July 19, 2007
A Few Tips for Keeping Fit
Sneaky little slim-down tricks
Pretty good tips, here are the ones I use:
- Eat small, frequent, portion-controlled meals and snacks to keep your blood sugar level steady and your energy up, which stops you from overindulging.
- Be extra mindful about drinking anything with calories (i.e., fruit juice, soda, sweetened coffee and tea, or alcohol).
- Avoid white flour, white sugar, and white fat.
- Eat a very small dinner.
- Think thin. (I do this by making sure to photograph with my cell phone every fat person I see — not many in China, but they do exist (often foreigners).)
- Snack on carrot sticks and Wasa bread (high fiber stuff).
- Brush your teeth directly after eating. Like the woman in the article, I also don’t like to ‘mess up my freshly brushed teeth.’
Fat-free popcorn is another good high-fiber snack. Ugly was kind enough to send me a case of the stuff recently, and I believe the good folks in Customs are happily consuming it without me. ;-)
Cat: | Time: 3:08 pm (utc+8)
July 19th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
another one, very simple yet effective:
Avoid long labels: a banana has only one ingredient :)
July 19th, 2007 at 5:39 pm
opw: Good one. (There are often no nutritional/ingredient labels on food in China anyway. ;-))
(Bananas are actually quite fattening so you don’t want to eat them all day long.)
July 19th, 2007 at 7:41 pm
I am not sure you are right about that… It would seem logical to me that natural foods are healthy.
Myth 10
Bananas are fattening.
Fact
They are actually low in fat. There is only half a gram of fat and 95 calories in a banana. Not only that but they are packed with potassium, come in their own packaging, are clean and very handy as a snack!
http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/womenshealth/features/dietmyths.htm
July 19th, 2007 at 8:24 pm
eat tuna.
drink water to cleanse the system.
that’s something that works for me when i want to lose a few pounds in a week or so…
July 19th, 2007 at 11:33 pm
@opw: In the Weight Watcher’s system a banana is 2 points and you only get 20 points a day … I don’t do WW but I’ve studied their system and it’s a decent one.
@bob: These are good tips for life, not for wanting to lose a few pounds in a week (which is probably not a good idea in the first place).
July 20th, 2007 at 12:25 am
I find that I overeat typically in group situations or buffet. Two ways i try to manage the food is
1) Allocate the higher calorie foods on your plate (carbs + protein) and then allow yourself to eat as much light calorie foods as you need to feel full (Veg - eg Broccoli or spinach).
2) Another technique is to simply count your bites of food. Add a multiplier for desert.
Another thing I’ve noticed:
3) Stick to eating boring foods – eg uncooked broccoli. Bland sandwiches, salad with no dressing etc. I find I am less likely to overeat.
July 20th, 2007 at 12:27 am
Oh - one more I read recently:
Once in a while overeat - this supposedly tricks your metabolism
July 20th, 2007 at 4:01 am
There was a physiologist in Minnesota who came up with the Northwoods Diet a few years ago, which meant eating carbs in the morning, carbs and protein and fat for lunch, and then veg/meat for dinner. That aligns your eating with your circadian rhythms.
July 20th, 2007 at 9:55 am
Anthony: I also overeat in group situations (nervous) and buffets are plain deadly so I avoid them at all costs. I could never count the number of bites I take but I definitely embrace boring foods!
The Body for Life guy has his one day a week where you can go nuts and eat whatever you want, which I think is a psychological thing but it may also “trick your metabolism.”
The main thing I’ve found is that the older you get the harder it is to lose weight … you just naturally have a higher level of body fat and it doesn’t want to get gone.
July 20th, 2007 at 9:58 am
An article in JAMA if my memory serves me (Journal of American Medical Assoc) - or maybe it was Annals of Internal Medicine? Anyways, Weight Watchers came out with great marks for long term weight loss. I see the same in my patients, though I don’t like their system it seems to work for some.
July 20th, 2007 at 10:14 am
E: I think most systems, even crackpot ones like Atkins, will “work” if people faithfully apply them. Weight Watchers is good because it makes fatties focus on their food intake (what and how much they eat) while encouraging some exercise… and it has those peer pressure weigh-ins which encourage people not to backslide. It’s a good program assuming one has the discipline to apply it (few do, lol).
July 20th, 2007 at 3:18 pm
“The Body for Life guy has his one day a week where you can go nuts and eat whatever you want”
I have had great success with the body for life program (as long as I had the discipline to apply it)
In fact this week I started again :)
July 24th, 2007 at 3:38 am
I always sweeten tea and coffee with pure stevia extract, derived from a S. American plant, and used by millions (esp. in Japan) stevia has no calories, and supposedly some anti-oxidant benefits. You can cook and bake with it too.
July 24th, 2007 at 7:16 am
jock: Never heard of stevia extract … I drink green tea straight (unsweetened).
July 27th, 2007 at 5:36 am
I have been losing weight fairly steadily and find that a couple of days of eating cottage cheese with a variety of toppings (chopped tomatoes,tuna,or fruit) to be really helpful. It seems as if my body is craving this. I’ve joined the neighborhood swimming pool and go every day to do water aerobics, in addition to swimming.
I’ve been weaning myself off processed foods for awhile, but chips are still a temptation! :)
My body seems to really crave fresh fruit and vegetables…the problem is finding the time to prep them. Sometimes they languish in my fridge until they rot. (I forget that they are there.)
July 27th, 2007 at 7:48 am
bstriggow: Cottage cheese is hard to come across in China … I think you’ll find the fitter you get the less you crave junk and the more you start to crave wholesome stuff. You could slice up a whole bunch of carrots into sticks and store them in the fridge (they last awhile). And as long as you keep your exercise regimen, there’s nothing wrong with giving in to the occasional temptation, I think. Thanks for sharing your experience.