McKinley Grapevine

Food cravings can be the cause of many different things.  Below are 10 tips from www.hybridher.com to help you outsmart your next craving!

 

1. Eat at regular intervals. To avoid becoming overly hungry, don’t go more than five hours without eating.

2. Include protein in each meal to control appetite. Skinless poultry, fish, eggs and low-calorie dairy products are good sources.

3. Stay hydrated with water, since thirst can mask as hunger. Avoid sugared, artificially sweetened and stimulant drinks that trigger cravings.

4. Distract yourself if the impulse to eat is triggered by emotions, especially if you are SAD: sad, angry or depressed. Instead of giving in to the craving, go for a walk. Besides getting you out of the kitchen, the exercise will burn calories.

5. Chew sugarless gum. Chewing satisfies mouth hunger without adding calories.

6. Brush and floss your teeth. Changing the taste in your mouth shifts your perspective, and the craving may simply disappear.

7. Replace refined foods (for example, white flour and sugar) that trigger cravings with whole grains. Whole grains produce a sense of satiety for a longer than refined foods do, and unlike refined foods, whole grains do not trigger cravings.

8. Just say no and then wait. Most cravings begin, crest and recede in minutes. While you’re waiting, review what you have eaten during the day and reassure yourself that your body is well nourished. Willpower is a muscle that strengthens with exercise.

9. Call for support. If you are in danger of polishing off a container of peanut butter ice cream, call your best friend and talk your way through the crisis.

10. Get outside and into sunlight daily, exercise regularly and get a good night’s rest. Sunlight and exercise lift your mood, and rest restores perspective.

Alright people, I will make this simple, short and sweet!  1 pound of body weight = 3500 calories.  If you want to lose 1 lb/weekly you will need to burn 500 extra calories daily or subtract 500 calories from your current diet daily (keyword being “daily”).  If you want to lose 2 lbs/weekly you will just double up on calorie burn or subtraction.

Now, in order for you to know what to subtract from you need to know how many calories you consume on a daily basis.  Without changing your diet, start taking a food journal everyday for 5 days.  Write down the food and the amount you consumed throughout the day and at the end of the day go to one of the following websites to find the caloric value.  Create a separate category for carbs, protein, fat and total calories.  If you exercised that day, be sure to subtract the number of calories you burned from your total calorie intake.  In the next couple of posts I will get more specific about how to cut down on calories and 500-1000 calorie burn workouts.  Feel free to contact me with any questions 🙂

Websites to help calorie count:

-Everyday Health Calorie Counter

http://www.everydayhealth.com/my-calorie-counter.aspx?xid=MCC_GSEK&s_kwcid=TC|22006|calorie%20counter||S|e|5467553903&gclid=CMe7_4uUka0CFeQCQAodjmK5lQ

-My Food Diary

http://www.myfooddiary.com/?source=g_cs_counter&OVKEY=calorie%20counter&gclid=CNiu7O-Uka0CFYTsKgodNSHAnA

-Spark People

http://www.sparkpeople.com/landing_free_plus18.asp?gclid=COLigqiVka0CFQQCQAod2AJynw

Hey People!!

Please, please, PLEASE take 9 min out of your day and watch this quick you tube video.  I am sure you will all find this to be extremely valuable info!  Let me know what you think and if you have any questions 🙂

 

Yours in Health and Wellness,

Meredith

 

P.S.

If you are interested in knowing what foods are high in alkaline and what are high in acid, here is a list.  Understand, I am not suggesting you change your diet to just alkaline rich food.  Personally, I eat dairy, meat and veggies.  I try to eat everything in moderation and if I know I am going to eat a food that will have an acidizing effect on my body I make sure to a food that will have an equal alkalizing effect.  Here are 2 simple ways to increase the alkaline in your body without having to make DRASTIC changes to your diet.  1. Start drinking Mineral water instead of pop.  2. You can make alkaline water by adding 1/2 tsp of baking soda to a 16.9floz bottle of filtered water.  If you want to get REALLY technical you can test the water with a ph strip.  You want the ph level to be between 8.5 and 9.0.  Enjoy and no more DIET SODA!!

 

…ALKALINE FOODS…		…ACIDIC FOODS…
ALKALIZING VEGETABLES Alfalfa Barley Grass Beet Greens Beets Broccoli Cabbage Carrot Cauliflower Celery Chard Greens Chlorella Collard Greens Cucumber Dandelions Dulce Edible Flowers Eggplant Fermented Veggies Garlic Green Beans Green Peas Kale Kohlrabi Lettuce Mushrooms Mustard Greens Nightshade Veggies Onions Parsnips (high glycemic) Peas Peppers Pumpkin Radishes Rutabaga Sea Veggies Spinach, green Spirulina Sprouts Sweet Potatoes Tomatoes Watercress Wheat Grass Wild Greens ALKALIZING ORIENTAL VEGETABLES Daikon Dandelion Root Kombu Maitake Nori Reishi Shitake Umeboshi Wakame ALKALIZING FRUITS Apple Apricot Avocado Banana (high glycemic) Berries Blackberries Cantaloupe Cherries, sour Coconut, fresh Currants Dates, dried Figs, dried Grapes Grapefruit Honeydew Melon Lemon Lime Muskmelons Nectarine Orange Peach Pear Pineapple Raisins Raspberries Rhubarb Strawberries Tangerine Tomato Tropical Fruits Umeboshi Plums Watermelon ALKALIZING PROTEIN Almonds Chestnuts Millet Tempeh (fermented) Tofu (fermented) Whey Protein Powder ALKALIZING SWEETENERS Stevia ALKALIZING SPICES & SEASONINGS Chili Pepper Cinnamon Curry Ginger Herbs (all) Miso Mustard Sea Salt Tamari ALKALIZING OTHER Alkaline Antioxidant Water Apple Cider Vinegar Bee Pollen Fresh Fruit Juice Green Juices Lecithin Granules Mineral Water Molasses, blackstrap Probiotic Cultures Soured Dairy Products Veggie Juices ALKALIZING MINERALS Calcium: pH 12 Cesium: pH 14 Magnesium: pH 9 Potassium: pH 14 Sodium: pH 14 Although it might seem that citrus fruits would have an acidifying effect on the body, the citric acid they contain actually has an alkalinizing effect in the system. Note that a food’s acid or alkaline forming tendency in the body has nothing to do with the actual pH of the food itself. For example, lemons are very acidic, however the end products they produce after digestion and assimilation are very alkaline so, lemons are alkaline forming in the body. Likewise, meat will test alkaline before digestion, but it leaves very acidic residue in the body so, like nearly all animal products, meat is very acid forming.		ACIDIFYING VEGETABLES Corn Lentils Olives Winter Squash ACIDIFYING FRUITS Blueberries Canned or Glazed Fruits Cranberries Currants Plums** Prunes** ACIDIFYING GRAINS, GRAIN PRODUCTS Amaranth Barley Bran, oat Bran, wheat Bread Corn Cornstarch Crackers, soda Flour, wheat Flour, white Hemp Seed Flour Kamut Macaroni Noodles Oatmeal Oats (rolled) Quinoa Rice (all) Rice Cakes Rye Spaghetti Spelt Wheat Germ Wheat ACIDIFYING BEANS & LEGUMES Almond Milk Black Beans Chick Peas Green Peas Kidney Beans Lentils Pinto Beans Red Beans Rice Milk Soy Beans Soy Milk White Beans ACIDIFYING DAIRY Butter Cheese Cheese, Processed Ice Cream Ice Milk ACIDIFYING NUTS & BUTTERS Cashews Legumes Peanut Butter Peanuts Pecans Tahini Walnuts ACIDIFYING ANIMAL PROTEIN Bacon Beef Carp Clams Cod Corned Beef Fish Haddock Lamb Lobster Mussels Organ Meats Oyster Pike Pork Rabbit Salmon Sardines Sausage Scallops Shellfish Shrimp Tuna Turkey Veal Venison ACIDIFYING FATS & OILS Avacado Oil Butter Canola Oil Corn Oil Flax Oil Hemp Seed Oil Lard Olive Oil Safflower Oil Sesame Oil Sunflower Oil ACIDIFYING SWEETENERS Carob Corn Syrup Sugar ACIDIFYING ALCOHOL Beer Hard Liquor Spirits Wine ACIDIFYING OTHER FOODS Catsup Cocoa Coffee Mustard Pepper Soft Drinks Vinegar ACIDIFYING DRUGS & CHEMICALS Aspirin Chemicals Drugs, Medicinal Drugs, Psychedelic Herbicides Pesticides Tobacco ACIDIFYING JUNK FOOD Beer: pH 2.5 Coca-Cola: pH 2 Coffee: pH 4 ** These foods leave an alkaline ash but have an acidifying effect on the body.

Hey people!

I hope many of you started an exercise regimen last week and if you didn’t, you can start TODAY!  Everyone will have different weight and/or fitness goals.  As you set out to execute your wellness plan I feel the first thing you need to figure out is how many calories YOU (not the average person) need to consume on a daily basis.  In order to find your “magic” number you need to calculate what your BMR (Basil Metabolic Rate is the number of calories you need if you do absolutely nothing but wake up in the morning.) by using the Harris-Benedict equation:

• Women: BMR = 655 + (4.35 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) – (4.7 x age in years)
• Men: BMR = 66 + (6.23 x weight in pounds) + (12.7 x height in inches) – (6.8 x age in years)

Next, use your BMR to calculate your AMR (Active Metabolic Rate adds in the calories you need for your daily physical activities) by estimating your current level of activity.  If you are:

• Sedentary (little or no exercise) – your AMR = BMR x 1.2
• Lightly active (light exercise/work 1-3 days per week) – your AMR = BMR x 1.375
• Moderately active (moderate exercise/work 3-5 days per week) – your AMR = BMR x 1.55
• Very active (hard exercise/work 6-7 days a week) – your AMR = BMR x 1.725
• Extra active (very hard exercise/work 6-7 days a week) – your AMR = BMR x 1.9

Here is an example:

35 year old female who is 65inc tall,  weighs 140lbs and is moderately active:

BMR = 655 + (4.35 x 140) + (4.7 x 65) – (4.7 x 35)

= 655 + 609 + 305.5 – 164.5

= 1734

AMR = 1734 x 1.55

= 2687.7 (round down to 2680)

Now, of the 2680 calories:

40 % = carbohydrates (4 calories per gram = 1072 calories = 268g of carbohydrates)

40 % = protein (4 calories per gram = 1072 calories = 268g of protein)

20 % = fat (9 calories per gram = 536 calories = 59g of fat)

Let’s say this female wanted to lose 10lbs.  Instead of doing the calculation with her current weight (140), she would do the calculation based on her goal weight (130).  Understand, everyone is different so you will have to experiment a bit with food and exercise to know what your body will respond best to.  It’s important for you to make healthy choices you feel you could adopt as your own and make a lifestyle change instead of starting a short term crash diet that may lead you to putting the weight back on and then some.

There are many helpful and simple food tracking applications you can download to your phone or computer.  The one I downloaded to my phone is called “Calorie Counter”.  I recommend tracking your food intake for at least 2 days so you have an idea of how many calories you are actually consuming.

Please ask any questions you may have so I know how to help 🙂  Look for healthy recipes on the “Cooking Smart” page!

Yours in Health and Wellness,

Meredith