Jes Reynolds…Your Fitness Coach

When I first started out in fitness, I often heard (but never believed) the phrase “you can’t out train a bad diet”.  In my opinion the people who said that were kindof full of themselves with their perfect eating habits and nutrition know-how…Wouldn’t you know it…all these years later…they were right (F!).  If you want results, you must do both, you must eat the right amounts of healthy foods and work out.

If you want results, you must focus on both nutrition and exercise (except for a rare few genetic freaks and high school kids who can usually eat whatever they want), implementing a productive routine over time so they become a regular and consistent part of your life.  Being patient and doing things over time is the only way to learn to manage your own psychology as it relates to health habits, to address various circumstances that often lead to over eating, and to find the best way to fit exercise into your lifestyle and improve your health.  I’ve included 5 recipes, one for every meal & snack that fit within the standard nutritional guidelines.  Take a whirl at including these in your nutritional strategy and see what happens!

Breakfast

Breakfast Bacon & Egg Scramble, with “Sweet” Fries

• 3 egg whites, 1 whole egg (4 total eggs whites)
• 2 slices turkey bacon
• 1 small sweet potatoes
• 1 whole roma tomato
• 1/4 tsp. dill

Microwave sweet potato about 1 minute (until soft).  Allow to cool.  Slice sweet potato into 1/8 inch “fries”, toss with 1/2 tbl. Olive oil & salt to taste.  Bake potatoes at 375 for 15 minutes or until cooked through. Microwave or broil turkey bacon and allow to cool on paper towel to drain fat.   Wisk egg together w/salt & pepper to taste, chop & add tomato.  Cook  in skillet sprayed with spray olive oil.  Chop bacon and add to scrambled eggs as cooking.

Snack

Super Smoothie

• ½ apple
• 2 Tbl. Flax meal or 1/2 Tbl. Flax oil
• ½ c. blueberries (frozen)
• 1 c. Almond Milk
• ½ – 1 RAW protein powder
• 5 Ice cubest

Mix all ingredients together in blender. Add water for smoothness (if needed). Enjoy!!!

Lunch

Lunch Broccoli Salad w/Tuna

• 1 ½ c. Broccoli slaw
• ½ can Tuna
• 1/2 Tbl plain yogurt mixed w 1/2 Tbl. Canola Mayo
• Salt and Pepper

Mix tuna with mayo, then add to broccoli slaw. It’s good. Or, if you hate it, experiment by replacing yogurt with mustard.  Serves 1

Dinner

Caribbean Chicken

• 2 chopped chicken breasts
• 1 chopped green bell pepper
• 1 chopped red bell pepper
• ½ cup corn
• ½ c. sliced olives
• 1 sliced avocado
• 1 medium tomato diced

Sauce:

• 2 tbl. Honey 2 tbl.
• Olive Oil
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp chili powder
• Juice from two ripe limes

Cook and dice chicken.  Then cook and dice veggies.  Place in bowl.  Shake  all ingredients for sauce together in small container (you may have to heat up  the honey a little) Drizzle sauce over veggies and chicken and mix thoroughly.   Adjust sauce to your taste preference (limey to honey).  Serves 2-3

There are certain things that we all love to eat.  A few of my favorites are chocolate and red wine.  I’ve found a few things that satisfy cravings while keeping you within our meal plan.  If I know I’ll be having a glass of wine with dinner, I might decide to skip the potato or the bread.  If I know I’ll be enjoying chocolate covered fruit, I  might not eat as much during the previous meal.

Dessert

Dark chocolate covered strawberries

• 12 strawberries – washed
• 1/2 c. dark chocolate chips

Melt chocolate in microwave 30 sec. – 1 min. Stir around until smooth.  Dip strawberries in melted chocolate and set on plate or wax paper.  Allow to cool or refrigerate 4-6 strawberries = 1 serving

When I train clients, I often have them do a food log or an online nutritional tracking system that helps me monitor what they eat.  As the days go by, I am able to give practical advice on how to deal with different situations such as family parties, work pot lucks, or working the midnight shift.  Clients get tips and ideas on how they can apply the nutritional guidelines to their own lifestyle.  If you are interested in nutritional counseling, send an email to jes@jesreynolds.com and we can get started today!

“Maybe I’ll go to Panera today for a healthy, balanced lunch.”  Seems like a reasonable idea, right?

Many people with the best of intentions unknowingly sabotage themselves because of presumptions like this.  The fact that Panera seems to use healthy ingredients, offer apples as a substitute for chips, and have the option of adding chicken to any salad is a great reason to believe that eating most things on the menu is reasonable and within healthy dietary guidelines.

Today, I decided to take a look at the real facts about Panera and see how, if the right things aren’t ordered, a trip to Panera can go bad (for your weight).  If you’re following nutrition instructions from me, you stick to “the plan” 95% of the time….order a salad with dressing on the side, add chicken, substitute chips for an apple (save the apple for later), and you’re out of there without too much damage.

But that’s if you stick to the plan…

Most of the people I talk to about nutrition often go into the restaurant with one idea in mind and leave with an entirely different set of decisions having been made.  So let’s review exactly how a trip to Panera could go bad.  Below is a little snapshot of some of the popular, non-salad items that might be ordered if the conditions were right.  If you would like to see the full pdf (including salads, bagels and pastries), click on the picture.

As you can see, most of the full sandwiches are way too many calories for one sitting, especially when combined with chips and a drink other than water… even the healthy apple becomes too much food at one time!

Full sandwiches range from 420 – 720 cals, salads up to 790 cals!  Take a look at the full document and you can see that even other seemingly “healthy choices” are unexpectedly dense in calories.  As I’ve mentioned in many posts before, managing portion control and reducing consumption of foods dense in calories are important methods for long term weight control.

So how can a healthy trip to Panera go bad????

Let’s say you’re daily caloric goal is 1800, and you are doing great all day, you have 350 calories left in your plan and you decide…”I’ll go to Panera and get a salad”, unknowingly ordering the 790 calorie salad and a decafe latte (150 cals) for a total of 940 calories in one meal. Even though the portion didn’t seem overly huge, combined with other foods from the day and lack of information about the 900+ calorie meal, you are now over your limit on what you thought was a good day.

On and on it goes and you don’t lose weight!

To succeed long term, you need to be aware of not only portion sizes, and how many calories are in certain “health foods” before you order.  A quick review of the sheet will help you order something that fits within your daily caloric needs, and you don’t need to have a healthy trip to Panera “Gone Bad”.

Good Luck!

No matter how hard or how long you work out, if you want to lose weight you have got to get the calories right.  We all know too many calories means weight gain… but did you know the wrong type of calories and even too few can also make you fatter?  Use these 5 tips as a guideline to finding the caloric range that works for you.

1) Calculate RMR
RMR stands for resting metabolic rate and it’s the number of calories your body needs to perform basic functions.  Combine your RMR with your daily activity level and that’s the number of calories you need to maintain your current weight.  Knowing your RMR +daily activity total will help you stop eating once you’ve hit your calories for the day because you will KNOW FOR SURE that you are getting fat if you eat that next piece of cake!

2) Don’t slash calories~ gradual, consistent deficits get results
Once you know your RMR + daily expenditure, you can create a caloric deficit to lose weight.  If you are creating a deficit…BEWARE, too large a deficit can cause your metabolic rate to go way down and will prevent you from losing weight.  I recommend a 350 -500 calorie deficit each day.  Allow the weight to come off over time instead of trying to create dramatic changes all at once.

3) Learn nutrient breakdowns
Learning the different food categories (protein, carbohydrate, fat) will help you create healthy, balanced meals.  Balanced meals promote healthy digestion, more even blood sugar levels, and ensures you are getting the proper foods for your needs.  Knowing your nutrient breakdowns keeps you from eating too many bad fats and too much sugar (the dreaded enemy of weight loss!).

4) Eat 5 times a day
Eating regular meals and snacks throughout the day helps keep your blood sugar levels stable, gives you energy throughout the day, and stimulates your metabolism.  It also prevents you from eating a huge meal (that will be stored as fat!) because your starving from trying not to eat (impossible for healthy adults).

5) Track your food
Conveniently forgetting about that huge Chipotle burrito you ate with a side of chips last night… you’re right that would never make you gain weight… NOT!!!!!  Use one of the many calorie tracking apps to see your eating patterns on paper.  This opens the door for you to analyze where you are falling short and see what the real problem is.  You can develop new strategies for success once you know the truth about your eating habits.  I recommend MY FITNESS PAL to my clients.

Need more help with nutrition planning?  Send me an email at jes@jesreynolds.com and maybe we can set up a month of nutritional coaching!

References:
1.  Web MD Link:  http://www.webmd.com/diet/calc-bmi-plus

2.  Use Your Brain to Change Your Age: Dr. Amen

3.  CalorieCount.About.com: http://caloriecount.about.com/forums/weight-loss/bmr-vs-rmr