It is that time of year again – Girl Scout Cookie Time! Who doesn’t love Girl Scout Cookies? I think everyone has his or her own favorite. And, the Girl Scouts are just so cute in their uniforms selling the cookies. However, those cookies can be hard to keep around without eating them all at one time – at least for me.

I want to encourage my local Girl Scouts and support their troops. But, I don’t want their luscious cookies in my house. Girl Scout Cookies are one of my “danger foods” that I have a hard, if not impossible time, having in moderation. John, my husband, came up with a great solution. Rather than buying the cookies, make a donation in the amount that you’d buy to the troop. This actually works out as a HUGE win-win for everyone. The Girl Scout Troops only get between 10 and 20% of the purchase price of each box. This means they get between $0.40 and $0.80 per box. I’d rather hand them $10 or $20 as a donation to their troop and have them keep the entire amount rather than them getting a couple of dollars off a few boxes of cookies.

Next time you get approached by someone saying “Would you like to buy some cookies?” you can say, “Sure! But, I’d rather give you a donation instead.” Or, buy a box or two and give the rest in a donation. This helps you keep the cookies under control and help the Girl Scout troops in their mission to help girls.

Last week, I had the pleasure and thrill of attending an event where Joan Benoit Samuelson was speaking. Joan is a prolific runner who won the first women’s Olympic marathon in Los Angeles in 1985. She also won the Boston marathon twice – once in 1979 (before she graduated college) and again in 1986. She has set many records in her career. Getting to hear her speak and meet here was a highlight for me.

During Joan’s talk, she told a story about how, after having her first child, Nike wanted to shoot photos for a future ad campaign. The tagline of the ad was “There is no finish line.” This tagline struck a cord with me. It is so true! There is no real finish line in life. OK, I guess there is one true finish line – when we leave this earth and pass on to whatever is after.

The idea that there is no finish line changed how I look at a lot of things, and made some things make sense for me. We tend to focus on getting to a certain point – crossing the finish line of a race, our wedding day, the birth of a child, finishing school, reaching a goal weight. All of those things are finish lines, but life continues on after. There are more finish lines to come.

With the start of the new year, I’d like to encourage you to focus on your finish lines, or goals, for the year. But, while you are planning on successfully crossing each one, also think about what is next. Where will your next finish line be? And the one after that? And the one after that?

Around the holidays, we all need easy food to have in the house. With people visiting, an abundance of activities, the last thing we need is to worry about cooking. One of my favorite things to do during the holidays is have a breakfast ready to go that all I have to do is put it in the oven to cook when I get up in the morning. Ellie Krieger has a great recipe that fits this bill – Blueberry Almond French Toast Bake. It takes about 10 to 15 minutes to put together before you go to bed. When you get up, pre-heat the oven and put the pan in the oven for about 50 minutes and you have breakfast. It is a great way to have breakfast in the works while opening presents, or just relaxing.

I hope you and yours have a great holiday season. Enjoy this time, relax, take a few deep breaths, and focus on living in each moment.

On November 28, this Dilbert comic came out:

This comic addresses one of my pet peeves with the media when they report results from research studies. A lot of the studies reported in the media are studies where a large group of people are followed and they answer questionnaires and provide health information at various intervals. Then, researchers crunch the numbers and see what relationships appear. Often, these studies show correlations – or relationships – between things. For example, let’s say that a researchers have been following the population of Small Town, Texas for 20 years. Every 5 years, the residents fill out surveys and provide their health information. At each 5 year interval, researchers also collect information about the businesses in Small Town, Texas. The researchers put all of the data into their statistical software and out pops a correlation showing that as the number of doughnut stores in Small Town, Texas goes up, weight of the residents of the town has dropped so they are all normal weight – they are NOT overweight or obese. The local news station picks up the story and reports “Towns with more doughnut shops have thinner residents!”

Really? Do more doughnut shops cause residents to be normal weight? This is the danger with studies like this and drawing conclusions about causality (A causes B). From the initial analysis, it looks like we need to start building doughnut shops on every corner to get people to be normal weight. However, in studies that monitor people over time, statements about causality cannot and should not be made. This is because statistically, statements about causality should only be made when something is changed (for example, if the researchers built 10 doughnut shops every year, then they changed the number of doughnut shops then they might be able to make statements about the number of doughnut shops and the residents’ weight). The only thing researchers can say is that it looks like the number of doughnut shops and the weights of people in Small Town, Texas are related and in what way (positive – as one goes up so does the other; or negative – as one goes up the other goes down).

What does this have to do with the Dilbert comic? The comic shows that Dilbert’s boss (the one with pointy hair) thinks Dilbert (they guy with the curly red striped tie) is sending him emails about world’s worst bosses because he gets one each time the boss leaves Dilbert’s cubicle. However, the boss doesn’t know that Wally (the guy with the green tie)  is watching Dilbert’s cube and sending the emails to the boss when he leaves. Using the sample study talked about previously, the media reports that as the number of doughnut shops rise, weights fall in Small Town, Texas. However, what the study did not show is that Small Town, Texas is on I-10 at the border with another state where doughnuts are illegal. People are coming across the border to buy doughnuts and when people go visit friends and family in Doughnuts are Illegal State, they stop in Small Town, Texas and buy dozens of doughnuts to take to their doughnut deprived friends and family. This has spurred the growth of the doughnut industry in Small Town, Texas. The study didn’t take Small Town’s location into account which is the cause for the high number of doughnut shops and is not related in any way to the weights of the residents.

The moral of the story – be wary and question, question, question when the media reports the findings from the latest and greatest study.

This story is aimed at the ladies. Guys, you can feel free to tune in to the next post/newsletter.

I know I missed National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (October), but this is an issue that needs to be addressed. Ladies, you’ve got to protect the girls. By “girls” I mean your breasts. As athletes, our breasts can really take a pounding. Research has shown that when we run or workout, they move in all sorts of directions, move independently of each other, and move at all sorts of speeds. If we do not have an excellent sports bra, our exercising may result in early sag because the tissue and ligaments that support and give the breasts shape have been damaged.

Bra shopping is one of my least favorite activities. but, when it comes time for a new sports bra, I take shopping for one very seriously. When shopping for a sports bra, grab a few that meet the impact level you need (yoga=low, running=high)  and head to the dressing room. When you put the bra on, be sure all of the breast tissue is in the cups. This may involve bending over as you put the bra on then standing up, using your hands to move the tissue into the cups, and making other adjustments. If all of the tissue will not fit into the cup (no bulging on the outside or inside) you need to go to a larger cup size.

After all the breast tissue is settled into the cups, start jumping around. Jog in place. Yes, I’m serious (I see you laughing out there). You want to see how much your girls move. If it fits, but doesn’t stabilize the girls, the bra isn’t doing the job it needs to. In my book, I want a bra where the girls only move a tiny bit or not at all. If they move more than that, that is not the bra for me. I keep trying bras on until I find one I like. This process can take a while. Once I find a bra I like, I stick with it. My current favorite is the Maia from Moving Comfort. However, you need to find a bra that works for you and your level of activity.

With a good fitting bra, you and your girls will be happy and perky for many years!

One of the great things about interns is that they give me tips on new products I have not seen yet. Honestly, there are so many new products available at grocery stores, it is impossible to keep up with them. One of my interns told me about Emerald’s Cocoa Roast Almonds. They are roasted almonds that are dusted with cocoa powder. It is just enough cocoa powder to give a chocolate flavor that is a perfect blend with the almonds.

One ounce of the cocoa roasted almonds give you 150 calories, 13 grams of fat, 6 grams of carbohydrates, and 6 grams of protein. This is a lot of calories in a small space, so you do need to be careful with them. Just because they are nuts does not mean you can eat as much as you want.

I have found they make a nice, filling snack (because of the mix of protein, carbohydrates, and fat) particularly after dinner when I’m looking for a taste of chocolate.

Give them a try and let me know what you think!

Erica Melling, is an intern in the University of Houston internship who is working towards becoming a Registered Dietitian. She wrote this post while she was with me earlier this month. Great job Erica!

We live in a society of instant gratification. We don’t want to wait for the mailman; e-mail brings responses in seconds. We don’t want to drive to the movie store; we can stream the newest releases from OnDemand or Netflix. We don’t want to slave over the stove; we can stick a meal in the microwave for a fraction of the time. Just look at advertising: “quick weight loss”, “instant savings”, “SlimFast”, “60 second abs”. We evaluate products by which ones offer the biggest rewards in the least amount of time and minimal effort. So, it is no wonder that in the realm of nutrition, we expect nothing less—hence the popularity of dietary supplements.

Supplement. It’s in the name, and yet we still tend to think of them as magic pills that cure unhealthy eating habits. You cannot eat fast food three meals a day, take a pill, and call your diet nutritious. A healthy diet is so much more than meeting 100% of your Daily Value of vitamins and minerals, and that is what we have lost sight of. There is a growing body of research showing that taking dietary supplements is not improving our health. In fact, in some cases, it may be harming it. This month, the American Medical Association published a highly publicized study on postmenopausal women and dietary supplements. Stirring up much debate, it found that common vitamin and mineral supplements may be linked to an increased risk of mortality.

A few things to point out about the study:

• This study is on older, white women from Iowa. Therefore, the ability to generalize to the general population is limited.
• Results varied by supplement. Multivitamins, B6, folic acid, iron, magnesium, zinc and copper were associated with increased risk. Iron had the strongest association with increased mortality risk, while calcium was associated with decreased mortality risk.
• Nutrients have a U-shaped curve of safety and efficacy. Too little can cause deficiency and too much can cause toxicity. More is not necessarily better.
• Interestingly, supplement users exhibited characteristics we typically associate with lower mortality risks: more educated, leaner BMI, more active, non-smoker, and lower incidence of high blood pressure and diabetes.
• Authors concluded that there is insufficient evidence of any benefit to support a general recommendation that healthy adults take a supplement.

What does this mean? First, let me acknowledge that there can be countless factors that impact a study’s results. So, I am by no means suggesting that these results warrant a complete abandonment of supplement use. However, I believe that this study along with several others should cause us to think twice about how and why we use dietary supplements. Foods are so much more complicated than we realize. We don’t give nature enough credit when we break food down into a handful of vitamins and minerals to be taken in pill form and think that we are recreating the same benefits. More than anything else, I hope that studies like this one encourage individuals to be more mindful of what they are eating.

Ask yourself, do the dietary supplements you take really supplement healthy choices or replace them? If the answer is replace, work on incorporating real foods instead. For instance, rather than take a Vitamin E supplement, work on consuming healthy oils and incorporating almonds as snacks. Rather than meet 100% of your Daily Values with a pill, make a more conscious effort to have a balanced diet of real food. The jury may be out about whether supplements will cause you harm, but getting your nutrients from real food never will.

Last week, I talked about how the period from the beginning of October through New Year’s is a calorie and weight “Danger Zone.” This is also true for endurance and ultra-endurance athletes. Triathletes have finished their training and racing and are entering the off-season. They are ready to unwind and enjoy some time without the rigors of training. On the other hand, marathon and ultra-runners are starting to gear up. The fall marathon season starts in October and goes into the spring.

For those of us training for fall and spring marathons, it is really, really, really easy to use our training as a way to over-indulge in holiday foods. For those entering their off season, it is really, really easy for them to use the holiday foods as rewards for all of the hard training they have done over the past few months.

Endurance athletes have to watch the holiday season just like everyone else to avoid weight gain that negatively impact performance. Yes, maybe you did just run 18 or 20 miles. That doesn’t mean you can have a whole pumpkin pie! And, just because you did a Turkey Trot the morning of Thanksgiving, doesn’t mean you can eat like it is Thanksgiving day all weekend long. If you are in your off season, you do not want to gain extra weight over the holidays that you then have to work harder to get off the first couple of months of the year. If you are training, you don’t want to put on extra weight over the holidays you have to carry during your race or have to worry about losing before the race.

The trick I use is to only use the “I just did a (fill in the blank) workout. I get to eat (fill in the blank).” once a day on the day that is not race day. If you just ran a marathon, go ahead and celebrate that day, but follow the rule for the two following days. Starting on the third day, return to your normal eating. If you do a long workout, you can use the excuse once a day for a maximum of two of days. It is easy to eat as much or more calories than we burned off by telling ourselves it is OK to indulge because we worked out. And, yes, I deal with this, too.

As the Halloween candy starts to appear, remember to not use your workouts as an excuse to over-indulge. Yes, if you have a long or hard workout you can indulge some. You just can’t use it as an excuse to indulge all the time through the holidays.

This post was originally published in 2009. However, I think it is worth repeating. . . with a few minor changes.

October, November, and December are what I call The Danger Zone time of the year. Within these three months we encounter all sorts of eating challenges. October is the time of CANDY! Candy seems to appear just about everywhere – in offices, on desks, in kids’ backpacks. However, just because candy is around does NOT mean you have to eat it. A previous post had some tips for dealing with Halloween candy. I have two tactics to add this year. The first is to mentally label the Halloween as “not my food.” The candy is for other people, or the kids, or the trick-or-treaters. Every time you think of or see the candy, tell yourself “that’s not my food” and find something else to do. Second, if you do have more candy than you had planned, do not use that slip as an excuse to keep slipping the rest of the day (or week, or month). Recognize that you made a slip, but tell yourself, “that’s OK. I can make better choices the rest of the day that will help me stay on track.”

Once we’ve made it through Halloween, we are faced with Thanksgiving, then Holiday Parties, Christmas, Hannuka, Kawnza, New Years, etc. These holidays and parties are typically food-focused, family-focused and filled with stress. One way to make this year easier and less stressful is to start thinking now about how you will handle any food challenges that come your way.

For example, do you have a hard time (like me) staying away from buffets at parties? You can start thinking now and visualizing how you will deal with the buffets this year. Perhaps make a rule that first you will put fruits and vegetables on your plate then small bites of other items. Or, that you will only make one trip to the buffet. If alcohol is a challenge, make a rule that you will alternate each “beverage” with a glass of water. Do you over-eat at Thanksgiving dinner? Start visualizing how your plate will look this year – with half filled with fruits and vegetables, a quarter with protein, and a quarter with complex carbohydrates or starch (you can also review the Quarter Your Plate newsletter for more information on how to do this). And, don’t forget to visualize what your dessert plate will look like, too.

The last three months of the year do not have to be filled with scary food situation. You just need to plan ahead for how you will deal with them so you are prepared when they happen.

Have a healthy day!

A couple of weeks ago I was in San Diego for the American Dietetic Association (ADA) conference. Traveling, and conferences in particular, have always presented an eating challenge for me. However, this year I was determined to watch what I ate. Part of the problem at the ADA conference is the expo hall. Dietitians deal with food. This means the expo hall is FILLED WITH FOOD! And, in order to tell my clients about new products, I have to sample them. So, the ADA conference is not just an issue with eating while out of town, but managing sampling foods on the expo floor. I used a few strategies this year that I hope will help you manage your eating on the road, too.

Tip 1: Before you go, make a list of foods to have handy. If there are quick and easy meals or snacks you can put together without cooking, have a list of the items you need to make them with you. For example, I’ve started eating a few whole wheat crackers, a couple of wedges of Laughing Cow cheese, and some grapes for breakfast or dinner. Super easy and doesn’t require an oven. Add some peanut butter and you have a great snack of some peanut butter on the crackers. Also, plan for any food you need to support your training and working out. Do you need to pick up sports drink? What about your pre- and post-workout foods?

Tip 2: Find a grocery store. If you made a list before you left take it with you and get your hotel room stocked. If you don’t have a list, stop on the way in and make one so you can avoid impulse buys.

Tip 3: If you are going to drink alcoholic beverages, alternate them with water. This does two things. First, it slows down how fast you drink the alcoholic drinks (and the calories they contain). Second, it helps keep you hydrated since alcohol is dehydrating.

Tip 4: Use an appetizer as your entree. Most entrees in restaurants are 3+ servings. Rather than ordering an entree, order an appetizer to use as your entree. You can still order a salad (dressing on the side) or soup (broth-based) as your appetizer.

Tip 5: Order a  salad (dressing on the side) or soup (broth-based) as your appetizer then split an entree with someone else in your group. Most of us think that everyone at the table wants to indulge in a big meal, but in reality just about everyone at the table is probably conerned with managing their weight. One of your dining buddies may be very thankful for the opportunity to split and entree.

Tip 6: If you are eating alone and order an entree, get a to go box and put 1/2 to 2/3 of the entree in the to go box and set it off to the side. If you finish what is on your plate and wait a few minutes and are still hungry, you can retrieve some of the saved entree from the to go box. If not, you can leave the box behind. If you feel bad about leaving food behind, ask yourself if you’d rather have the extra weight on your body as a result of eating that food, or not. Personally, I’d rather leave the extra in the to go box than have it end up on my hips.

Tip 7: Often when traveling you may not know when food will be available. Either pack some snacks to take with you or pick some up at the store that you can keep in a briefcase, computer case, or purse. I like KIND bars, frut, and fig bars as options.

I hope these tips help you while you travel. If you have tips of your own, I’d love to hear them!

On another note – I’ll be moving the newsletter to MailChimp next week. The format will be a bit different. You shouldn’t have to do anything to move with me. If you have questions, please send me an email.