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!

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!

I was working with a new client the other day who brought in a food log he had been keeping. As we reviewed it, I becamed alarmed at his sodium intake. It was sky high – between 3,000 and 4,000 mg per day! The current recommendation is 1,500 mg per day (however, athletes typically need a bit more, but not necessarily that much more). When we started looking at where the sodium was coming from, we discovered it was from the meats. Not the lunchmeats, but from the regular chicken breast, turkey breast, etc. he was eating. What’s up with that?

The meat industry engages in a practice called “plumping.” Sounds not so bad right? Not so fast. Plumping is the practice of injecting saltwater, chicken broth, or other water + flavor concotions into meat. This helps make the meat harder to dry out when you cook it, but raises the sodium content. And . . . .you are paying meat prices for saltwater! Yes. . . you are paying $3 or $4 or more per pound for saltwater. Up to 15% of the chicken you purchase can be saltwater! You could be spending up to $1.50 per package for saltwater! Plumping can increase the sodium content of your chicken by up to 500%! Can you tell this makes me mad?

Meats that are “plumped” can still be labeled as “all natural” so you can not necessarily trust the larger print on the label. What do you do? You have to read the nutrition facts pannel, the ingredient list, and the fine print. For example, if chicken has more than 70 mg of sodium per 4 oz serving, it has been “plumped.” Chicken does have up to 4% retained water, so that is normal. If there is an ingredient label, look for “saline solution” or “sodium” or other flavorings. Somewhere on the label it should say, in tiny print, “up to 15% saltwater” if it has been plumped.

It is for each of us to decide if we want our meat “plumped” or un-plumped. I prefer mine un-plumped, thank you very much. I do not need or want the extra sodium. I like to add my own seasonings. And, I don’t understand why I need to pay meat prices for saltwater. What about you?

Does it seem like just when you get your good habits rolling and into a routine, something happens and the bottom falls out? Everything goes off track. This happened to me a couple of weeks ago when my father was unexpectedly admitted to the hospital. We went in for a normal doctor appointment that resulted in him being admitted to the hospital for a couple of weeks. He lives away from me. I had gone to the appointment with my purse and cell phone (hence the lack of blog post and newsletter for the past couple of weeks). I ended up staying with him for a week, came home for a weekend then back for another week. This experience taught me a lot and was significantly different from prior times I have been with him when he was in the hospital (for planned reasons).  What I learned (or learned to practice) is that even though a lot was outside of my control, there were still BIG things I coI still had a lot of control and could use it to help my father, my family, and me to get through the past couple of weeks.

The biggest thing I learned is to focus on the areas I can control. One of these is, not surprisingly, food. Whenever the bottom falls out food tends to be one of the first things that becomes hard to control. However, we still do have control – at least some – over our food choices. Since all I had with me was my purse and its contents, I had to go shopping for clothes, toiletires, and food. I found a Super Target and was able to cover a lot of the bases. One thing I picked up was nuts in individual serving size packages. Nuts can be a great snack between meals. And, the single serving size packages can help keep you from eating too much compared to eating nuts out of a bag or can. They don’t require refrigeration, and I could keep them in the hospital room. I discovered my dad also likes nuts, and we ended up sharing a few of the bags.

I also ended up at the grocery store and picked up some cherries. Cherries are one of my favorite foods, and really qualify as a comfort food for me. I discovered that, in addition to nuts, my dad also likes cherries. I ended up back at the grocery story every day or every other day buying more cherries. With the nuts, the cherries gave me a couple of great snacks to keep in the hospital room so I didn’t have to rely on the vending machines. The other food choices were what I ate for meals. At each meal, I learned to make the best choice possible. I found that if I didn’t fuel myself right with my meals, I was not alert enough to be a good advocate for my dad.

The second major thing I could control was sleep. I did get a hotel room each week. I don’t know why hotels have to use these huge pillows. After the first nigh, I woke up with a horrible pain in my neck and one shoulder. Back to Target I went to get a pillow and pillow case that would work for me. This allowed me to sleep better, and again be a better advocate for my dad. I also learned when to tell him I needed to go at night and when the doctors made rounds so I could be there in the morning.

Now that he is out of the hospital and I am back home, I’m focusing on the things I can control again. I’m getting caught up at work and on sleep, as well as getting back in touch with everyone (including my blog and newsletter readers).

When the bottom falls out for you remember to look for those things that you can control and that will help you get through until you can get your feet back on solid ground. Food and sleep are usually two of the things that can seem very hard to control in these kinds of situations. However, look for ways to make it easier. Find a grocery store and stock up on foods you feel good about eating and that help fuel you. Look for ways to get better sleep. And remember, you can handle anything that comes your way (you have so far). You just handle it until you can get back into your routine, or establish a new one, and get your feet back on solid ground.

I met with a client the other day who was trying to lose some weight, improve his blood pressure, and cholesterol. As we were talking and he was telling me about what he normally eats, there was one food that seemed to appear a lot in his diet – nuts. He was eating almonds, almond butter, peanut butter multiple times a day. When I started asking about his serving sizes of nuts and nut butters, it became apparent that these foods were making up a large part of his diet and could be the reason he could not lose weight.

Nuts are a great food. However, they have a lot of calories, and a lot of fat. What trips people up is that the kinds of fats contained in nuts. For example, 1 ounce of almonds has 161 calories, 14 grams of fat, and 6 grams of protein. Twelve of those grams of fat are mono- and polyunsaturated fats – the “good” fats. However, 1 ounce of almonds is a TINY amount of food. Depending on the brand and size of almonds, 1 oz is about 15 to 25 almonds. Fifteen to 25 almonds is not going to fill most of us up. Peanut butter is another great example. Two tablespoons of peanut butter has about 190 calories, 16 grams of fat, and 8 grams of protein.

As I was discussing food choices with this client, I calculated that he was eating about 800 to 1,000 calories, and sometimes more, a day from NUTS! Now, I believe nuts can be a great food to include in your eating plan . . . in moderation! We talked about reducing the amount of almond butter or peanut butter he was using on his morning toast. His concern was that if he used less he “wouldn’t be able to taste it!” He likes his nut butter. We talked about how he can reduce the amount he uses over time to get used to eating less over time. His wife had moved them away from white rice to brown rice and he now likes brown rice. We talked about how using less, and changing your expectations about how food will taste can work with nut butters, too.

What does this mean to you? If you include nuts or nut butters in your eating, take a minute to look at how many nuts you are eating and how much nut butters you are eating. Check your serving sizes to be sure you are not eating more than you want. (Hint: If you are using measuring spoons to measure nut butter give the spoon a quick spray with cooking spray to make it slide out easier.) And remember, even things that are “good” for you still count.

Perhaps you have seen the latest Coca-Cola ad campaign “Open Happiness.” The billboard that caught my eye had a kid drinking a Coca-Cola with a baseball bat over his shoulder. I thought, “That’s cute.” Then, “Really? A Coke is going to make me happy?” I can think of a lot of other things that will make me a lot happier (and not pack on the pounds).

Food and beverage companies make money when we buy and consume their products. The more we buy and consume, the more money they make. And, the larger we get.

It is important to be mindful of the advertising food and beverage companies use to get us to eat more. It is also important to be aware of how restaurants present food to get us to order more.

Brian Wansink writes about how restaurants get us to eat more in his book Mindless Eating. He makes the point that we also taste with our mind. If we think the food is going to taste good, that increases the chance that it will, and that we will eat more. One example he uses is from a restaurant that listed “spring-fresh medallions of well-mannered beef.” What is “well-mannered beef?” Actually, maybe I don’t want to know. . . .

Brian Wansink talks about  four basic themes for menu descriptions that trigger our expectations.

1. Geographic labels that remind us of where a food came from – Tex-Mex, Country Peach Tart, Kansas City Barbeque.
2. Nostalgic Labels that remind us of the past and trigger happy associations such as Grandma’s Cherry Pie, Legendary Chocolate Mousse Pie.
3. Sensory Labels that describe taste, smell, and mouthfeel such as Velvety Chocolate Mousse, Buttery Plum Pasta.
4. Brand labels that associate a brand we like with the restaurant’s food like Butterfinger Bilzzards and Jack Daniels Glazed Ribs.

This weekend and coming week I encourage you to be mindful of the food advertising you see. Really pay attention to it and how it may impact your purchasing and eating decisions. And, when you eat out, watch the descriptions.  How do the descriptions play in to what you order and how much you enjoy the food.

What are your favorite food ads and restaurant food descriptions?

It seems like everyone is looking for a single reason why obesity is so rampant in the world. Sugar is one thing that a lot of people point to for why so many people are overweight and obese. I do agree that sugar is a problem, but the real issue is the sugar added to foods, not the sugar naturally in foods.

Athletes need carbohydrates to fuel their activity. Everyone needs carbohydrates to fuel their activity. Sugar = carbohydrates. There are different ways sugar gets into our food. That is where the problem lies.

Some foods have natural sugar – like fruit. Some people will limit fruit in their diet because it is high in sugar. I disagree with that because fruit, particularly fresh fruit, also has fiber, water, and a lot of antioxidants.

Where the problem lies in with sugar that is added into foods. Manufacturers add sugar into, it seems, everything.  One example is peanut butter. If you have peanut butter in your house, read the label. Is sugar there? I don’t think we need sugar in our peanut butter. I prefer natural peanut butter. The ingredients are nuts, salt (maybe), and oil. Any sugar? Nope! That is one reason people have a hard time switching to natural peanut butter – it is not sweet.

The amount of sugar we consume has been steadily rising since the 1950′s along with the rise in consumption of prepared and processed foods. Food manufacturers make more money when we eat more. Therefore, they have a financial incentive to get us to eat more. One way they do that is by adding sugar to foods because sugar is one of those things that drives us to eat more.

For the next few days, pay attention to how much sugar and sweet foods you consume. Are they from unprocessed foods like fruits, or from processed foods? Read the food labels and ingredient lists to see if there is hidden sugar. A lot of times we do not register the taste, but it is there. And, the ingredient list may not say sugar, but may say one of the following:  high fructose corn syrup, sucrose, fructose, glucose, dextrose, galactose, lactose, maltose, corn syrup.

How much sugar are you consuming?

When I was working the Houston Marathon Expo, a runner asked a great question – “what is the difference between whole wheat bread and white bread that has been enriched?” He had looked at the nutrition labels for a whole wheat bread and an enriched bread. They had, basically, the same nutrition content. So, what’s the difference?

To answer this question, you have to look at a wheat kernel. A wheat kernel is composed of the outler layer – the bran, and two inner components – the endosperm and the germ. The endosperm makes up about 83% of the weight of the kernel while the germ is about 3% and the bran about 14%.

Source: Jkwchui, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wheat-kernel_nutrition.svg

When whole wheat bread is made, the entire wheat kernel is used. Why does this matter? Because the nutrients, antioxidents and fiber are contained in the germ and the bran. When wheat is processed for non-whole wheat uses, the germ and the bran are removed. Then, some nutrients are added back in – the food is “enriched” by the addition of these nutrients. The government requires the following be added back: Vitamin B1 (thiamin), Vitamin B2 (riboflavin), Vitamin B3 (niacin), folic acid, and iron. Fiber is not required to be added back. Although some of the nutrients are being added back, the manufacturer may not be adding back antioxidants and other vitamins and minerals. Another thing is that we don’t know all the antioxidents in foods yet - new ones are discovered all the time. So, although the food is “enriched” that does not mean that it has all the nutrients of a “whole wheat” product.

Which do you choose – whole wheat or “enriched”? I prefer whole wheat products for a couple of reasons. First, it is less processed. Second, you get all the natural nutrients contained in the food. 

A final note - You do have to be careful when shopping for grain products.If you want to be sure that you are getting whole wheat, read the ingredients label. It should say “whole wheat” or “whole” whatever the grain is. If it does not say “whole wheat” then you might be getting an enriched product that has coloring in it to make it look darker like whole wheat.

What do you think? Whole or enriched?

Michelle May who wrote Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat has a great weekly newsletter. She starts last week’s newsletter with the question “How many rice cakes does it take to satisfy a craving for chocolate?” The answer. . . .”Five rice cakes. 7 baby carrots. 4 celery sticks. One orange. A container of light yogurt. And a Snickers(R) bar.” This really made me laugh! How many times do we crave a “bad” food but cannot satisfy that craving until we have it? Chocolate is one of the worst for this. Nothing seems to satisfy a chocolate craving other than . . . chocolate.

Since today is Valentine’s day, I thought was perfect to talk about chocolate. Many people label chocolate as a “bad” food. Why is chocolate bad? Has it committed a crime? I can just hear the headlines. . . .”Today at 6PM. A chocolate bar went on a rampage and forced 20 people to take a bite of itself! At this point, the police are labeling these as assults, but we are still waiting to hear on final charges from the District Attorney. The bar was not easily subdued. One officer called it ‘a really bad bar.’”

Chocolate, and other foods, are not inherently “bad.” They are only bad if we over eat it. Using this definition, any food could be “bad.” Rather than labeling foods as good/bad, why not make a conscious choice to eat and enjoy foods. It is Valentine’s day – a day for love and chocolate. Why not choose a piece of chocolate that you really want and choose to eat it. But, don’t just eat it, enjoy it. Focus on how it looks, smells, feels in your mouth, and tastes – eat it mindfully. If you eat it mindfully, it will be much more satisfying than if you eat it mindlessly – like when you are reading, watching TV or working on your computer. If you’ve chosen to eat something, why not take the time to really enjoy it.

I hope you have a great day and choose to enjoy some special food today, this week, this month.