Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Three Meals a Day... who thought of that crazy idea?

Let's take everything you think about food and throw it out the window. Health teachers were lying to you when they said you should eat three square meals a day. That doesn't make any sense and here is why: think of your body as a car engine. Just as a car engine burns fuel, your body burns calories. To run at its best, you have to constantly fuel your body, and in turn constantly burn calories. When a person works out for an hour they burn on average 300-500 calories. If you do the math that is only about 1/4 of the calories you have to burn in a day to MAINTAIN your weight. How does the body burn most of the left over calories? The answer: Digestion. Your body has to work at digesting your food. If it has no food to digest, it stops burning. Just like a car that doesn't have fuel, your body turns off. The key to weight loss (and maintenance) is to constantly keep your body burning. How? By eating!

(Another analogy if the car one is too confusing… every morning you light a fire in your body by eating breakfast. It is easier on your body to keep putting sticks on the fire, than letting the fire burn down and having to start it over again 2 more times that day. )

To burn calories best and keep your body functioning on energy, a person should eat at least 6 times a day. I am not talking about gut busting meals; I am talking about 3 balanced, portion appropriate meals and 3 snacks. Here the logic: If you eat everything in three meals, you are overloading your system. The stomach can’t keep up with all the food it has to burn, so it sits there making you feel sluggish and tired (you know, the afternoon at work when you wish you could put your head down and take a nap). If you take all the food you are supposed to consume in a day and spread it out over many meals, you don’t overload your system. Your body can keep up with all that it has to digest, in turn giving you more energy and burning more calories.

So how do you know what is the correct amount to eat? If you are eating 6 meals a day, three of those meals should be comprised of 3 whole foods, and three meals should be comprised of 2 whole food. What the hell is a whole food? Good question… it is anything that is a single entity of food that has been unprocessed or altered as little as possible (an apple, cucumber, brown rice, avocado, egg). A TV dinner is NOT a whole food. So, here is an example of what one day of eating might look like.
Breakfast: 1 egg with tomato and a piece of whole wheat toast (3 whole foods)

Snack: banana and almonds (2 whole foods)

Lunch: whole wheat wrap with turkey and avocado (3 whole foods)

Snack: celery and peanut butter (the real stuff, not Jiff) (2 whole foods)

Dinner: Chicken with brown rice and green beans (3 whole foods)

Snack: cottage cheese and strawberries (2 whole foods)

Here is the key behind the combination: You want to combine different food groups in every meal. For example: at breakfast the egg is a PROTEIN, the tomato is a VEGETABLE, and the toast is a CARBOHYDRATE. No meal should contain any foods from the same food group. That way you are diversifying your eating and getting all your essential nutrients. Here is a SUGGESTED list of food you can choose from and what food group they fall under. If you don’t see something on the list, it doesn’t mean you can’t have it (for example, not all fruits are on the list, but am I going to tell you not to eat fruit.. no way!). Feel free to ask me!
PROTEINS
Chicken breast
Turkey breast
Lean ground turkey
Swordfish
Haddock
Salmon
Tuna
Crab
Lobster
Shrimp
Top round steak
Top sirloin steak
Lean ground beef
Buffalo
Lean ham
Egg, Egg whites or substitutes
Trout
Low-fat cottage cheese

VEGETABLES
Broccoli
Asparagus
Lettuce
Carrots
Cauliflower
Green beans
Green peppers
Mushrooms
Spinach
Tomato
Peas
Brussels sprouts
Artichoke
Cabbage
Celery
Zucchini
Cucumber
Onion

FATS
Avocado
Sunflower seeds
Pumpkin seeds
Natural peanut butter
Low-sodium nuts
Olives and olive oil
Safflower oil
Canola oil
Sunflower oil
Flax seed oil

CARBOHYDRATES
Baked potato
Sweet potato
Yams
Squash
Pumpkin
Steamed brown rice
Steamed wild rice
Pasta
Oatmeal
Barley
Beans
Kidney beans
Corn
Strawberries
Melon
Apple
Orange
Fat-free yogurt
Whole-wheat bread
Banana
Whole-wheat Tortilla
Whole grains

FATS TO AVOID
Butter
Fried foods
Mayonnaise
Sweets
Whole-fat dairy products

Here is the key to eating your meals: PORTION CONTROL! For example, one portion of meat is 3-4 ounces (not 8 oz. as they would like you to believe at a steak joint). Your meat should fit in the palm of your hand. That is pretty much true with everything you eat. If you aren’t into measuring your food (which I suggest everyone look at the labels on your food and see what an actual serving size is), hold it in your hand. If it doesn’t fit it is too big.

When should I be eating? Every 2-3 hours. If you get up at and eat breakfast at 8AM, your next meal should be around 10:30AM, which puts lunch at 1PM, snack around 3:30PM, dinner at 6PM, and your final snack at 8:30PM.

What should I have to drink? Here is what you should NOT have to drink: any type of soda (diet or otherwise), fruit drinks, flavored ice teas, mocha-frappa-latte crap from Starbucks. All of these drinks are packed with sugar, mostly artificial and wreak havoc on your insides. They also mess with your taste buds, causing you to crave them more (have you ever seen someone addicted to Diet Coke? Not pretty). Stick to water, coffee, tea (from a tea bag), skim milk. If you think you will die from not having a Diet Coke, you won’t. Toughin’ up.

What about alcohol? I would NEVER suggest that we get rid of alcohol from your diet. Just like anything, moderation is key. Understand that alcohol is empty calories (but on some days, needed calories). Instead of having a bottle of wine with dinner tonight, just have a glass. Instead of having a drink every day, only have one a few times a week. You decide what you are comfortable with. Unless you drink excessively, cutting alcohol out of your diet is not going to make a huge difference.

Finally, can I bend the rules? That depends on what you want to get out of this. If you are looking to lose weight then no, not in the beginning. Why? Because you owe it to yourself to try something different without wanting to change it. You might just find that it changes how you view food and the way you look at eating. Remember, this is a way of living your life, not a short-term fix for losing weight. There is no end when it comes to eating properly. In six months, you can’t just go back to slugging Diet Coke and eating TV dinners. But I promise you, if you treat your body well, you will never want to treat it poorly again. If you are looking to live a healthier lifestyle, but don’t care about losing weight, you will have to decide how strict you follow the rules.

Okay… this is a lot of information. If you have questions, post them on the blog. I will answer them. One question you are probably wondering… do I follow the rules? Yes… most of the time. Like I said in my first blog, I live down the street from a Dairy Queen...

And remember this, losing weight is 80% the food you intake, 20% the exercise you do. Start with what you put into your body and then we can work on the rest.

4 comments:

  1. Awesome Bekah,
    I am printing this out and posting on my fridge (or wall-papering my kitchen...).
    Thanks for your help! I will keep you posted on my progress!
    Started walking 2 miles in the morning this week so that should help too!
    Love you,
    Aunt Ginna

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  2. Hi Bekah-
    I came across your blog via Anna's facebook. I love the way you write and your cut the crap lifestyle! One quick question --- are there any low/no fat cheeses and yogurts you would reccommend? Thanks for making this great information available...especially as summer gets closer and everyone comes out of hibernation!
    Best,
    Anne Purdy

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  3. Hi Anne!
    As far as yogart goes, any reduced fat yogurt is great. I recommend splurging and going organic when it comes to dairy products. The reason being is you are going to get better ingredients that are better for your body, minus any added hormones and antibiotics.

    As far as cheese goes... parmesan is a great addition to meals that is low calorie and low fat. Feta is another good one. All cheese should be used in moderation though:). We all have a tendency to over cheese.
    Hope this helps!
    -Bekah

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  4. Hey Bek,
    Question about Splenda - would you recommend using it? What about Truvia? My question is based on the fact that I like plain yogurt with a Splenda pack mixed in and/or Quaker Oats (from the original sphere box) with a Splenda mixed in.
    Thoughts?
    Heather

    ReplyDelete