Serving Sizes

All the time we hear about serving sizes. Sometimes it is hard to picture what a true serving size is, so I am going to list some common every day items that might help you to picture a proper serving size. It is hard to keep in mind especially when going out to eat and the plates and the serving sizes are growing larger and larger. So even if you are being savey and split a meal with a friend it is still helpful to know what serving size you are eating.

For breads and pastas one serving size is 1 slice of bread, 1/2 cup of pasta or rice, or 1 oz of ready to eat cereal. To picture this the slice of bread should be the size of a standard 3G (or blackberry) cell phone, 1 cup (remember a serving is 1/2 cup) of rice or pasta is around the size of a tennis ball or ice cream scoop, cornbread is the size of a bar of soap.
For vegetables one serving size is, 1/2 cup of cooked or chopped veggies, 3/4 cup of veggie juice, or 1 cup of raw chopped veggies. To picture, 1 cup of raw salad greens is the size of a baseball, 3/4 cup is the size of a small child's serving cup at Starbucks, a 1/2 cup of chopped veggies is the size of an ice cream scoop. Also a 1/2 cup is 6-8 asparagus spears, or 7-8 baby carrots.
With fruit a serving size is 1 whole apple, banana, or orange, 3/4 cup for just juice, or 1/2 cup for chopped or canned fruit. To picture it, 1/2 cup of grapes or other chopped fruit is the size of a light bulb. A medium sized fruit is the size of a tennis ball.
For proteins a serving size is 2-3oz of animal meat, or 1/2 cup of cooked dried beans, 1 egg or 2 TBSP of peanut butter. To picture it, 1 serving of meat is generally the size of a deck of cards. With Chicken, 1 drum stick and one thigh or one breast is one serving of meat. With 2TBSP, that is generally the size of a ping pong ball.
Diary has it's own catagory here since it contains fat and protien. One serving size is 1 cup of milk or yogurt, or 1 and a 1/2 to 2 oz of cheeze. To picture it all yogurt would be the size of a tennis ball, and milk is the size of a full small (smaller than tall) kids cup at Starbucks, ice cream would be one scoop, and cheese in cube form 1 oz is the size of a pair of dice or a 9 volt battery.
Finally for fats one serving size is 1 Tsp of Butter or 2 TBSP of salad dressing. To picture these, 1 tsp is the size of a stamp and the thickness of a pencil. Typically 1 pad of butter has 2 Tsp. For 2 TBSP of salad dressing or oil picture the size of a ping pong ball. Most of the carafes that the dressings are served in at a restaurant are 3-4 TBSP.
Hopefully these are helpful to keep in mind even though there is quite a few of them. Once you get a general idea of what a serving size is.

The Skinny on Supplements

Many people debate if a supplement for weight loss would be helpful. Many people lose weight and keep it off with out the use of weight loss supplements. Weight loss supplements are a big business. When Ephedra was legal it was a multi-billion dollar business. It went off the market because the effects were generally like a mild form of speed and highly addictive. Many weight loss supplements have a high risk of addiction and return of weight once you stop taking the pills. If you feel you really need a little extra boost for now there are a few nutrients that will help you health wise and are not addictive.
Medium Chain Fatty Acids (MCFAs) are quite helpful. MCFA's can be searched for by typing into google or knowing specific acids like CLA, Coccnut oil and Lauric acid are a few. Taking 2000-4000 mg a day will give the body the healthy fats that your body needs so it can burn the stored fat.
If you have worries about diabetes other helpful supplements are low doses of Chromium. Anytime you want to add supplements for weight loss or health, it is very important to talk to a health professional about what your concerns are, what you past health issues are and what is safe to take with any current medications. Also when you buy any products, make sure you buy high quality, essentially you get what you pay for. So the buy one get one free gallons of supplements that are sold at grocery outlets are not the best choice. If anyone is curious about some good brands please contact your doctor or even give me a call at my office.

Challenges

Christine posted some great information about the difficulties we experience as we try to lose weight.
While it is tempting to be the biggest loser and take the pot prize, it is also important we are creating healthy habits that we will keep up with once the contest is over. If you have a day where you fall off the wagon and binge a little, its ok, as long as you get back on the wagon. What you do six days a week is more important that what you do one day a week. So have you burger and fries on one day but keep with the healthy choices the rest of the week.
If you are starting to feel a challenge with losing weight, look at what is going on. Is it time to revisit the measuring cup? Many times we eyeball our serving sizes and the size starts to creep up over time. Lets check that we are still eating only one cup of cereal in the morning vs one and a half. Also are we being honest about what we are eating or are we forgetting about the chips we tried at lunch from a friends plate?
Other things that effect our weight loss, high stress. Is our job getting to us or other situations at home? Try to find some relaxing activities away from it all. Exercise is one of the best stress reducing things we can do. Otherwise try soaking in the tub with the ipod on so you don't have to hear anything else.
Make sure you are getting a full nights sleep if you can. Sometimes getting the right amount of sleep will get you back on track.
This challenge again is about creating sustainable habits that you will keep up with when money is no longer the prize. Think about what you are doing now and can you add a little more to it, or are you doing too much.

Building Muscle

A quick word to muscle building. Some people have joined this contest not so much for weight loss but to increase tone and overall fitness.
For those who want to look more tone, pay attention. It takes some time to build muscle. The standard medical answer is that from beginning of a weight program to the end, it takes on average 8 weeks minimum to build more muscle. There are other opinions about this in the world, but I am giving you my perspective from my training. In order for the muscle to actually build, ie get stronger, you not only have to be patient, but you also have to work the larger muscles to fatigue often. So a short intense work out (30 minutes or so) is more beneficial than two hour long sessions. Working the larger muscle groups or combanation moves like squats and lunges will get the smaller muscles working in the area as well. Again this is for those who want to build muscle vs just get stronger. To get some more size to the muscles, you need to tire them out several times a week. This will send a signal to the brain.... 'I have to get bigger to adapt to this weight lifting.'
For those who start now, they will still have a chance of looking fit and tone by the end of our contest.

Muscular Fitness

Hi all,

Sorry about the lack of post this week. The time flew by. Here we are at another weigh in date. Anyone nervous that they might have put some back on or not lost anymore? I am after our potluck the other night. Even though it was healthy, I still had quite a bit.

Today I wanted to talk about the importance of a weight training program. Many women put it off because they want to do cardio and lose weight first. This is actually counter productive. Adding muscle early on will help to increase your overall BMR (basil metabolic rate) this will mean you burn more calories at rest, for even muscle at rest has a higher demand for calories than fat alone. Add some weight training now, even if it is push ups and squats using only your own body weight. Need help creating a strenght work out? You all have plenty of people here than can help or start using those great training DVD's that Christine is handing out.

Are we on track?

Getting ready for week one weigh in? Are we feeling on track? Any wins as far as avoiding temptation? Lets hear about it.

Calories Smallories

There is always a buzz about calories and how much and how little. Today we will talk about how little.
In the world of nutrition there is the buzz of "starvation mode" and getting in that mode will cause your metabolism to slow down and eventually stop losing weight. There are many myths around this topic but the true definition of starvation mode is to eat less than 50% of your daily caloric expenditure.
In general it is recommended that you do not eat less than 1000-1200 calories without the supervision of a doctor. Eating less than this will not put you in to starvation mode truly, but will prevent you from getting all the nutrients and minerals that you need for the day. Many people don't know the key signs of a mineral deficiency, and some deficiencies can have very serious side effects, the most serious of course, death.
Unless you are getting your blood work checked by a doctor try to keep you calories above the "magic" 1000-1200 per day.