and bad). I think the number 1 fear people have when changing dietary habits is "giving up 'favorite' foods". Ask yourself, if you were to change some of those habits, would you lose weight, improve performance or feel better about the you eat? While snacking on fruit is certainly not a habit that you would want to change, perhaps always ordering fries with a meal is a habit tha

Day #8: Tricking the eye

Are you overweight because you are eating too many carrots, celery sticks, apples or grapes? My guess is unlikely. However, as an active individual, looking for the competitive edge or just seeking fitness gains, I have a feeling that your overall diet is somewhat healthy. Do you eat any of the following foods in your weekly diet? Granola Low fat yogurt Whole grain bread Whole grain pasta or brown rice Potatoes (sweet or white) Olive oil Low fat cottage cheese Greek yogurt High fiber cereal Oatmeal Nuts Natural Peanut butter Hummus Quinoa/Couscous Soy milk Dark chocolate These are just a few of the "healthy" foods that come to mind in a healthy diet and I think we could all agree that all (most) of these foods are yummy and easy to include in our daily diet. And perhaps, easy to overindulge. I can't tell you how many times I hear from athletic individuals, who tell me about their "healthy" diet, that they continuously struggle with weight loss. One would wonder