Suscipio PSA #8 – Fueling Your Body
Disclaimer – I am not a doctor, nutritionist, or professional fitness guru. I am sharing what I’ve learned through research and experience; you all must use your own judgment in deciding what is best for you and your own health, including checking with your doctor before beginning any exercise or dietary program.
We gather at mass to fuel our souls; we study scripture, read and come together here to fuel our minds and spirits. What are we doing to fuel our bodies? Not just eating Real Food every day, but fueling our bodies for exercise.
Are you supposed to eat before, during or after exercise?
The answer is Yes.
First, the science behind it. Your body is an amazing machine, and it works constantly to maintain a certain level of glucose in your bloodstream. Glucose is fuel – it keeps your muscles moving and your brain processing. Your body changes the food you eat into glucose to power your pretty self. Once your bloodstream is saturated at the proper level, extra glucose is stored in your liver as glycogen.
When you exercise, your muscles go into overdrive, drawing glucose from your bloodstream. Once that source is used up, your liver will change the stored glycogen back to glucose and release it into your bloodstream to keep you moving. Once the liver glucose is used up, your body will start using stored fat to make more glucose for your muscles. Unfortunately, changing fat to glucose is a v-e-r-y s-l-o-w process, much slower than the rate your exercising muscles are screaming for fuel. If you get to this point during a workout session where your muscles have used up all the free floating glucose in your bloodstream, BAM! You hit a wall! You start to shake, feel light headed and break out in a cold sweat. You just can’t keep going.
What? Isn’t the purpose of exercise to burn up fat? Why yes! Yes it is! Just not DURING the actual exercise. Your body can’t convert fat to glucose fast enough to support exercise in the moment that you are actually moving. Fat burning takes place once you stop. Remember how your body keeps a constant level of glucose at all times? Once you’ve depleted the glucose in your body and stopped actively exercising, your body will pull from your fat reserves to balance the glucose level in your bloodstream and to recharge your liver.
You need to fuel your body for working out – give it some fast easy energy that your muscles can pull straight from your blood stream, because they NEED that fuel to function! This doesn’t mean a full meal – this means a snack, preferably one with a balance of carbohydrates (fast fuel, converts quickly to glucose and floods the muscles) and proteins (slower fuel that will hit the bloodstream about the time the carb rush gets used up). I usually have 1/2 of a peanut butter and banana sandwich before I exercise.
For really long workouts, like hiking running or marathon bike rides, you need to top off the glucose fuel tank during the exercise to avoid that muscle crash. Some folks swear by those little gel pack things; I prefer real food. I’ll carry an apple or a granola bar with me and have a bite or two every 30 minutes. Again, not a full meal or complete snack, but just enough to keep the fast fuel coursing through my bloodstream for my muscles to pull from.
It’s also important to have a snack after working out that’s a little higher in protein in order to give your body materials to repair muscles and to do its work replenishing your blood stream and liver from your fat reserves. I usually have a few slices of turkey or a piece of cheese. Some serious runner friends of mine swear by chocolate milk for after run recharging.
There are hundreds of opinions about fueling for working out, and every body is different. You each need to figure out through trial and error what works for you – what lets you get through a workout without collapsing, but still keeps your body burning fat afterward.
Fuel Your Bod. Keep the Faith.
Next Time: An End to Procrastination
Angela Pea lives in Texas and has been married to Mr. Pea for 27 years. She has two adult daughters, Cherry Ames, who is almost finished with nursing school, and Princess Pea, who resides in Aggieland and is studying to be an orthodontist. Her two teenage sons, The Architect and DirtBike, still live at home, where they mostly eat everything in sight and build bicycles from random parts. She is a practicing civil engineer, occasional college instructor, random knitter, beginner mountain biker, and a secret shoe lover. Angela blogs at Keeping the Faith.
Suscipio PSA #7 – What to Do When It HURTS!!
Disclaimer – I am not a doctor, nutritionist, or professional fitness guru. I am sharing what I’ve learned through research and experience; you all must use your own judgment in deciding what is best for you and your own health, including checking with your doctor before beginning any exercise or dietary program.
My rear end hurts today. Achy muscle I don’t want to move kind of hurting. Here’s the culprit:
That’s a kettlebell. I am extremely fortunate to have a gym at my office. It’s the most fabulous perk of all. I used to swing bells every day, but I haven’t touched one in months. Life has been incredibly stressful lately so I thought I’d relieve some tension with my old kettlebell workout. Since I haven’t done a routine with bells in a while, I stuck to baby beginner stuff with a light (22 pound) bell. Mercy my rear hurts today from the presses and lunges I did!
What’s the deal? I work out regularly, so why the heck am I sore today?
Muscle soreness like this is often felt when you begin a new exercise program, change your exercise routine, or dramatically increase the duration or intensity of your exercise sessions. Kettlebells? A shock to my system. Not the same muscles used for mountain biking for sure! This kind of ache is called Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS). It’s not the same kind of fatigue you feel during exercise. It’s also not the sharp, sudden pain you would feel from an injury, like a sprain or muscle tear. DOMS shows up 24-48 hours AFTER the exertion.
DOMS is thought to be a result of microscopic tearing of the muscle fibers, caused by movement that your body isn’t used to. This is especially true of eccentric muscle contractions, or movements that cause muscle to forcefully contract while it lengthens. Examples of eccentric muscle contraction type exercise include going up and down stairs, running downhill, and the downward motion of squats, lunges and push-ups.
So what’s a girl with a sore rear to do? There just isn’t any single, simple way to treat DOMS when it strikes. Here are a few things to try.
Active Recovery: This strategy does have some research to back it up. Performing easy low-impact aerobic exercise will increase blood flow to the sore spots and will help make them less tender. That’s what I did. Walked a few miles at a nice easy pace. I felt better afterwards.
Rest and Recover: If you simply wait it out, soreness will go away in 3 to 7 days with no special treatment. Humph. Not very useful if you, oh, plan to go dancing, or skiing, or even go to work sometime in the next 24 hours.
Ice Bath: Many pro athletes use them and claim they work to reduce soreness. Me? Not so thrilled about plunging my rear into a bathtub full of ice cubes.
RICE: the standard method of treating acute injuries. Use it if your soreness is particularly painful. Rest, ice, compression, elevation. I have this image in my brain of my rear packed with ice and elevated above my head. Not very practical.
Gentle Stretching: Although there’s no research to prove that stretching alone reduces muscle pain and soreness, many people find it simply feels good. I’m one of them.
Advil: Aspirin, ibuprofen or naproxen may help to temporarily reduce the muscle soreness, although they won’t actually speed healing. Advil is my friend. My very, very good friend.
Warm Up Completely before your next exercise session. There is some research that confirms that a thorough warm-up performed immediately prior to new and eccentric exercise produces small reductions in delayed-onset muscle soreness. I will certainly warm up before my next kettlebell workout.
Next workout? Darn Right. Me and that kettlebell were love at first sight all those years ago when we first met. I’ve missed it, and am going to bring it back into my routine. Besides, I still want arms like that chick in the Terminator movie. What other excuse do I need to pick up a 26 pound chunk of metal and swing it around?
Go Put Ice on It. Keep the Faith.
Next Time: Fueling Your Body
Suscipio PSA #6: Exercise Gear
Disclaimer – I am not a doctor, nutritionist, or professional fitness guru. I am sharing what I’ve learned through research and experience; you all must use your own judgment in deciding what is best for you and your own health, including checking with your doctor before beginning any exercise or dietary program.
Modesty Warning!! I’m going to speak [write] frankly today about body parts. Just letting you know in case you’re bashful.
Chafing
Also know as chub rub, heat rash, nipple burn, you name it and someone has a slang term for it. What I’m talking about is friction burn on your tender parts, namely your inner thighs, your bikini and bra lines, your armpits and anywhere else your clothes rub against your skin or your skin rubs against your skin. It’s especially prevalent when we’re overweight. Friends, it hurts. It swells up and turns red. In extreme cases, the skin cracks and bleeds. So not fun.
What can you do? I wear bike shorts or compression pants under my clothing instead of panties for working out. The fabric protects the inner thigh from chafing, and there’s no elastic band to chafe the delicate bikini area. Same on the topside – I highly recommend wearing athletic shirts made from tech fabrics that wick moisture away from your skin and protect it from chafing. You don’t need UnderArmor or other expensive brands – I like the BCG generics from Academy, usually in the $10-$15 range, $7 on clearance!
Then, there’s your new best friend, Bodyglide
Sore Breasts
Unless you have the figure of Twiggy or are a six year old girl, you need a good, supportive sport bra for exercise. Regular Maidenforms won’t do the job. You wouldn’t think of sending your sons out to play sports without a jock strap, would you? Your boobs need the same kind of support to prevent injury and tissue damage. Sport bras come in a wide range of styles for different levels of exercise – I recommend getting a bra for your most strenuous exercise and wearing it for everything, especially if you’re “abundantly blessed”. Invest some time in finding a sports bra that provides the support your body needs. Try on different brands, styles and sizes. A sports bra should have more coverage and fit more snugly than your every day bra, but it shouldn’t bind or cut. You should be able to get up and move without your bust bouncing. Bounce, though it looks intriguing to the male bystander, just sucks the fun out your workout.
My personal favorite is Enell
Sports bras do their job either through compression or encapsulation, smashing boobs flat or holding them firmly with structurally reinforced rigid fabrics. This bra fits like a vest, with a long row of hooks up the front; it is shaped for compression, and the inner fabric is silky against the skin with no stretch at all, providing encapsulation. I’ll just be straight up here – I am abundantly blessed. The girls have shrunk considerably with my weight loss over the years, but they are still substantial. I can put this one on, and voila! No Bounce! NO BOUNCE I tell you!
Aching Feet
I can’t emphasize this enough, especially if you choose running as your favored form of exercise. You MUST have properly fitted shoes. Properly fitted shoes provide necessary support and flexibility for your feet, legs and back. “Properly fitted shoes” does not mean “so expensive you want to cry” shoes. There are dozens of choices out there that are affordable, and will still protect you from stress fractures and tendon strains.
Go to your local running store and get a proper fitting. They’ll put you on a treadmill to evaluate your gait and then let you try on several styles to find the right one for you. Fittings are generally complimentary, and you don’t have to buy shoes from the running store. Note the brand and style, then hit the internet or your local Academy or DSW and get the same shoe for half the price!
Stankiness
Guess what? Your sweat does not stink! No, really. Sweat on its own doesn’t stink. It’s the bacteria that normally lives on your skin, feeding on the sweat and breaking it down into aromatic fatty acids and chemicals that cause the unpleasant odor. Once the bacteria get engrained in clothing fibers, they can be hard to remove, and yes, they survive the washer and dryer. Your workout clothes can smell nice and pretty like fabric softener when you first put them on, but once you warm up and start to sweat in them, dang if they don’t smell like an old tennis shoe! If you really can’t stand your shirts or shorts any more, there are several things you can do to remove the smell.
Baking Soda
Pre-soak the article of clothing in cool water and wring out well. Make a paste by mixing 1 part baking soda with 1 part water. Generously spread the baking soda paste onto the armpit area (or crotch area of your shorts) and let it sit for approximately 30 minutes. Wash and dry as normal. As an alternative, toss a cup of baking soda into the washer with the load of clothing.
White Vinegar
White vinegar is acidic and helps to cut body oils. Fill a basin with just enough cool water to cover the clothing and add ¼ cup of white vinegar. Let the clothing soak for 30 minutes before laundering as usual. Alternatively, add ½ cup of vinegar to the pre-rinse cycle of the washing machine.
Sunshine
Hang your workout gear on the clothesline in the sun to dry. Sunlight is bacteria’s most vicious enemy. I hang our bike pads and kits in the sun to dry, as wells as The Architect’s and DirtBikes socks, and it does work.
If natural remedies aren’t doing the trick, there are commercial products that will remove the smell. I’ve tried Penguin Sport Wash, which keeps fabrics odor-free by washing away residues, removing dirt and oil, and neutralizing bacteria. (You can safely wash down coats in it, too.) I can also confirm that it will remove blood and grass stains acquired after rolling – with bike – down an embankment.
Sunburn
Always, always wear a broad spectrum, SPF 15 or higher sunscreen if you are outdoors. Always. And make your husband and kids wear it, too! There are special sweatproof varieties that will last through a workout, but they aren’t bulletproof. Reapply sunscreen every hour or two if you’re sweating or swimming. Generic brands are just as beneficial as the name brands. Consumer Reports analyzed generic sunscreens and gave three their Best Buy rating: Target’s Up and Up Sport, Walmart’s Equate, and No-Ad. Be sure to watch the expiration date, because sunscreens DO expire and lose their “screening” powers. They also lose their potentency if exposed to extreme heat, so don’t leave it in the car, and keep it in the cooler at the beach or pool.
Exercise is an integral part of a healthy lifestyle and just one of the things you can do to be a good steward of your body. Investing in gear will keep you comfortable and help prevent injury.
Get a Good Bra! Keep the Faith.
Next Time: What to Do When It Hurts
Suscipio PSA #5: Move It, Sweetheart!
Do you exercise? If so, why do you exercise? For me, vanity is the number one reason. I spent many years of my life overweight, and those years weren’t kind to my body. I want to get back my toned thighs, and I really want to have muscular arms like that lady in “The Terminator”. There are a lot more reasons than looking good to take up exercising though. The health benefits of regular exercise and physical activity are amazing!
Benefit No. 1 – Exercise can help you lose weight
If you are trying to lose weight, exercise is non-negotiable. You must burn more calories than you eat, and exercise is the way. It doesn’t matter what kind of exercise you do, when you engage in any physical activity, you burn calories. The more intense the activity, the more calories you burn. You don’t need to set aside large chunks of time for exercise to reap weight-loss benefits, either. You can get more active throughout the day in simple ways — by taking the stairs instead of the elevator or revving up your household chores. Run with the dog, chase the kids. Just get up and move.
Benefit No. 2: Exercise combats health conditions and diseases
Being active boosts high-density lipoprotein (HDL), or “good,” cholesterol in your body and decreases unhealthy triglycerides. This one-two punch keeps your blood flowing smoothly, which decreases your risk of cardiovascular diseases. Staying active can also help prevent or manage a wide range of health problems and concerns, including stroke, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, depression, and arthritis. Controlling health issues is why I originally started exercising. Physical activity FORCES my muscles to use up the sugar in my body, which in turn keeps my diabetes under control. Moving daily keeps my muscles strong, toned and limber, which helps ease arthritis pain.
Benefit No. 3: Exercise reverses the detrimental effects of stress
Mercy. Some days I’m just begging for mercy, pleading for relief from the stresses of my daily life. Yes, I LOVE my life, being a wife, mother and employee. Some days, though, the demands can be overwhelming. Jumping on the treadmill or the elliptical for 30 minutes at lunchtime can blow off tension by increasing levels of “soothing” brain chemicals like serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine. What’s even more fascinating, though, is that exercise may actually work on a cellular level to reverse stress’s toll on our aging process, according to a 2010 study from the University of California—San Francisco. The researchers found that stressed-out women who exercised vigorously for an average of 45 minutes over a three-day period had cells that showed fewer signs of aging compared to women who were stressed and inactive. Working out also helps keep us from ruminating “by altering blood flow to those areas in the brain involved in triggering us to relive these stressful thoughts again and again,” says study coauthor Elissa Epel, an associate professor of psychiatry at UCSF.
Benefit No. 4 – Exercise can lift depression
Other research suggests that burning off 350 calories three times a week through sustained, sweat-inducing activity can reduce symptoms of depression about as effectively as antidepressants. That may be because exercise appears to stimulate the growth of neurons in certain brain regions damaged by depression. What’s more, animal studies have found that getting active boosts the production of brain molecules that improve connections between nerve cells, thereby acting as a natural antidepressant. Exercise can be used to complement—not substitute—drug treatment for depression.
Benefit No. 5: Exercise boosts energy
Do you find yourself winded after carrying the groceries to the car? Does scrubbing tubs or mopping floors leave you panting and drenched in sweat? Regular physical activity improves your muscle strength and boosts your endurance. Exercise and physical activity deliver oxygen and nutrients to your muscles and trains your cardiovascular system work more efficiently. When your heart and lungs work more efficiently, you will have more energy to go about your daily chores.
Benefit No. 6: It improves learning and keeps the brain fit
Exercise increases the level of brain chemicals called growth factors, which help make new brain cells and establish new connections between brain cells to help us learn. Even mild activity like a leisurely walk can help keep your brain fit and active, fending off memory loss and keeping skills like vocabulary retrieval strong. Interestingly, complicated activities, like playing tennis or taking a dance class, provide the biggest brain boost. Complicated activities also improve our capacity to learn by enhancing our attention and concentration skills, according to German researchers who found that high school students scored better on high-attention tasks after doing 10 minutes of a complicated fitness routine compared to 10 minutes of regular activity. I’ve discovered this with my youngest son, DirtBike. He is dyslexic and has mild attention deficit, and we’ve figured out that letting him [literally] run or bike around the block in between blocks of study times helps him sustain his focus.
The bottom line…
Exercise and physical activity are a great way not only to manage your weight, but also to feel better! It can improve your mood, decrease tension and help your mind stay sharp. Your body – and your brain – needs exercise. As a general goal, aim for at least 30 minutes of physical activity every day. If you haven’t been exercising on a regular basis, start slow with walking at a brisk pace, say five to six minutes at a time. Increase the time every few days until you have worked up to a full 30 minutes. And remember, it doesn’t matter what kind of exercise you do; it only matters that you get up and DO IT!!
Move Yourself! Keep the Faith.
Suscipio PSA #5: Stop the Insanity!
Angela | Keeping the Faith
Disclaimer – I am not a doctor, nutritionist, or professional fitness guru. I am sharing what I’ve learned through research and experience; you all must use your own judgment in deciding what is best for you and your own health, including checking with your doctor before beginning any exercise or dietary program.
Greetings! Yes, I know I hinted at talking about Exercise this week, but honestly? I’ve done enough tossing of facts and figures the past several weeks. Moreover, my own heart needs a little pep talk, and this little ditty is needed more than an essay extolling the virtues of exercise. I’ll get back with you on that next week.
The Pea Family has had a rough week. It’s been over-full with the boys’ school events, work deadlines for myself and Mr. Pea, the looming worry of sequestration (Mr. Pea is employed by a defense contractor), Miss Kasey’s visit to the vet for spaying, math tests, a Spanish project, plumbing problems at our rental property, Princess Pea’s fender bender, tax preparations,…the list goes on and on.
Remember back in PSA#2 when I said that the physical act of losing weight really is as simple as eat-less-move-more-repeat and that the mental and spiritual aspects are a bit more complicated? Complicated doesn’t begin to describe my ongoing struggles. I’ve been working on getting healthy for a long time, but when I get stressed and tired, I still turn to food for comfort! Oh yes, I’m turning to God first in prayer, but that incredible yearning for physical yummy-food comfort still makes me nuts. My brain knows better than this! Once I head down that path and succumb to the chocolate/cheese/bread/ice cream bender, Olivia, my Inner Brat, starts yelling at me. “Epic Fail!”, or “Oooooh, You’re SO BAD!!”; or even “You’ll never succeed at this – you’re getting fat again!” [yeah right…as if fifty pounds are magically going to appear overnight]. The Self-Bashing has begun.
Self Bashing = using negative terms to refer to yourself, your behavior, or your actions
Since I’m pretty sure I’m not alone here, let’s get this straightened out, Miss Olivia.
STOP IT.
RIGHT THIS INSTANT!!
First, the greatest cheerleader in your life is you. Not your Mom, not your BFF, not your husband or boyfriend, not me. It’s all you, Sweetie. You live with yourself twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. You know yourself better than anyone else on the face of this planet.
You cannot go through your days slapping destructive, negative labels on your forehead every time you miss a workout session or eat something fattening.
They’ll get tangled in your hair and leave sticky goo on your face.
Would you berate a little kid for eating a poptart, shaking your finger in his face and calling him a failure? Would you tell your Mom “You’re a bad person” if for some reason or another she didn’t run a mile yesterday? Would you scream at your boss for eating a donut? No, of course not.
Then why the heck do you treat yourself that way?
You are a sentient creature, perfect in your creation, and you have a free will. This means that you are good, beautiful and complete simply because you exist. Because you breathe, walk, talk and think, you are the most amazing being in God’s creation. You are not a failure because you ate x-number of calories yesterday. You are not bad because you put something sweet in your mouth. You sometimes use your free will to make a poor choice, but you are not bad. You are NOT a failure.
What would you say to a child who has made a mistake? You’d forgive them, help them clean up the mess and then get on with the day. That is exactly how you should treat yourself. Pick yourself up, clean up the mess and move on. If you need help getting up, then ask someone. If you need help with the mess, ask someone. Poor choices are part of the weight loss game. They’re going to happen. Learn from them.
“Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want.”
I’ll repeat it again – the physical part of losing weight is actually quite simple and very easy to do – eat less, move more, repeat. The mental part is a bazillion times more complicated. The mental part starts with loving yourself, deciding to care for the body God made, making it healthy and strong. It continues with loving yourself, developing good eating habits and exercising. It ends with loving yourself and reaching out to others to share that love.
Love God above all else – love your neighbor as yourself. As Yourself. YOURSELF.
Love Yourself. Keep the Faith.
Suscipio PSA #4: Hydration
Angela | Keeping the Faith
Disclaimer – I am not a doctor, nutritionist, or professional fitness guru. I am sharing what I’ve learned through research and experience; you all must use your own judgment in deciding what is best for you and your own health, including checking with your doctor before beginning any exercise or dietary program.
Hydration. Hydration. Hydration. You’ve all heard about it and have surely read about it, but do you really understand why?
Why is hydration so important?
Your body depends on water for survival. Water makes up more than half of your body weight. Your muscles need water to stay limber and strong, your organs need water to do their work, your joints need water in order to move smoothly. Your body is like a giant battery, with electrical impulses flying from your brain to your nerve endings…and water is the conductor. Water is essential for good health.
One of the problems with water is that you lose it just as fast as you drink it. You lose it when you pee, sweat, or even breathe. You lose water even faster when the weather is hot, when you exercise, or when you’re sick with vomiting or diarrhea. The water in your body must be replenished on a continual basis, or you get dehydrated.
That battery metaphor? What happens to a battery when it gets old and cracked and the conducting stuff inside drains out? (I know you’ve all seen corroded batteries inside forgotten toys!) Yeah. The battery doesn’t work anymore. Now think about your body as a battery…how well is it going to function without its water conductor?
Not at all!!
When you get dehydrated, you slow down. You feel sleepy, irritable and get a headache. In its natural, hydrated state, your brain has the consistency of very wet sponge. If you let it dry out, you won’t be able to think or react quickly.
Dehydration = Your batteries are running low!!
You have to keep your body battery charged by staying hydrated. Drink up. At least 8, 8-ounce glasses of water a day, more if you’re exercising, even more if it’s hot outside. You can tell if you’re drinking enough if your pee is clear or very, very light straw color. If your pee is yellow, you aren’t hydrated enough. (Or you’ve eaten asparagus.)
Water is the best option for staying hydrated, and most of your fluid intake should come from water. Skim milk, fruit and veggie juices, herbal tea and decaffeinated coffee can also contribute to your daily fluids. Caffeine will dehydrate you if you drink large quantities of it, say five to seven cups of coffee or soda a day. Sports drinks can also provide the water we need with the benefits of electrolytes when exercising intensely in the heat, or when we’re sick. Be sure to read labels on sports drinks carefully before you use them. Most contain extra calories in the form of sugar and are pretty high in sodium, as well.
Have trouble remembering to drink water? Here’s how I do it.
■ Keep a bottle of water with me during the day. It’s on my desk, between the keyboard and the screen. I have to scoot it over every now and then to see something, and when I touch it, I drink at least 8 ounces.
■ Start and end the day with a glass of water.
■ Drink a quart* of water an hour before every exercise session and a quart after. And a quart (or two) during, especially if it’s exceptionally hot.
■ Drink a glass of water every time I pee. It sets up a sort of never-ending cycle that guarantees my hydration level!
*I drink water by the quart for exercise hydration. You may not need this much. I live in north central Texas where it is extremely dry and very, very hot in the summer. I once weighed my workout clothes, shoes and bike pads before and after a long bike ride, just out of curiosity. There was a 2.5 pound gain, which equates to a little less than half a gallon of sweat, not even counting whatever evaporated along the way.
Drink some water. Keep the Faith.
Next Week – Move It, Sweetheart!
Suscipio PSA #3: Real Food
Angela | Keeping the Faith
Disclaimer – I am not a doctor, nutritionist, or professional fitness guru. I am sharing what I’ve learned through research and experience; you all must use your own judgment in deciding what is best for you and your own health, including checking with your doctor before beginning any exercise or dietary program.
One the biggest mental hurdles in my early days of pulling my health back together was working out my relationship with food. Heck, I didn’t even know that I had a relationship with food, but once I figured it out, I discovered that it was a pretty intimate one.
My brain knew that food is just fuel for living. Nothing more. However, at some time during those years of not paying attention, food became so much more me. I was eating for pleasure, and comfort. I turned to food as a crutch when I was anxious or sad. I rewarded myself with food, ate when I was bored. I was using food as my support for everything!
Food had become my answer to everything.
But it’s not. Food is simply, Food. Food is not love. Food is not emotional support. We certainly don’t need to eat for all the reasons I listed above. We need it because it is fuel for our bodies, our amazing, strong and wondrously made bodies! As good stewards of our selves, we need to fuel ourselves with a healthy diet of real food.
It can be scary to step away from processed food. It’ so convenient, so tasty! It’s also loaded with fat, salt and sugar, the wicked trifecta of poor nutrition. We are so used to eating a certain way that we rarely think about what we’re actually putting into our bodies. Adopting a healthier diet means actually waking up and paying attention to what’s on your plate.
Eating real food doesn’t have to be overwhelming. If you want to adopt healthy habits for you and your family that will last, the easiest way to do it is by making small, gradual changes that ease the processed food out of your pantry, refrigerator and freezer.
What Should You Be Eating?
There are hundreds of opinions out there, ranging from Paleo (meat and veggies only) to an Atkins type diet (high protein/fat low carb) to vegetarian. My personal favorite is the tried and true Food Pyramid, Yes, the same one we learned when we were kids.
From the bottom up: 6 servings of grains, 3 servings of vegetables, 2 servings of fruit, 2 servings of dairy products, 2 servings of protein, and sparing amounts of fat and sugar.
But how much is a serving? And exactly what are these food groups?
Whole Breads and Grains, Rice, Potatoes, Pasta, Oatmeal 1 slice of bread
½ cup of cooked rice, pasta or cooked oatmeal
1 ounce of dry cereal
4-6 crackers
Vegetables – leafy, green, red, orange and yellow 1 cup leafy vegetables
½ cup other vegetables, raw or cooked
Fruit – apples, citrus, berries 1 medium apple, orange or banana
½ cup berries
½ cup cooked fruit
Milk, yogurt, cheese and other calcium rich foods 1 cup of low fat milk or yogurt
1 ounce of cheese (about the size of a domino)
1 slice of cheese 1/8” thick
Protein – meat, poultry, fish, dried beans, nuts, eggs 2-3 ounces, a piece about the size of a standard deck of playing cards
½ cup cooked beans
2 Tablespoons of peanut butter
1 egg
1/3 cup of nuts
Fat and Sugar Limited quantities only! Really limited, as in less than one serving a week
Do you recall the “measure your food” suggestion from last week? I’m repeating it here – take some time to measure your servings, especially the bread and grains. A serving of pasta is ½ cup cooked. ½ cup! That’s not a whole lot, my friends.
Where to Start?
Begin at the bottom of the pyramid with the grains, rice and pasta and the vegetables and fruit. Ditch the white food in your diet and replace it with whole grain goodness. Serve wheat bread instead of white, substitute brown rice for long grain white. Opt for whole wheat pasta. Work more servings of vegetables and fruit into your day. Have celery and carrots with hummus for snacks. Eat a spinach salad with dinner. Add diced peppers to your scrambled eggs. Make sure you select a variety of colors (dark green, red, orange, etc.) to get the most nutrients per bite. Add some shredded carrots and zucchini to your muffin batter or top your pizza with fresh tomatoes, for example. Add some sliced bananas to your cereal in the morning or have an apple with peanut butter for a snack. Fresh berries and yogurt make a great summertime dessert.
As you adapt to eating real food, you will find that your food preferences will gradually change over time. When you cut out high-sugar, high-fat processed food, your cravings for it will actually go away in time. Really! It takes several weeks, but the cravings do go away.
One of the biggest challenges to eating healthier is finding substitutions for existing foods in your diet and finding things that the family will eat. Here are some of the other things I did during my transition.
•Stop using mayo and switched to mustard on sandwiches and burgers.
•Start using extra lean ground beef, pork tenderloin or fish instead of high-fat cuts of meat. Bake, grill or broil – no fried anything. (It’s a mess to clean up, anyway!)
•Use olive oil instead of corn or canola for cooking and baking.
•Quit drinking calories. I stopped drinking juice completely, and gave up sweetened coffee drinks (Goodbye Starbucks Caramel Macchiato!) I drink my coffee black now.
•Switch to skim milk. I gradually weaned the family down from whole milk over several weeks. I switched them over to the lower fat milk every two weeks. For example: I bought 2% milk for two weeks, then moved to 1% for two weeks, then weand to skim.
•Toss out the sugar sweetened cereal and serve whole grain unsweetened varieties, like Cheerios, Shredded Wheat and the like. Make your own granola.
•Switch from full-fat cheeses to reduced-fat or fat-free cheeses.
To be perfectly honest, my family didn’t even notice most of these changes. Growing teens are hungry all the time, and if I put food in front of them, they ate it. They did balk over the wheat bread at first, but when it was the only option in the pantry, well, they learned to like it!
Cut the Junk
I don’t keep junk food in our home. I do not regularly buy candy, cookies, chips, soda, cakes, pizza, ice cream, etc. At first, it was just too much of a temptation for me. I could not have it around and not eat it. It’s not so tempting any more, but I still don’t bring it home. Yes, I still have teens at home and a husband, but they don’t need junk food either! This isn’t to say that we never eat these things. We just don’t eat them very often, maybe once a month. We have always had a no soda rule. The only days our kids are allowed to drink soda is on their birthday and on the Fourth of July. (Same rule my Mom had when I was growing up!) It’s working – Cherry Ames and Princess Pea still don’t drink soda, and they buy their own groceries at college. I don’t purchase pre-packaged meals. I taught all of the kids how to cook and most of our meals are prepared at home from scratch using fresh ingredients. We rarely eat in restaurants, and never eat fast food. NEVER.
Note – At first, my teens did a lot of complaining about the lack of junk food coming home from the grocery store, so I set a house rule. I will buy them all the fruit, veggies and whole grain snacks they want. If they really want to eat something that is nutritionally vacant, they can buy it themselves with their OWN money. So strange how they suddenly lost their appetite for sugary snacks!
I could ramble on for hours on the merits of eating healthy, real food. My entire family has benefited from my healthy lifestyle change efforts. My goal is for my children leave our home knowing how to cook and how to eat properly so they can in turn be good stewards of their own selves. (They will also leave our home knowing how to wash dishes, do the laundry, mop a floor and clean a toilet, but that’s a story for another day!)
Eat Real Food! Keep the Faith.
Next Week – Drink Up!
Suscipio PSA #2: A Simple Truth
Angela | Keeping the Faith
Disclaimer – I am not a doctor, nutritionist, or professional fitness guru. I am sharing what I’ve learned through research and experience; you all must use your own judgment in deciding what is best for you and your own health, including checking with your doctor before beginning any exercise or dietary program.
When I first started losing weight, the questions that popped out of everyone’s mouth were “How did you do it?” and “What’s your secret?. I always gave a straight up answer, but it usually wasn’t received with much enthusiasm.
“No, really, what did you do?”
Here it is, my friends. The simple truth:
Eat Less.
Move More.
Repeat.
The physical act of losing weight really is that simple. The mental and spiritual aspects are a bit more complicated, and we’ll get to those eventually. For today, though, let’s do some math and have a little talk about thermodynamics.
Everyone needs to consume a certain number of calories every day just to lay in bed and exist. This base line – basal metabolic rate – represents the fuel you need to keep your heart beating, your lungs functioning and your brain cells charged. On top of that base line is the fuel you need for activity. Just like you can’t drive a car with an empty gas tank, you can’t operate your body without fueling it up with food.
There are many ways to determine what your basic metabolic rate is, based on your height, weight and age. The simplest way is to hop on the internet and find a calculator, like this one: Basal Metabolic Rate Calculator. Once you have a base line, you can adapt it to account for your level of activity. If you are sedentary, spending most of your day sitting at a desk, you would multiply your baseline by 1.2. If you are a light exerciser, say, maybe taking a walk two or three times a week, multiply the base line by 1.4. If you exercise moderately, say, running or biking three or four times a week, or if you work at a job that has you standing and moving for eight hours a day, multiply your base line number by 1.6. For heavy exercisers – and by heavy I mean that you are an athlete in training mode, then you would multiply your baseline by 1.8.
For example, my baseline from the calculator is 1440 calories. That’s how many calories I need to eat every day just to stay alive. I am a moderate exerciser, so I multiply 1440 by 1.6.
1440 x 1.6 = 2,304 calories a day
Note: If you’re pregnant or nursing a baby, your daily caloric needs will be higher! On average, nursing and pregnant women should consume about 500 extra calories a day, because it takes a lot of energy to grow and feed a baby. Please consult with your doctor or midwife!
Now for the thermodynamics part. God created the universe and all the matter and energy in it. We humans can neither create or destroy matter, we can only move it around. We can only manipulate energy. The number you just calculated is the average number of calories (energy!) you need to live the way you live now. If you want to lose weight (moving matter away from you!), then you’ll need to manipulate the energy. You have two choices. You can decrease the number of calories you eat or you can increase the amount of exercise you do. You can, of course, do both!
But how much? Most nutritional experts recommend losing no more than two pounds a week. Remember the bit about patience from last week? Yeah, you’ll need that. A pound is worth 3,500 calories, so if I wanted to lose 2 pounds a week, I’d need to decrease my calorie intake by 7,000 calories a week, or 1,000 calories a day. A decrease of 500 calories per day would give a 1 pound a week loss.
2,300 – 1,000 = 1,300 calories a day
And yes, if you want to do this, you need to keep track of how many calories you’re eating and drinking. (Beer, sadly, is not free.) There are lots of free resources on the web for tracking calories, such as FitDay, My Fitness Pal, or My-Calorie-Counter. Go find one, and play around with it.
Look up your favorite foods and get to know their calorie counts. Read labels and measure out portions. Yes, measure! Over the years, our perception of portion sizes stretches along with our waistlines. Pull out your measuring cups and kitchen scales, and measure your food portions. You’ll be surprised at how much you’re eating. Finally, write it down. Grab a note book and keep track of everything you eat and drink for a few days, every bite and sip. Then sit down and figure out how many calories you ate and compare it to the number you calculated as your average daily need.
The other part of the simple truth is moving. Exercise. An hour of brisk walking will burn about 300 calories for an average person. 300 calories is about two cookies worth of food. Really. My personal exercise goal is thirty minutes of movement every single day. Yes, you read that right. Every Day.
This is still hard for me. I have a family, I work, and my time is squeezed. I have to schedule time for exercise, actually write it on my calendar. Multitasking is okay – I can pray and walk at the same time! In fact, praying and walking go together nicely. Walking outdoors is quiet and a good time for reflection, especially the rhythm of the rosary!
What kind of movement do you need to do? It really doesn’t matter as long as you’re moving enough sweat. I walk, swim, bicycle, play basketball with my teen sons. I occasionally play Wiffle Ball during lunch at work. (Um yeah. We’re a bunch of nerds in our office.) I run up and down stairs, kayak, lift weights. Housework and gardening count, as long as you’re sweating and really working hard. Chasing young children counts as exercise! Walking the dog counts! I take stairs instead of elevators. I park as far away from doors as possible and walk the extra distance. If no one is looking, I’ll skip that extra distance, or race the boys. If I have a meeting anywhere within two miles of my office, I’ll walk or bike instead of driving the car.
Persistence, not Perfection
There is no magic that will make you lose weight.
It is not easy. It takes a lot of work, and a lot of commitment.
But you can do this!
It doesn’t have to be perfect – it only has to be constant. You just do it, Every Day, Day after Day, Week after Week, Month, Year. You need to be as constant as our God is with us.
Keep it Simple. Keep the Faith.
Next Week – Real Food
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