One of the easiest ways to drop a few pounds is to cut back on the amount of food you eat.  Over the last 30 years, portion sizes (like our waistlines) have continued to increase.  It happens so gradually that you don’t even realize that the food on your plate should be feeding two people instead of one.  Do you remember the blueberry muffins you ate as a kid?  They were half the size of the monster muffins you see in coffee shops today.

So how do you make subtle adjustment to your daily routine to make sure you’re eating the right amount of food?  Let’s break it down by meals and snacks:

1. Breakfast: Use a smaller bowl for your oatmeal, cereal or yogurt and don’t go back for seconds.  Many people make the mistake of keeping the box of cereal next to their bowl so they can keep filling it up.  After you fix your breakfast, put everything away.  If you want a breakfast sandwich, skip the meat and choose English muffins over biscuits or croissants.  And just say NO to greasy hash browns.
2. Lunch: It’s really hard to pick up a sandwich for lunch these days because they’re so big–and they’re often served with fries like this club sandwich with a gazillion calories!   If you have a favorite place where you can get half of a sandwich and a cup of soup, that’s great.  But eating out for lunch can get really expensive.  The best solution is to bring a sandwich, homemade soup or a salad from home.  Leftovers from dinner are usually a good choice as well.  Ditch the snack chips and sodas—they’re both full of all kinds of stuff your body doesn’t need.
3. Dinner: Dinner may seem like a hard meal to scale back on—but if you think about it, it’s easy. Before you serve your plate, think about how much food would make you feel satisfied without making you feel stuffed.  Then serve your plate in the kitchen.  Unless you have company, there’s no reason to put serving bowls on the table.  It makes it too easy to take “just a little more”.  Using a smaller plate works wonders because your brain sees a full plate of food—even if it’s not as much food.  Once you’ve made this a habit, you won’t even miss the extra food on your plate.  If you go out to dinner, skip the bread and ask for a “to-go” box with your meal.  You’ll have a ready-made lunch for tomorrow.
4. Snacks: A mid-morning or afternoon snack is a good way to get you through the day and help keep you from feeling famished by dinner time.  There are all kinds of great snacks—nuts, cheese, fruit, hummus—and there are bad snacks.   But that doesn’t mean you can’t have a piece of chocolate in the afternoon.  It simply means you choose the fun sized Snickers bar (76 calories) instead of a regular Snickers bar (280 calories).  And try to avoid snacking after dinner.  If you find yourself wanting a snack in the evening, try to figure out why you want it.  I’m almost certain it’s not because you’re hungry (unless you are working a night shift!)

Other things to remember:

• Slow down. The faster you eat, the less you get to enjoy your meal.   Have you ever noticed that food tastes better when someone else cooks for you? This is probably because you’re slowing down and actually paying attention to what you’re eating.  So slow down and enjoy.
• Drink water before and during your meal.  It will help you feel full quicker.  Plus, our bodies need a lot of water.
• Crowd your plate with lots of fresh vegetables. You may have some bad memories of boiled vegetables from when you were a kid—I know I do (sorry mom).  But there are a lot of delicious recipes that combine great ingredients (like ginger, garlic and lemongrass) with healthy veggies.

Everything we do is a habit so why not choose good habits and healthy portions sizes?

Please share your good habits with us and tell us how you avoid over-sized portions.  Thanks!

Happy Meals,

Molly

Mornings are crazy in most households across the country—ESPECIALLY if you’re trying to get kids ready and off to school. This chaotic environment can leave you feeling frantic and stressed.   This extra stress may cause an increase in your levels of cortisol, an important hormone secreted by your adrenal glands.  Cortisol is called the “stress hormone” because when you’re under stress, your body tends to secrete more of it.  High levels of cortisol have been linked to weight gain (particularly around the belly).  Excess belly fat can not only harm confidence levels, it can lead to serious problems such as increased risk of diabetes, heart disease and stroke. 

Even though you probably already know all of this, I bet you’re still not slowing down in the morning.  And, since you’re pressed for time, what do you do?  Skip breakfast.

Nearly EVERY one of the clients I work with in my 30 Day Fitness & Confidence Makeover has one thing in common:  they skip breakfast.  The excuses are many but none are good enough to justify missing the most important meal of the day.   Research studies have proven that people who forgo breakfast are more likely to be overweight than people who eat breakfast—even if the breakfast lovers ate more calories!

Some people think by skipping breakfast, they are saving up their calories for later in the day.  It just doesn’t end up working this way.  If you eat dinner at 7:00 at night, and you don’t eat again until lunch the next day, you have gone approximately 17 hours without eating any food!  Your body thinks it’s starving so what happens?  You reserve some fat just in case you need it in an emergency.  And if your daughter doesn’t want to eat breakfast either (she sees that YOU don’t eat it so why should she?) it can be detrimental to her day.  She’ll have a difficult time concentrating at school, get fatigued, and become irritable. 

If you start your day with a HEALTHY breakfast, you’re setting the tone for the rest of your day. On the flip side, if you eat 2 doughnuts from Krispy Kreme, you figure your day has already been “ruined” so you end up making other unhealthy choices throughout the day.   Start healthy and stay healthy—all day long!

The following is a mini guide to help you choose a healthy and delicious breakfast:

GREAT CHOICES:

• Oatmeal with Blueberries (not the pre-packaged flavored oatmeal—they are loaded with sugar (if you add a few walnuts, you’ll be eating Dr. Oz’s favorite breakfast)
• Fat-free or low fat plain yogurt (I love Fage Greek Yogurt) with fresh berries and a sprinkling of museli or granola.
• Smoothie (yogurt or cottage cheese, strawberries & bananas, flax seed oil)
• Scrambled eggs with tomatoes, broccoli and bell peppers
• Low fat cottage cheese and fruit (I love pineapple)

STAY AWAY FROM (or limit):

• Breakfast Cereals:  Most breakfast cereals are made up of refined white flour and sugar.  Due to high sugar content, most of these will leave you starving my 10:30am.   Post Golden Crisp and Kellogg’s Honey Smacks are over 50% sugar!  Check out the sugar content in some of these “healthy” cereals:
  • Special K Red Berries:  10 grams of sugar and contains high fructose corn syrup
  • Smart Start Healthy Start:  17 grams of sugar and contains high fructose corn syrup
  • Kashi Go Lean:  6 grams of sugar with no trans fats
• Those yummy looking scones, pastries and muffins you see at Starbucks and other coffee shops.  Thanks to new legislation, you can finally see how many calories are hidden in those healthy-sounding fruit muffins.
• Fast food.  It’s not worth it—ever.  It just makes you feel bad.
• Breakfast meats—such as sausage, bacon and ham.  If you can’t live without meat in the morning, you may want to try turkey bacon or chicken sausage.  Serve with a scrambled egg and you’ll be satisfied until lunch.
• Breakfast Bars.  Most of them are loaded with sugar.  Always read the labels—make sure there are no hydrogenated oils, less than 5 grams of fat, and no more than 20-25 grams of protein. 

So slow down a little bit in the mornings and make time to have breakfast. If you have to get up 10 minutes earlier to accomplish this, then do it.  Your body and mind will thank you for the rest of the day.

Enjoy Your Morning Meal,

Molly