4 Tips for Eating Healthy at the Office

Most people spend 8 hours or more at the office per day during the week. If this is true for you, it also means you’re spending a significant portion of your week away from your own kitchen. If you’re concerned about sticking to a healthy diet while you’re at work, there are a variety of nutritious foods — including vegetables, fruits, lean deli meats, whole-grain bread , reduced-fat cheeses, and nuts and seeds — you can easily pack for lunches and snacks to enjoy during the day.

1. Pack your lunch. With a well-insulated lunch bag or lunchbox, a thermos, and some high-quality leakproof plastic containers, you can bring anything from soups and salads to sandwiches, fresh fruit, and nonfat plain Greek yogurt to the office. If you don’t eat breakfast at home, pack pre-cooked steel-cut oatmeal in a microwavable container or a couple of hard-boiled eggs. For lunch, prepare a sandwich using, lean, reduced-sodium deli meats like boiled ham, sliced chicken or turkey breast, lean roast beef, smoked ham, or smoked turkey breast, and reduced-fat cheese, lettuce, and tomato, if desired (add mayo, mustard, horseradish or another condiment just before eating). If you expect to work overtime, bring a dinner dish to heat up.
2. Avoid the vending machine. Vending machines are usually filled with chips, cookies, candies, and other processed foods you should always stay away from. To combat mid-morning and mid-afternoon cravings, come to the office prepared with two healthy snacks. The most satisfying and energizing snacks contain some fiber-rich good carbohydrates and protein. Pack a handful of almonds, cashews, pumpkin seeds, soy nuts, or dry-roasted edamame or cut up some celery sticks or bell peppers or jícama to dip into a small individual container of hummus. Salsa is another good option for dipping. Or enjoy a piece of fruit with some fat-free or reduced-fat yogurt or cottage cheese.
3. Organize a soup club. Flavorful, hearty, and satisfying, soups make the perfect lunch or snack. Consider getting some of your co-workers together and starting a soup club, where everyone in the club can share their favorite healthy recipes for hot or chilled soups and take turns preparing them for the office on certain days of the week. Set ground rules for the ingredients, like using lower-sodium chicken, beef, or vegetable broth, lean protein, and as many nutrient-dense, fiber-rich good carbs as possible, including a wide variety of vegetables and legumes — and whole grains and even fruits. Also make sure only fat-free or reduced-fat dairy is used. It’s a fun way to meet people in the company and build your recipe repertoire.
4. Highlight healthy options on take-out menus. If busy mornings leave you with no time to prepare lunch or late nights at the office have you resorting to ordering out, spend some time circling or highlighting the healthy meal options on your favorite restaurant take-out menus. Whatever cuisine you enjoy, whether it's Chinese, Thai, Mexican, or American, always stay away from foods made with high-fat sauces and anything fried.
   For appetizers, choose a healthy soup or salad. For a main dish, stick to lean protein, including lean beef, fish and shellfish, turkey and chicken breast (remove the skin), and pork loin.
   For sides, choose steamed or grilled vegetables or brown rice or whole-wheat couscous, for example, to complement your meal. Or for a lighter meal select a salad topped with grilled chicken or turkey and veggies, or a whole-wheat pita or wrap, or an omelet with a healthy filling. For a beverage, choose seltzer or a sugar-free caffeinated or decaffeinated drink.

Daily Recipe - Salmon Tomato Cups

As we say hello to the local tomato crop, here is a great recipe for lunch, snacks, or light dinners. This recipe uses campari tomatoes which are larger than cherry and yet smaller than field tomatoes. If they are not available, use smaller field varieties.

Ingredients:
- 6 campari tomatoes

- 2 cans skinless boneless salmon, drained & flaked

- 1/2 cup light sour cream

- 1 tbsp dried oregano

- 1/2 cup kalamata black olives, pitted and chopped

Preparation:

1) Cut tomatoes in half width wise to make 12 tomato halves. Remove seeds using a small spoon. Set aside.
2) In a medium bowl, blend salmon, light sour cream, oregano and kalamata olives.

3) Mound Salmon mixture into tomato cups and serve by themselves of on mixed greens.

Is It Okay To Skip Meals?

You should NOT skip meals!

There are so many adverse effects to skipping meals. Not only does it slow your metabolism but it can also lead to overeating, because when you do eat, you're overly hungry. 

As for cutting your calories below your recommended allowance, remember this golden rule: Never allow your daily calorie allowance to fall below 1,200 if you are a woman and 1,500 if you are a man. Falling below these daily allowances can do real damage to your metabolism and result in excessive loss of lean muscle tissue. 

When you dramatically reduce your calories on a consistent basis, it can slow your metabolism or trigger a plateau. Consistent exercise — plus the occasional high-calorie day — will help ward off a plateau.

Crazy Wicked Storm Last Night

Lightning TO from Jon Simonassi on Vimeo.

This amazing storm passed through our fair city last night. It was one for the history books!

How Much is Too Much Fiber?

How much fiber do you need? 

The national fiber recommendations are 30 to 38 grams a day for men and 25 grams a day for women between 18 and 50 years old, and 21 grams a day if a woman is 51 and older. Another general guideline is to get 14 grams of fiber for every 1,000 calories in your diet. Achieving these goals is beneficial to your overall health, and fiber helps you feel fuller longer.

For many people, it can be a challenge to get that much fiber in a typical diet. Most people top out at an average of 15 grams per day, regardless of how many calories they eat. But if you’re going overboard with a high-fiber diet plan, you could be putting yourself at risk for problems like stomach cramps, constipation, and even nutritional deficiency.

If you're concerned that you are not getting enough fiber, I reccomend incorporating a fiber supplement into your daily routine. 1-2 scoops of a fiber supplement like Metamucil is a great way to get the daily fiber you need! 

When taking this supplement you won't need to worry about how much fiber you're getting from other foods. If you choose a fiber therapy like this one, I would start at half the recommended dosage for the first few days until your digestive tract can adjust.

3 Reasons Why Change Is Good

1). Changes makes you flexible. Being stubborn and resistant to new things will make a normally stressing situation even more so. Change helps you be fluid and go with the flow.

2). Change makes you smarter. If things never changed, you’d never learn anything new. And every time you learn a new skill — even if it’s just how to adapt — you are that much smarter than you were yesterday.

3). Change reminds us that anything is possible. It’s easy to think that anything that’s stuck will always be that way (i.e., the career that won’t lift off the ground or the marriage that’s coasting on neutral). But when you see things change, whether it’s in your life or some one else’s, it’s encouragement to know that nothing stays the same forever.

What Are Trans Fats?

Trans fats are manufactured in a process called hydrogenation, in which liquid vegetable oils are transformed into solid fats. They are used in foods like crackers, cookies, and pastries to improve their flavor and texture and to extend their shelf life. Like saturated fats, trans fats can raise LDL ("bad") cholesterol, but trans fats have also been shown to lower levels of HDL ("good") cholesterol. Studies have also shown that trans fats can increase the risk for obesity, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and cancer. Not surprisingly, trans fats should be considered the worst fats of all and avoided.

Which is Better: Butter or Margarine?

The answer is: trans-fat-free margarine (often labeled as vegetable-oil spread these days). The reason lies in the different types of fats that are contained in butter and margarine. Butter, made from animal fats, is high in artery-clogging saturated fats. Margarine, on the other hand, is made with vegetable oil, so it contains mainly polyunsaturated fat. But don't be deceived! While margarine contains less saturated fat than butter, the hard varieties (like stick margarine) are high in trans fats.

Exercise Classes

Signing up for an exercise class is a great way to add variety to your weekly cardio routine. And let's face it — misery loves company, right? Having companions with you to sweat through all that cardio can be a great motivator.

Just be sure that if it's a cardiovascular class, it involves a minimum of 45 minutes of activity and keeps your heart rate up. 

For maximum calorie burn, I recommend working out at 85 percent of your maximum heart rate, or MHR. (To calculate your MHR, subtract your age from 220. Multiply that number by .85 to get your target heart rate.)

Go to your local gym or fitness center and see whether you can get in on one of these bad boys: 

Spinning: Climb on the bike and pedal to motivational music and instruction. Spinning doesn't require a whole lot of coordination, and you can go at your own pace; in any case, it's a real calorie burner.

Step: Start stepping up and down to the beat of your step aerobics instructor. The stepping motion offers a boost to cardio by adding another level of intensity.

 

Boot camp: This high-intensity workout will kick your butt — in a good way. It's a combination of cardio and strength training, and it works the whole body.

Kickboxing: A personal favorite of mine, kickboxing aerobics classes incorporate punching and kicking motions and are great for toning muscles and releasing pent-up stress.

Don't Hold Your Breath

Don't hold your breath. It's extremely important to keep your breathing constant when performing any exercise - Strength or Cardiovascular.

When performing strength training exercises, exhale on the positive movement, and inhale on the negative movement.

Cardiovascular exercise; you should have a constant rhythm to your breathing, allowing a regular flow of oxygen to your lungs, thus to your muscles.

3 Healthy Lunch-On-the-Go Suggestions

When you’re trying to stick to a healthy eating plan, brown-bagging it to work can sometimes be a challenge. But with a little forethought, you can purchase and/or prepare diet-friendly foods that will travel well, taste great, and keep you on track at lunchtime. Try these tasty suggestions for on-the-go lunches:

1. Enjoy a healthy sandwich. Look for nutritious breads.100% whole-wheat or whole-grain sliced bread, whole-wheat pitas, and whole-grain tortillas are terrific options. Be sure to choose lean, reduced-sodium deli meats like turkey breast, chicken breast, roast beef, and ham. Make sure you select varieties without added sugars (for instance, avoid honey-baked ham) and serve deli meats with condiments like Dijon mustard or sugar-free salsa.
   
2. Prepare a salad. Make a hearty Cobb or chef salad for one or more using dark, leafy greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, avocado, reduced-fat cheese, turkey bacon, and/or lean deli meats. Divvy it up into separate containers for any family member on the go. Put the dressing in a separate small container to add just before eating.
3. Consider soup. Lentil, split pea, and black bean soups are nutrient-dense, fiber-rich, satisfying choices, as are cold soups made from cauliflower or broccoli. Gazpacho made with chopped fresh tomatoes and cucumber is also an excellent choice for a hot-weather lunch. The great thing about soup is that you can prepare a big pot on a Sunday and it will last you a few days into the week. Hot soups can be packed in a microwavable container; cold soups in a thermos.

7 Tips for Controlling Your Appetite

If you suffer from constant food cravings, there are some steps you can take to remedy the situation.

Don't skip meals. You should be eating three square meals a day, plus one snack, and spacing your meals throughout the day so that you don't go longer than four hours without eating. This will keep your blood sugar levels and hunger hormones stable.

Drink tons of water. When you feel as if you're starving, pour yourself a huge glass of water or grab a bottle of seltzer — it will help quell the urge to snack.

Sleep! Two hormones, leptin and ghrelin, regulate our appetite, and both are directly affected by how much sleep we get. These hormones work in a kind of "checks and balances" system to control feelings of hunger and fullness. Getting eight hours of shut-eye each night helps the hormones work properly, which in turn will help curb your appetite.

Examine your hunger. The next time you feel hungry between meals, consider the last time you ate. If it was less than three to four hours earlier, your stomach isn't growling, and you're not weak or tired, you're probably emotionally unsatisfied in some way rather than genuinely physically hungry.

Think about what, besides eating, soothes you. Steer yourself toward positive feelings of self-worth and you'll choose activities and behaviors that inherently contradict self-loathing and self-destructiveness.

Don't panic. You can and will lose weight. Even if you're eating a little more than the meal plan calorie allowance, you can still lose — it just might take a little longer. Exercise is also crucial. Working out harder and more often will help burn the extra calories you might take in if you have a bad day.

Do not beat yourself up! Sometimes we slip up, and that's okay — healthy living is not an all-or-nothing proposition. I'm here for you, and I know you can do this. Believe in yourself and try to incorporate my suggestions into your life, and let's see how you do