Mental Monday

I am a firm believer in making the most out of what I eat! Especially since wearing my bodybugg, I've come to realize just how hard it is to work off a guilty pleasure! More and more, those guilty pleasures simply aren't worth it to me. My first 90 lbs were lost by making simple changes in my diet. NO exercise. I've slipped back into the mentality that I can eat whatever I want because I'm exercising, but the scale - and my bodybugg - tell me otherwise. Time to slip back into my healthy eating habits once and for all!

Get the Most out of What You Eat

Feeling satisfied may be your ticket to successful weight management.

What is satiety? It’s that lasting feeling of fullness at a meal's end, the feeling that you're no longer hungry or deprived. It can be a hard feeling to achieve with some diets. But satiety isn’t a luxury when it comes to weight loss — in fact, it may be your ticket to successful weight management.

"To get more satisfaction out of food, the idea is to fill up on foods that give you a lot of volume for relatively few calories," says Karen Miller-Kovach, MS, RD, chief scientist at Weight Watchers International. For example, 1/4 cup of raisins and 1 2/3 cups of grapes have the same number of calories, but with the grapes, you obviously get to eat much more, and you're apt to feel more satisfied when you're through.

Besides fresh fruit like grapes, other satiating high-volume foods include complex carbohydrates that are high in water, air and/or fiber, such as air-popped popcorn, vegetables and whole-grains like brown rice, says Miller-Kovach. But lean protein-rich foods, such as a skinless chicken breast, low-fat or nonfat yogurt or skim milk can also contribute to satiety, she adds. That's why, for maximum satisfaction, you might want to make sure your meals also contain some lean protein, says Miller-Kovach.

Super-Satisfying Temptation Tamers

Other mealtime tricks for pumping up the volume in your food to maximize your satisfaction on fewer calories:

Start meals with a first course of broth-based soup, vegetable juice or a salad with reduced fat or low-fat dressing. One caveat: "Make sure that first course isn't more than 100 calories," says Barbara Rolls, PhD, Guthrie chair of nutrition at Pennsylvania State University. Otherwise, you could end up eating too many calories at that particular meal.

According to Rolls' research, which has been published in her book Volumetrics (Harper Collins, 2000), subjects who began their meals with a high-volume, low-calorie starter like soup or salad ate 100 fewer calories over the course of the entire meal compared to those who started their meal with the entrée.

Eat more vegetables, such as leafy greens, lettuce, tomatoes, green beans, summer squash and onions. In fact, stash them in stews, soups, pasta sauces, pizza and meat loaf. They're high-volume, high-satisfaction, low-calorie superstars because they're loaded with water and fiber, Rolls says, two top filler-uppers.

Limit very dry foods, such as pretzels, crackers and chips. Dry foods lack water and thus are low in volume. "Dry foods pack a lot of calories into a small portion and are easy to overeat," says Rolls.

You can also make it second nature to gravitate toward healthy foods that fill you up. When you follow the Weight Watchersfood plan, we can help you learn to naturally seek out these foods, while still being able to enjoy the treats you love.

Eventually you might find yourself gravitating towards these more satisfying, less caloric choices, making your healthy eating habits a way of life, not a chore.

Written by Leslie Fink, MS, RD

From WeightWatchers.com



xo,

5 comments:

Deanna @ The Unnatural Mother said...

Hey Michelle,

Great post. Can you go into the body bugg more? How it works, how it helps etc??

Deanna @ The Unnatural Mother said...

Hey Michelle,

Great post!!! Can you go into the body bugg more? How it works, how it helps? Why do you find it so useful? Does it track all your calories, where do you where it, does it hurt?

Tori Leslie said...

Hey there Michelle,
I just found your inspiring blog and I'm so excited to read more!!

Laurie said...

Hi-
I also just found your blog. I am running my first 1/2 marathon on Sunday in Virginia Beach. I wasn't going to read your post about yours until after the race, but I did and I am so glad I did.
I am at one of my heaviest weights, 199, started Weight Watchers again this week and the irony of running this now is bizarre.
I related to so much of what you wrote and have barely seen the bulk of your stuff.
When you talked about having so much trouble when you fall off the wagon, it could have been my words, then the 1/2 marathon, I also did a sprint triathlon last year and will do one in June ( I don't know the length of yours, I'm not there yet), but the highlight was the picture of the toenail! I have 2 of those already....pre-race. I have never seen one like that, do you know this sight?
http://www.onemoremile.net/
They have a tee shirt that says "who needs toe nails?"
Anyhow, I love reading your stuff.
Laurie Levine

Laurie said...

I have a question as I obsessively read your blog.
What is your connection to the Biggest Loser? How did you get to that post party and have pictures with all those people?
Totally cool.
Laurie Levine
ajslevine@yahoo.com

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