CoachBioArt

Here’s a site that is difficult to look at… some of the most decadent dishes ever imagined… sad thing is that I’ve seen a few on real-life menus:

http://thisiswhyyourefat.com/

On my previous post, I talked about condiments on sandwiches, and the fact that many times, you didn’t really need them and they just added extra calories and fat.  Specifically, things like Mayo and Butter just add a minor amount of flavour, but significant amounts of fat and calories.  I wanted to extend the idea to every day foods, not just fast food.  There are some very easy switches that save you calories and fat, but have a minor impact on flavour or the enjoyment of any dish.

For example, 1 or 2% milk is a no-brainer to most people.  Sure, whole milk is creamy, but 2% is too… switching to 1% isn’t that much of a change once you get used to 2%.  In addition, skim milk has enough milk taste that it is a great substitute.  Have cereal in the morning? use skim milk… there’s no reason to use regular or even 2%.  Most of the flavour comes from the cereal anyways! Soy milk is a good option too (but, do soybeans have nipples?), though it sometimes has as much fat as 2% milk.

Sometimes it is also easy to save many calories by just going for a different flavor.  BBQ sauces taste great, but why don’t you use Tabasco instead? it will still taste great and the amount of fat goes down significantly.  And BTW, skip the blue cheese, or just use a small dab.  Salads are a great example of this… always ask for dressing on the side and add the minimum amount to get a flavor.  Aim to use 1/3 to 1/2 of whatever dressing they give you.  You will feel better and save some extraneous fat and calories that you won’t miss.

Another potential for disaster is peanut butter.  I *LOVE* peanut butter… really.  I could eat a jar with a spoon if I didn’t think it would kill me .  If you are going to use some in a sandwich, use the smallest amount possible, those are extra calories and fat that are really hard to control. If you really want to have peanut butter, my recommendation is that you really measure the serving size… take a spoon and weigh it out before you put the peanut butter in it and then weigh it afterwards.  You will be surprised at what the serving size is really like.  In the past, I would make a peanut butter, banana and cheese sandwich that is to die for, but unfortunately, that’s probably the end result.  There were probably over 1000 calories in a sandwich that I could devour in less than one minute… what a waste!

Other easy things that can be replaced:

• “Butter” -> “I can’t believe it’s not butter”
• Peanut butter -> Soynut butter (this is a great switch!)
• American Singles -> fat free singles (works great on sandwiches, not that great by itself)
• Potatoes -> Sweet potatoes (more fiber, better taste)
• Chicken -> Turkey (usually a good choice and it tastes very similar)
• Bacon -> No Bacon (sure, it’s tasty, but do you really need it?)

Finally, back to butter… do you really need to put any butter/oil in rice or pasta? try it without next time.  The consistency may change a little, but it will be an enjoyable dish nonetheless.  Also, do you really need butter in mash potatoes? use milk, or use nothing!

A great place to look at substitutions is the “Eat This, Not That” set of books and website… you’ll be amazed at what you could accomplish by doing some minor changes in your food choices!

Do you have any other suggestions? I’d love to hear about other extraneous ingredients!

Here’s the deal… I like fast food.  There I said it.  And I don’t really like grilled chicken sandwiches that much so as to eat them every time I go out for a quick bite.  Besides, those sandwiches also have mayo or some other horrible-for-you sauce!  After looking at the caloric content of many of these sandwiches, it is pretty clear that the condiments add a lot of calories/fat.  Guess what? they are still tasty without them!  I used to think that I loved cheese so much I had to have it in everything, but there are so many flavors in fast-food sandwiches, that the cheese gets lost.  Therefore, lose it! (you won’t miss it).  The same is true for mayonnaise/tartar sauce/etc.  You don’t need them!

Butter? why? there’s enough fat in the meat already, skip it and you’ll still have a tasty meal.  If you must have some condiments, use mustard first… it’s pretty much free.  Ketchup is a good option, but watch the sugars… they can add up quickly.

Here’s an easy example that I use every time I go to a deli… Instead of a turkey/bacon sub, I order a Turkey sandwich with Mustard and hots (or hot peppers).  The sandwich tastes great and it isn’t half-bad for you (count the carbs and calories, of course)

I also love fried fish.  Either in a sandwich or by itself (haddock or catfish for me, they are the best!).  But I have no idea why it always comes with tartar sauce… that stuff is nasty!  Skip it and lose a significant amount of fat from your meal… Similarly, McDonald’s file-o-fish always comes with cheese, but to me, the fish tastes great by itself and you can go from 380 to 270 calories by skipping the sauce and the cheese.   (and go from 18 to 7 grams of fat!!).  For fried fish dinners, another option is to use ketchup or malt-vinegar (better).   Sure, it is still fried, so don’t eat it every day (though I’d love to ), but it can be a part of your menu, just be careful… oh!, and skip the fries and coleslaw, get double the veggies!

As I recovering overweight person, I have had my ups and down in terms of weight… I have lost lost significant amounts of weight in the past, but ended up gaining it back after some time.  The one big thing I did wrong those times was that I kept my old clothes… big mistake!  As I started gaining weight, I would just wear the bigger pants… (pants with elastic “comfort” waists are the worst, since you wont’ realize you’ve gone up a size until it is too late).  I ended up with a huge wardrobe, with pants ranging in sizes from 34 to 42+.  This annoyed my wife to no end, but she’s always been a good sport and supported me.

This time, I’ve taken a radical approach.  I’ve gone from a size 42+ to a size 36 and I’m on my way to a size 34.  Every time I go to a smaller size comfortably, I make a big pile of the bigger clothes and donate them.  This accomplishes two things:

1) Making the big pile feels great!  It’s a nice way to mark an in-between achievement and provides great positive-reinforcement (it makes the wife happy too)

2) Gaining weight after losing will cost you money… in many ways.

The moto will be: If I can’t fit in my pants, I’m going to the basement and put a video in to work out… I’m not buying a bigger size

Keep Pushing Play!

Here’s a nice reference guide to reading food labels.  Granted, they go a little over the top in saying that some of the artificial sweeteners are worse than they actually are, but overall it’s a pretty good read!

Food Labels… Do You Read Them Before You Buy?

Thanks @jjaruba for sharing this first!

One of the mistakes that I think people do is to keep their goals secret… when I started P90X, I told everyone at work I was doing it. Sure they were somewhat supportive at first, but they were laughing inside… they all expected me to quit after some time. I found out they even talked about having a pool as to when I would quit. In fact, friends I’ve known forever (>15 years) said that they expected me to do it heavily for a while and then lose interest quickly…

The reason I was very public about it was that it made me be accountable. It would be easier to continue than to have people laugh at me or made funny comments if I quit. I updated my facebook status every time I worked out and even though it probably annoyed some, it added another level of accountability… When the 90 days were over, I put up random pictures of the new me and the response was great! Similarly, at work, people just kept doing double takes. I also got new glasses and changed my haircut just to make it even more obvious

The funny thing is that by telling everyone, I found out that many were willing to encourage me when I was being slow or lazy… I’d put up my facebook status saying that I was fighting inertia to get off the couch and I would get comments from friends telling me to go do it. It sounds silly, but it helps!

The lesson here is: be open about what you are doing! As soon as you lose some weight, change the way you dress and show your new confidence. People will encourage you and help you (directly or indirectly). Trust me, it’s easier to keep going than to try to explain why you quit

It’s so simple and yet so hard to do right… I have been trying to keep track of what I eat for a long time. The problem is that many times you don’t really have access to the nutritional info or don’t have time to write things down. There are many tools out there that try to do this, but most of them are really not that useful…. why? limited built-in libraries. Most of them use the FDA food list. This list only contains about 7500 items and some of those are a little esoteric (Beluga whale anyone?)

The best one out there in my opinion is the Calorie King website (calorieking.com). They publish a book with over 50K foods and it contains info on most restaurants/etc. The best part about it is that you can use go on the website on your computer or you can use the fairly light-weight mobile site. They have a Mac/Windows app, but it does not sync the way I want it to. It can sync from the Win/Mac/PalmOS app to the website, but not backwards, so the website is the only one that is maintained current. I don’t use the apps anymore because of this, but by being able to update my food intake while at the restaurant, it’s harder to forget what I eat. The website is only about 10 dollars a month, but it is really useful. Adding custom foods and exercises is pretty easy and given their database size, it’s a rare occurrence.

I wish there was a native app for Windows Mobile that did this, but I can live with the website. I’ve looked at some of the Ipod/Iphone apps, but haven’t really used them as much. I believe there is one that has a large library, but since I don’t have an Iphone, I don’t want to rely on carrying the Ipod with me at all times.

I have learned that it is really important to keep track of everything.  I set my goals to have about 2000 calories a day, <65g of fat, <200g carbs and <200g of protein (trying to maximize protein).  The days I don’t keep track are the days I miss those targets… seeing it throughout the day helps me decide what I should I and should not eat for dinner (if I strayed during the day .  Before keeping track of my intake, I know there were days I would have >3500 calories… food is tasty and I like to eat!  Now I know better and make decisions based on my goals and not my cravings.  Sure, it’s nice to splurge every now and then and have some extra cheese, but it isn’t worth it on a regular basis.  The results I’ve gotten so far are much more rewarding!

As I share my success story, I will also talk about the things that worked for me and things that didn’t. Watch this space for lots of info on some of the web tools and equipment I use. In addition I plan on reviewing many of the things I have tried and liked or disliked. No sense in having people rediscover the wheel every time!

Some of the specific topics I will discuss:
-Food Tracking websites/tools
-Exercise tools/equipment
-Extra workouts
-etc