Snacking: The Fun Side of Weight Management

Snacking is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, if you snack on the right foods, snacking can be a good thing.  Healthy snacks that do not send you over your calorie needs will help you maintain blood glucose levels, feel better and avoid the urge to eat the whole cow at your next meal. Sweet snacks, on the other hand, cause blood sugar levels to spike giving you a burst of energy  and then drop leaving you 'snacky', craving another blood sugar spike. 


A Good Snacking Rule To Follow
When you snack, snack as you eat (should eat) your meals. Eat a good balance of complex carbohydrates, protein and healthy fat. By combining macronutrients in your snacks, you will stabilize your blood sugar, improve your health, boost your immune system (sugar lowers your immune response), feel full longer and keep the sugar monster in check.  


How Do I Know What To Eat?
A little education is a good start but if you are not inclined to do a little research (I'm not sure why your health would not be worth a little research) then simply take notice of the way you feel after eating. If you waddle away from the table stuffed only to find yourself hungry again and stopping for a coffee and doughnut on the way to work, you need to rethink what you are eating. If your hunger is satisfied for three to four hours after a meal and you do not experience an energy crash and snack craving on the way to work, take note of what you ate. It was a good meal for you.  A breakfast of pancakes and syrup may go down good but it will ding you for about 500 calories and leave you blood sugar level on 'empty' before you can get to your job and reach for the little candies you keep at your desk. An egg with a slice of Canadian bacon and a piece of whole grain toast will cost you only about 250 calories keep you satisfied for several hours. Choose snacks that in small portions mimic the effect of a healthy meal. 

How Do I Know What Snacks to Eat? 
Here is a very simple rule of thumb to follow. First get rid of the little candies at your desk. Yes, those. If the snack is in a package or wrapper and you did not put it in the package or wrapper, don't eat it. There are some prepackaged snacks that are OK but you can prepare your own healthier version in less time than it will take you to find the healthy snacks at the store - and they will cost less.

Healthy Snacking 

While snacking is healthy, not all snacks are healthy. Here are some suggestions for healthy snacks.

• Ants On A Log - A celery stick stuffed with raw nut butter (peanut, almond or walnut) with a half-dozen raisins on top.
• Keep It Simple - Have a few nuts (no more than 15).
• California Cruiser - three or four cheese cubes with and equal number of low fat whole grain crackers and a half-dozen grapes.
• Cheese and crackers: opt for grass-fed cheese for higher essential Omega 3 fatty acid content if possible and gluten-free rice crackers for less intestinal bloating. 
• Hummus and carrot sticks: hummus contains a little protein and natural fat. 
• Edamame sprinkled with sea salt: edamame is the whole soybean and it contains both protein and essential trace minerals if sprinkled with sea salt. 
• Greek yogurt: unless you’re on a restricted diet, go for the full-fat variety, which will keep you full for longer and includes all three macronutrients. 
• Apple slices and olives: perfect for those who crave sweet and salty. 
• A handful of nuts. About 15 almonds - more than that and you are pigging.
• Organic turkey breast slice with crackers: turkey contains both protein and natural fat. (It’s easy to bring a package of healthy deli slices with you to work; just make sure your coworkers don't steal it!)(Adapted from Judd Handler a freelance health reporter and certified Metabolic Typing Advisor and Functional Diagnostic Nutritionist living in Encinitas, CA. You can reach him at coachjudd@gmail.com)
• I would add to this cottage cheese and a little fruit. Remember: This is a snack. Keep it to no more than about 100 calories.

Even nutritionists, trainers and health coaches fall off the wagon. When you fall off the wagon - and you will -treat it like walking. If you trip and fall you don't just lie there waiting for death to end your misery; you get up and begin walking again. If you adopt these healthy snacking ideas, your cravings for sugary junk food will subside and you will find it gets progressively easier to stay on the wagon. 

Myth and Truth

Two of the most common misconceptions about weight management (made myth by advertisers) are:

Myth 1 - You can exercise yourself thin (invariably followed by buy this…and lose 10 lbs in 10 days")

Truth: No! and No! While it is theoretically possible to exercise yourself thin, and a few have the time to do that, reality and actually doing so is a different matter. Losing one pound per week requires deleting 3500 calories a week, 500 calories per day, from you plate or burning 3500 calories more per week than you are consuming. That doesn't sound so mythical until you realize that, depending on your weight and the speed at which you walk, it means walking an extra 4-5 hours each day.

Myth2  - You can be fit and healthy if you eat right; (if you follow the diet in this book that you can get for only $12.99). Dieting as we normally think of it; i.e. the fad diets, to lose 10-20 pounds in two weeks, if followed strictly, may work for some - for two weeks. We all know what happen after that. The demon returns and brings a friend with him. In fact, most of the weight lost is water. Add to that the fact that most fad, fast weight loss diets restrict some needed nutrient. In short, the cannot be the basis for a long-term healthy eating weight maintenance plan. Hippocrates said "Let your medicine be your food and your food be your medicine." - or something very close to that. There is much truth in that. What we eat is as important as the calories consumed - perhaps, in a sense, more so. While it is true that bottom line, your weight is a matter of calories in and calories out. Calorie for calorie, nutrient dense, high fiber foods, and complex carbohydrates encourage eating less because they are more satisfying and are, for want of a better way of putting it, slow release. Simple carbohydrates and low fiber, nutrient poor foods will give you a quick burst of energy; however, they just as quickly burn off leaving you reaching for a snack. And that snack is almost invariably a simple carbohydrate to get your blood glucose back up.

But, Yes! It is possible to get thin by diet alone. Possible is not probable, and the fact is that few who lose weight by diet alone manage to keep it off. However, as true as that is, it overlooks the fact that the human body was made to move and not moving it will destroy it. While it is possible to lose weight, at least temporarily, by diet alone, it is not possible to get fit and healthy by diet alone.

Really? Seriously? Yes! Recent studies by numerous reseachers have found that maintaining a healthy weight but living a sedentary lifestyle will put you at the same risk for heart disease as an active smoker.  (see note below)

Truth: Maintaining a healthy weight and a healthy body requires following both a healthy diet and an active lifestyle. You will neither eat yourself healthy nor exercise yourself thin. A healthy lifestyle is a balance of good nutrition and proper exercise.

Note: Further research (ASCM et al) has found that 30-60 minutes of exercise daily will not by itself overcome the consequence of sitting for prolonged periods of time. If you are in a sedentary job, a job that requires sitting for long periods of time, improving your health and reducing the risks of cardiovascular disease can be as simple as walking in place or simply standing when taking a phone call for a couple of minutes every hour or two. Learn to stand and walk when handling phone calls -if you need to make notes, you can actually bend over and do that. Get up and go to the water fountain and/or the restroom every couple of hours. If you go to the water fountain and drink water as you should, going to the restroom will take care of itself. Not only will the trip to the water fountain keep you moving every couple of hours but it will cure one of the most prevalent nutritional problems Americans suffer; that is, chronic dehydration.

Eat well, move and enjoy good health.

Exercise is Medicine Article

"In a recent article, investigators in New Zealand examined the long-term effectiveness of the Green Prescription (GRx) program on patient physical activity (PA) levels. While several studies have shown that the GRx is effective in raising PA levels over the short-term, few have examined the long-term effectiveness of the program. In patients that adhered to the GRx, 42 percent reported increasing their PA levels for an increase of 64 minutes of activity per week, as well as a 30 percent reduction in the risk of being sedentary. 

The results of this study provide additional evidence that giving patients exercise prescriptions is capable of changing their short- and long-term PA behaviors." (www.exerciseismedicine.org)

Note: GRx is a program in which physicians and/or nurses recommend exercise to patients.

One Good Reason to Exercise - Life

A study by Booth, Roberts and Laye (2012) found, as other researchers have found, a link between activity and longevity. According to the study cited above, active adults have a 30% lower risk of premature death. They found that data gathered by anti-aging research supports an inverse relationship premature death and physical activity in adults. The human body was made to move. Sedentary lifestyles have a negative effect on cells, gene function, the immune system and human movement that cause accumulative dysfunctions that accelerate death.

Similar studies have found that active adults who follow a healthy lifestyle a 3 to 5 year end of life period of debilitation compared to a debilitation period of 8-15 years for sedentary adults. In short, regular physical activity allows you to live longer and healthier with the prospect of living independently about 3 to 5 times as long.

As a bonus, you look better, feel better and function better. Why would you not want to become active?

Sitting Yourself To Death

"Sitting is the new smoking." It is unlikely that very many outside the health and fitness community have heard this. Just what do they mean by that? Sitting is the new smoking means that for even regular exercisers, prolonged sitting has the same negative effect on health as smoking. You are what has been called an "active couch potato - Genevieve Healy, University of Queensland - and are only slightly, if any, less susceptible to the same health risks as those who are completely inactive. 

"Your body is designed to move," Hamilton (Marc Hamilton, Ph.D., Pennington Biomedical Research Center.) says. "Sitting for an extended period of time causes your body to shut down at the metabolic level." When your muscles, especially certain leg muscles, are immobile, your circulation slows. So you use less of your blood sugar and you burn less fat, which increases your risk of heart disease and diabetes. Indeed, a study of 3,757 women found that for every two hours they sat in a given work day, their risk for developing diabetes went up seven percent, which means their risk is 56 percent higher on days they sit for eight hours. And a study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology reports that a man who sits more than six hours a day has an 18 percent increased risk of dying from heart disease and a 7.8 percent increased chance of dying from diabetes compared with someone who sits for three hours or less a day. 

Just how bad is it? If saying it is equivalent to being a smoker doesn't get your attention consider that Koster et al. measured sedentary time in 1906 subjects and found that after adjusting for MVPA the highest 25% of time spent in sedentary activity had 3.3 times the risk for all-cause mortality compared to those in the lowest 25%. Or, in very simple but accurate enough language, too much sitting, after making you ill, will kill you.

Assuming none of us are particularly fascinated with that prospect, the question is: What do we do? Studies have shown that 30 minutes of exercise daily has tremendous health benefits but that this alone will not reverse the negative effects of prolonged sitting. So, what is the answer? The answer is as simple as it is difficult; i.e. move. We have to move. We have to break up our sitting time. Research indicates that a minimum of 2 minutes walking, walking in place, will activate key muscles in the leg and avoid the the repercussions of prolonged sitting. The bonus to employers is that their employees are healthier, happier, more productive and take less sick time.

Some Things are Necessities

Aside from trying to avoid a cake and a half gallon of ice-cream a day, there is nothing more necessary to weight management that keeping a food diary. Everyone hates keeping a food diary. I have never met the person who said to me, "Oh, wow! You want me to keep a food diary. I always wanted to do that."

If food diaries are so hated, why do serious trainers and weight loss consultants always ask you to keep a food diary? Do we just enjoy annoying you? No! We ask you to keep a food diary for a couple of reasons.

First. with rare exception, and I do mean rare exception (having worked with several hundred clients I have never found an exception, it is that rare), we all underestimate how much we eat. We plan our meals well, and we may, though it is rarely the case, practice good portion control. Great! What did you drink? Have you had a snack? What did you snack on? Unless you keep a food diary, you very likely have no idea how many extra calories you take in from your drink and snacks. You often do not even remember snacking. There are the ever present peppermints we pop unwittingly into our mouths. We don't plan them; we may or may not remember eating them and maybe we only pop a couple a day. How bad can that be? They are only about 20 calories each, right? 20x2=40. OK, that still isn't so bad. But 40x30 days in a month = 1200 cal. In three months, you have enough extra calories to add a pound of fat to your body, 4 pounds in a year and 5 years into your desk job…let's see 5x4 = the answer to the bewildering question of where did this weight come from. Well, few people eat just two peppermints in extra calories a day but you get the point. If you have planned your meals to include you daily calories; then unwittingly add 20 calories twice a day to that…Yep!

Secondly, we often attempt to control calories without taking into consideration nutritional values. A hundred calories of candy and a hundred calories of fruit have the same caloric value. The difference is this: the one is slowly processed and provides vitamins, minerals, trace elements etc. to your nutritional needs while the other jacks up you blood sugar for a short time, zips through your system, and quickly leaves you craving another energy shot having added none of the nutrients needed to maintain a healthy body. Your trainer, weight management consultant or nutritionist simply cannot help you substitute good choices until they know what you are currently eating.

A word to the wise: When your coach asks you to keep a food diary, you sabotage the entire process by being dishonest. There was a lady in the gym where I trained who was about 60 pounds over her desired weight. She was not my client but she came to me one day and said, "I'm working really hard but I am not losing any weight. What do I need to do?" The obvious answer is that she needed to quit eating so much but I reserve that sage advice for clients with whom I have developed a relationship. I told her to keep a food diary for a week, including the weekend (very important) and perhaps we could figure out what she needed to do. A week later she brought me a food diary that, with little exaggeration claimed that for breakfast she had coffee and simply smelled the bacon, for lunch feasted on three grapes and a lettuce leaf; then for dinner finished her day with a baked chicken leg and a celery stick.

Basic rules for keeping a food diary:
1. If you put it in your mouth and swallow, write it down. Don't try to guess if it is good or bad. If you already had an idea about that, you wouldn't be seeking help.
2. Include your drink. I had an obese client who maintained a very healthy "food" eating plan. I discovered she was literally consuming two cups of sugar a day from her tea.
3. Do not forget the snacks however small they may be. There are about 10 calories in one potato chip and we all know no one eats just one chip. (Well, maybe my wife eats just one but she can also take one bite from a cookie and leave the rest for another bite the next day. A large cookie will dry and get tossed in the garbage before she eats it all. That just isn't right. Know what I mean?) If you go to a party over the weekend, count your chips. Yeah, I know, that deters you from eating as many.
4. This is important. Write down the time of day you eat (especially snacks) and how you were feeling at the time - i.e. hungry, tired, happy, sad, bored etc. Why you are snacking is as important as what you eat for a snack.