Overnight Power Oatmeal

Now that fall is here and the weather is starting to cool down a bit (though of course in the DC metro area we're being hit with another mini dose of summer temperatures), I just love a hot breakfast in the morning. One of my favorites is oatmeal because it's not only hearty and satisfying but also very healthy. 

Oatmeal is a nutritional star because of its high fiber content of both soluble and insoluble fiber.  The soluble fiber in oats is beta-glucan - a type of polysaccharide or long chain of glucose molecules that help to lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke.  Beta-glucan can also help to enhance the immune system by activating specific white blood cells or macrophages which help to gobble up infection.  Oatmeal also has a very low glycemic load so it has a modest effect on blood sugar; however, the type of oatmeal you choose makes all the difference. 

What do the different forms of oats mean?

• Oat groats are the least processed as they are whole oats without the husks.  This form is harder to find in grocery stores.
• Steel-cut oats are groats that have been cut lengthwise and then placed in cans or packages.  They have a chewy texture, and are often imported from Scotland or Ireland where they're frequently consumed.
• Rolled oats are oats that have been heated and pressed flat with steel rollers.  You'll see them on grocery store shelves labeled as old-fashioned, quick-cooking, or instant oatmeal. 

Steel-cut oats and the old-fashioned rolled oats are the best choices since they're the least processed, have higher fiber and protein, and a lower glycemic load or impact on spiking blood sugar.  Be cautious of the instant packs of oatmeal since these are the most processed and tend to be sweetened. 

While steel-cut oats are a great choice, the longer cooking time can seem daunting, especially on a hectic morning.  Instead of standing at the stove stirring oats for 20 minutes,  let your crock pot do the work while you sleep. 

Here's an easy recipe to cook your oats in the crock pot.  I just throw in my ingredients before I go to bed and voila  - a hot breakfast when I wake up in the morning. 

Steel-Cut Oatmeal for the Crock Pot
Serves 3-4

Ingredients

1 cup steel cut oats (Do Not substitute old-fashioned or quick-cooking oats)
4 ½ cups water

Optional

¼- ½ cup dried fruit (I like to use cranberries or raisins)

Serve with milk, cinnamon, sugar free maple syrup or other sweetener to taste.  I like to top mine with some fresh fruit and walnuts.

Directions

Place all ingredients into a 2 quart slow cooker.

Cover and cook on LOW for 6-8 hours.

It might form a “crust” around the outside. Just scrape it down with a spoon and stir.

The Magic of 100 Calories

Did you know that if you eat 100 fewer calories each day, you could lose 10 pounds in a year?  Did you also know that if you eat 100 calories less and burn another 100 calories through activity (to create a 200 calorie deficit), you could lose 20 pounds in a year?  It's really amazing how small, consistent changes in the foods we eat, portion sizes, and activity level can make a big difference when it comes to managing our weight.

Here is a list of easy ways to cut 100 calories from your eating.

Breakfast
• Replace your morning glass of regular juice with a glass of lite or reduced-sugar juice
• Switch out 1 ounce (oz) of cooked pork bacon for 1 oz of Canadian bacon
• Trade ¼ cup (C) regular pancake syrup for ¼ C lite pancake syrup
• Try replacing 2 fluid ounces (fl oz) of flavored coffee creamer with 2 fl oz of 2% milk
• Choose three medium-sized pancakes, instead of ordering an 8″ round waffle

Lunch
• Replace 1 C of a cream-based soup with 1 C of a broth-based soup
• Use diet bread to make your sandwich
• Skip the cheese on your burger, sandwich, or salad
• Choose carbonated fruit-flavored water, instead of regular soda
• Trade a 6-oz cup of yogurt with fruit on the bottom for a four-oz cup of lite yogurt blended with fruit

Dinner
• Make your tacos with 3 oz of grilled chicken breast, instead of 3 oz of 85% lean ground beef
• Choose one slice of thin-crust cheese pizza, instead of a slice of pepperoni pan pizza (one piece is measured as one eighth of a 14″ pizza)
• Replace either smoked pork or beef sausage with either smoked turkey or chicken sausage
• Replace 2 tablespoons (Tbsp) of salted stick butter with 2 Tbsp of a reduced-calorie margarine spread
• Choose ½ C of black beans, instead of refried beans, when preparing Mexican food

Snacks
• Choose a ½ C of sorbet, instead of premium ice cream
• Munch on five reduced-fat vanilla wafers, instead of one big chocolate-chip cookie
• Use ¼ C fat-free ranch dressing, instead of French onion dip, for your raw vegetables or pretzels
• Replace half of the oil in your favorite recipe with unsweetened applesauce
• Trade your regular buttered popcorn for Orville Redenbacher’s® SmartPop! Gourmet® microwave popcorn

Think you're already portion savvy?  Take this fun quiz to find out if you know what 100 calories actually looks like. 

Here is a list of easy ways to burn 100 calories.

15 Minute Activities - Aerobic dance, racquetball, jogging

20 Minute Activities - Gardening, washing the car, walking the dog, pushing a stroller

25 Minutes Activities - Bicycling

40 Minute Activities - Light household chores

Food Rut Busting Product Suggestion

In my previous post I discussed 5 tips to help you bust out of a food rut.   Sometimes you can be motivated to change what you eat just by trying a new product. In my own search to mix things up a bit this week, I studied the grocery store shelves to see what new products might inspire me to new culinary adventures.  Joila - enter the Seeds of Change line of Indian simmer sauces.  Their simmer sauces range from the mild coconut and ginger Korma and tomato-and-onion Tikka Masala, to the medium-hot bell pepper Jalfrezi, and the hot pepper Madras curry. All you need to do is saute your favorite protein and/or vegetables until done, add a little sauce, and then cover and simmer for about 10 minutes. 

I decided to try the medium-hot bell pepper Jalfrezi sauce.  This sauce has only 90 calories for 1/3 cup and does well at keeping the sodium low at 270 mg (or 11% of your daily needs).  It's also gluten and dairy-free, kosher, and vegetarian friendly. 

These sauces make your ordinary veggies taste totally different.  I chose to saute some broccoli, mushrooms, peas, and zucchini and then add some simmer sauce to it.  Experiment and cook up whatever veggies you like best.  Here's also a link to a Vegetable Jalfrezi recipe on the Seeds of Change website. 

I found this sauce at MOM's Organic Market in the DC Metro area but check the natural foods section of your local grocery store to see if they carry it.  Even if you can't find this particular brand, pick out a new sauce to try but just do a little label reading and aim for one that says 20% or less for the sodium.  Let's bust a food rut together! 

Are You Stuck in a Food Rut?

Habit is either the best of servants or the worst of masters.  - Nathaniel Emmons

Okay, I admit it.  I've been stuck in a bit of a food rut lately.  While I'm making healthy choices, eating the same old thing day in and day out does not make a balanced diet. 

Why is food variety so important?  Well besides making eating more interesting, varying your food choices within each food group is important for several reasons.  First, foods from the same group contain different nutrients.  For example, while strawberries are high in Vitamin C, cantaloupes are rich in Vitamin A.  You miss out on nutrients if you keep eating the same foods over and over again. 

Secondly, there is no guarantee that a food is entirely free of contaminants that could be harmful in excess.  This is especially evident as everyday it seems we're hearing about food recalls, such as the eggs contaminated with salmonella.  This is was also evident in my previous blog post where I wrote about the Consumer Report's testing that discovered ingesting three servings a day of certain protein powders resulted in getting high levels of toxic heavy metals.

Third, variety is the spice of life.  Sometimes just changing up how you prepare your usual food makes eating nutritious meals more exciting again.

Here are some tips on how to bust a food rut:

1.  Challenge yourself to try a new fruit and vegetable each week.

Always reaching for an apple or banana?  Try some fresh figs or cherries - both of which are now inseason.  Challenge yourself to purchase a fruit that you may have never tried before, such as an Asian pear, papaya, or star fruit.  Tired of the usual broccoli and asparagus?  Stir fry some baby bok choy in sesame oil or buy a bag of shredded broccoli cole slaw and add your own peanut dressing.  Challenge yourself to fill your shopping cart with produce that represents every color in the rainbow. 

2.  Watch a cooking show, buy a cooking magazine or go online and try a new recipe. 

I know when I get stuck in a rut, I love to buy a new cooking magazine to get some new ideas.  Those beautiful pictures inspire me to make a new dish.  I also love watching many cooking shows on TV (and so do my dogs.)

3.   Pick a different protein.

Tired of chicken again?  Try other lean cuts of meat such as pork loin, flank steak, or lean ground turkey.  Try some new games meats such as bison (buffalo), which has become very popular. I've also tried ostrich burgers which are leaner than chicken and pretty tasty.   Eaten so much canned tuna that you feel like you could swim in the sea?  Try canned salmon or crab meat instead.  Are you a vegetarian or vegan or not a fan of animal protein?  Beans and lentils are a good source of protein and high in fiber.  If you eat beans frequently, mix up the kind you buy.  Use black beans in chili, pinto beans in burritos, or garbanzo beans in a Greek salad - the possibilities are endless. 

4.  Spice it up.

Just changing the herbs or spices in a dish can make it taste completely different and also help to lower sodium as you use less salt.  Some of my favorite fresh herbs are thyme, basil, rosemary, and cilantro.  Use dried herbs and spices to make a dry rub for your meat.  We created one for beef that included equal amounts turmeric, ground orange peel, dried oregano, coriander, and a dash of salt and pepper.

5.  Buy some new equipment.

I just purchased a more powerful new blender and already feel inspired to try out some new vegetable smoothie recipes.  Investing in a set of quality knives will make chopping easier and more enjoyable.  Other helpful equipment includes a slow cooker, counter or stove top steamer basket, and food processor.  What can't I live without?  My hand blender.  Instead of having to pour hot soups into the blender to puree them, I just plug in my hand blender and blend away right in the pot I cooked in.  So much easier!

Check back on my blog this week for more easy tips, recipes, and product suggestions to help you bust out of your food rut. 

Food Lessons from the Movie Eat Pray Love

In the movie Eat Pray Love, (based on Elizabeth Gilbert's autobiographical book of the same name) Julia Roberts plays the title character who after a broken marriage goes on a year-long sabbatical to Italy, India, and Bali to find herself and reignite her passion and appetite for life.  During the first part of her travels in Italy, she rediscovers the pleasure of eating for nourishment and enjoyment, relishing plates of pasta and slices of pizza, calling it her "no carb left behind experience."  The power of that scene stems from the fact that she lets go of the guilt associated with eating so-called 'bad" foods and is fully present in the moment, focused soley on the joy of eating. 

The movie is so inviting to watch because the main character has the luxury of getting away from it all (in gorgeous locations) while learning how to slow down and tune in to life.  Okay, so maybe we all can't quit our jobs and go on a year-long sabbatical, but we can still take small steps everyday to take time to actually appreciate, taste, and savor our food. 

In today's hectic lifestyle, we're so busy with our family, our jobs, and our activities, that we often give very little thought to the food we eat.  We approach food mindlessly, and we eat it mindlessly.  We eat meal after meal, barely aware of what we're eating and how much we're consuming.  Years of unconscious decisions add up to the point where we gain weight and wonder why.  We didn't choose to gain weight, did we?  Other times we think too much and try to be so restrictive in what we eat that when we overindulge, our internal judgement police march in to harshly scold us for our missteps.
 
So what's the key to creating our own Eat Pray Love experience without having to travel the world?

Mindfulness. 

Mindfulness is is simply the moment-by-moment awareness of what's going on. 

When we learn to eat mindfully, we gain power over food bite by bite.

As I've mentioned in a previous post, simple is not the same as easy.  Being mindful on a consistent basis is very difficult for most people but with practice it can became as natural as breathing. 

Here are 3 steps to practice:

1.  Tune In Before Eating

Take a moment to become aware of the food you're about to eat before scarfing it down.  You can do this by pausing to appreciate the color of the food on your plate and paying attention to the smell of the food - anything that slows you down and brings you into the moment.

2.  Tune In During Eating

The 2nd step involves paying attention while we're actually eating the food.  You can practice this by chewing your food slowly, paying attention to each bite.  Aim to think about how the food tastes, including its texture, temperature, and mixture of flavors.  Now here's the challenge - don't start loading up your fork and putting more food in your mouth until you've completely chewed and swallowed what's already in there. 

3.  Tune In After Eating

Now that you've eaten, how do you feel?  Are you comfortably full or stuffed beyond the gills?  Is your body happy with the food choices you've made or are you ready to put your head down and go to sleep? 

Tuning in and paying attention before, during, and after eating lets you learn how to listen to your body without judgement and learn how to balance your eating and maintain a healthy body weight.  While it takes practice, we can all relearn how to slow down and take time to smell, taste, and enjoy our food.

Need help working on mindful eating?  Contact me for an appointment today.

Do You Count When it Comes to Nutrition?

It's been a busy summer as I've literally had company visiting for the past month.  Since the middle of July, I've had different friends and family members staying with us each week.  You know the saying, when one door closes, another one opens with more people coming to visit. 

While it's been fun to see everyone, each week brought different challenges when trying to figure out what to feed everyone.  With each person having different likes and dislikes, coming up with a meal plan that would work for all was like trying to herd cats - a lot of effort and not always completely successful. 

Since I'm fully aware that I'm a hard core health nut, I always try to be sensitive to the needs of my guests and what they enjoy eating.  One night when we were trying to decide what to have for dinner, one of my visitors jokingly said that my opinion didn't count since my preference for food wasn't exactly simpatico with the rest of the group.  While this comment didn't bother me at the time, I did reflect on it later and think "Hey, I do count!" This made me think about how many times in social situations we give in to peer pressure to eat things we don't really want to but because we want to be part of the group or don't want to appear to be the odd one out.  How many times have you ordered fast food instead of making healthier items because you think your family will complain?  How many times have you given in and ordered an unhealthy dish because you wanted to be part of the group? 

This reminds me of a story a friend of mine told me about how she went out to dinner with friends.  She finished her meal, was perfectly satisfied, and had no desire to order dessert.  One of her dining companions refused to take no for an answer, and proceeded to order dessert and insist she eat it.  She took a few bites to appease this food pusher but it left her with a sick feeling in her stomach - not even so much from the dessert but more from feeling forced to eat when she really didn't want it. 

So my question for you is this:  Do you count when it comes to nutrition? Or do you always put yourself at the bottom of the list?

You deserve to feel good and make healthy choices without feeling like you always have to please others.  If you don't count yourself as being important when it comes to nutrition, who will?

Best Sports Nutrition Supplements: Pros & Cons

Wondering what sports nutrition supplements you should choose when preparing for or running your next race?  Here are some great guidelines from an article from Active.com to help you find the optimal energy foods.

SPORTS DRINKS

Sports drinks are designed to maximize fluid absorption and enhance performance by delivering readily absorbable carbohydrate and electrolytes, the most crucial being sodium. The better-formulated (and tasting) ones intended for use during exercise usually contain both simple carbs (sucrose, fructose and glucose) and complex carbs (glucose polymers, maltodextrin). Choose a sports drink instead of plain water when exercising or running 60 minutes or longer at a moderate intensity.

PROS: Multiple flavors and brands to choose from; readily usable liquid carbohydrates are absorbed more rapidly than solid food; sodium enhances the drive to drink and facilitates the absorption of carbohydrate.

CONS: Unnecessary added ingredients can contribute to digestion woes; you're hostage to the sports drink provided at aid stations unless you carry your own; unlikely to be enough to meet energy needs in marathons and ultras.

ENERGY GELS, CHEWS AND BLOCKS

These sports foods provide fast-acting, easy-to-digest carbohydrate--exactly what hard-working muscles and the brain require to perform while running fast or long.

PROS: Easy to chew and digest; many varieties also provide sodium and small amounts of caffeine, another performance booster during prolonged exercise.

CONS: Need to be taken with recommended amount of water (6 to 8 ounces); semi-solid chews and blocks may boost blood sugar levels more slowly than gels; toting enough with you requires wearing a carrier of some sort.

LIQUID FOOD SUPPLEMENTS

In addition to carbohydrate, these beverages provide varying amounts of protein, fat, vitamins, minerals, electrolytes and other lesser-proven ingredients, such as herbs and metabolites.

These nutrient-dense "liquid energy bars" provide considerably more fuel or energy per ounce than traditional sports drinks.

PROS: Convenient mode for consuming a concentrated dose of energy (calories) and carbohydrate; star as prerace meals or post-recovery drinks due to low fiber and higher energy content; typically a well-tolerated option for ultra-endurance athletes.

CONS: Can lead to digestive problems and dehydration when consumed during moderate-to-high intensity exercise; energy-dense beverage can contribute to unwanted weight gain if routinely consumed in place of meals or snacks.

ENERGY BARS

With practice an energy bar can be easy to carry, chew and digest while running. Unless you'll be on the move longer than four hours, however, choose varieties that obtain most if not all of their calories from carbohydrate (70 percent or more). It's only during longer hauls that the body has time to actually digest and assimilate the fuel from other sources.

PROS: Wide variety of flavors and textures to choose from; travel well; welcome alternative to sweet-tasting drinks, gels, chews and blocks; another option for meeting higher energy requirements of long-distance runs.

CONS: More difficult to chew and digest than liquids, especially when you're fatigued; must take with ample fluid for proper digestion; solids can take much longer to boost blood sugar levels than liquids.

REAL FOOD

Ultra runners can be seen refueling with everything from sports drinks and energy gels to sandwiches, fried chicken and pizza. Ditto for walkers and back-of-the pack marathon runners who often rely on real food for fuel, such as candy, dried fruit or pretzels. The longer duration and slower pace (lower intensity) allows these athletes to profit from consuming real food despite the extra time required to convert energy into fuel the body can use.

PROS: Helps fight "flavor fatigue" common when consuming only sweet-tasting sports foods; allows athletes to meet the high energy demands of prolonged ultra running; can be mentally uplifting or rewarding.

CONS: Protein, fiber and fat in real foods can slow absorption and digestion time and increase potential gastrointestinal problems; more complicated logistics of carrying and consuming while on the move.