For most of us on Thanksgiving, we did NOT prepare the food. How can we eat right when the food is so wrong? The scavenger hunt of the healthy food at the buffet table!
Most veggies on Thanksgiving are prepared in a lot of fat, ton of sodium and don’t get me started on the grease. We can’t control what is in front of our face. However, we can control the amount of food that enters our body. It is all about portion control.
Remember, it is still NOvember. Its okay to say YES to some things but even it out with a NO! If you had a slice of pie on first serving then skip it on the second.
Wait in between rounds. (Trust me your stomach will appreciate it). Walk around and enjoy company. When you have a conversation, you forget to stuff your face. It is scientifically proven by Dr. Reynolds.
I made a video from our Thanksgiving banquet. I went around the potlucks and decided if it is a YAY or NAY to eat. Then, I show you guys what the perfect thanksgiving plate should look like.
Kale Chips
Have you ever sat on the couch and had cravings for potato chips? This recipe will be the solution to end your cravings. Kale chips are the healthy equivalent to potato chips that will trick your body into thinking your devouring a bag of LAYS when you are in fact eating healthy.
Prep Time: 5 mins
Cook Time: 10 mins
Skill Level: Easy
Ingredients: KALE, salt, vegetable spray
Step 1: Buy Kale
(they are priced around 1.30 for a bundle)
a stem of Kale looks like this
Step 2: Peel off leaf from the stem into bite size pieces.
Step 3: Rinse the Kale to get the germs off.
Step 4: Dry the Kale with a salad spinner or paper towels
This spinner cost nearly 10 bucks at Wal*mart
Step 5: place Kale on a baking tray. Spray Vegetable oil and lightly salt.
Step 6: Bake for 10 mins at 350F.
Step 7. ENJOY!
Advice From Angela on Plateauing
The beauty in having a blog is the relationship I can make with my readers. Angela read my last blog on how I think my body is plateuaing. She wrote me an email, or a few, gave me some great advice. It would be silly to not share these with everyone.
1. Change Up Your Diet: If you are counting your calories / fat, then its time to change it up a little; count carbs. Eating between 50 - 100 grams of carbs a day is ideal. Angela suggested reading ‘Protein Power’ or ‘Dr. Atkins Diet Revolution’
2. Add more Chromium Picolinate: Angela writes that chromium picolinate help metabolize carbs.
3. Dash of Cinnamon: A little bit of cinnamon helps keep blood sugar spikes low. You can sprinkle it on practically anything in the morning.
4. Eat Frequent: With all of our busy schedules, we try to fit in 3 meals a day; if that. We should eat snacks between every meal and never let 3-4 hours pass without putting something in our stomach.
If you have any tips, suggestions, or questions. Please email me at LReynolds@wdbj7.com. You might see them on my blog one day.
We can accomplish anything together :)
~LaRell
250 lbs Check In
On the first, I weigh at 250 lbs. This means I have lost over 130 pounds in 8 months. If there was a graph on my weight loss you will notice that I am plateauing. Most people are worried and/or annoyed when the plateau. They think they are doing the work but not seeing the results.As of right now, I don’t feel this way. I kind of like that I’m plateauing. Its like my body, skin, is getting a break to recuperate for a while. I am definitely looking on the bright side of this.
Many many changes have happened in the past few days. I decided that it was time to clean my room. This meant I had to comb through my clothes to either put it in A. my dresser or B. Goodwill stack. Next week, I will be Goodwill’s best friend. I have a ton of jeans, pants, and suits to give away.
I am not much of a shopper for new clothes. When I wear something, I wear it for a LOOOONG time. If it has holes then it becomes a house shirt. So it is getting weird that I am letting go of some clothes. I am keeping my 3XL shirts for one more round of wear then I will sadly give them to charity.
My whole closet is becoming unwearable, I desperately need to buy new clothes. I just don’t want to invest my money on something so temporary. Last week I went home to visit momsicles and popsicles. Mommy bought me some new threads. My waist is at 37, therefore, I bought 36w shorts and dress pants. Apparently, I can wear an XL shirt now. This news is crazy because I can shop at almost any store now. I might have to dethrone myself of internet shopping because I can be normal and shop in person.
There is a lot that is hard to process. I just try to smile and hold on tight to this crazy ride I call life.
~LaRell
White Ain’t Right
Now before we jump to conclusions, I am talking about eating white products such as white bread, white f
lour, and white rice.
White flour is bad because it is stripped of its nutrients, bleached to take out the natural yellowish tint and contains high levels of gluten.
A better alternative is whole wheat flour. This flour contains all its nutrients and it
takes longer for the body to absorb. This is a good thing, unlike white flour, that absorbs fast causing a raise in your blood sugar level. White flour and sugar are very similar. Unless you are working out after you consume white flour, then your body will store it as fat.
Whole wheat flour takes a longer time to absorb and break down in your body. This will cause you to feel full sooner than eating white flour.
Caution: make sure you read labels carefully because manufactures trick us into buying their products by advertising it as “healthy.” Avoid foods that are labelled ‘enriched wheat flour’ or just ‘wheat flour’ because what all the manufactures do is put a little percentage of whole wheat and magically it is somewhat “healthier” for you. Trust me, it is the same white flour hidden in a dash of whole wheat. I found this site to be very helpful.
White rice may not be the best side dish. Harvard researchers have found that eating more than 5 servings of white rice a week can increase one’s chance of type II diabetes. On the flip side, eating 2 servings of brown rice a week can decrease the chance of the disease.
A better alternative to above is the seed, Quinoa. A lady from church introduced this seed to me a couple m
onths ago. There are many health benefits to eating Quinoa: its high in protein, low in cholesterol, gluten-free and, rich in calcium. Finally it is a smart complex carb so it wont spike your blood sugar.
Going back to the title of this blog. When something you are consuming is white, it may not be healthy for you. The best solution is to stop using white flour and go whole wheat. Your pancakes will still be fine and your biscuits will taste just as good. Small lifestyle changes can impact your life, but more importantly your health, in beneficial ways that is too numerous to count.
Keep on fighting the good fight folks,
~LaRell
Nutrition Labels are Tricksters
Here is your guide to read labels and conquer failing diets.
SERVING SIZE
The first things to look at on the Nutrition label is the serving size. The serving size dictates how much calories you are putting into your system. What most people don’t realize, they eat double or triple servings of the mandated “serving size” without realizing it.
Comparing snacks or cereals can be tricky because the serving size is different and so is the calories. This means people have to do math in the aisles and it can get frustrating.
For instance you might see:
Cereal A: 3/4 cups - 100 calories
Cereal B: 1 cup - 120 calories
But which one is better?
its basically like this in math 3/4 =100 4/4 = 120, Find out how many calories are in 1 cup in cereal A using math. If 3/4 cups is 100 calories than 1/3 is 33 calories then 4/4 cups is 133 calories.
It gets confusing! What can really help to visualize the serving size is to look at the amount of servings in container. If there are 8 servings in the container then you can visual divide the contents to see how much food vs calories you are getting. Its true gamesmanship.
CALORIES
Its said that 3,500 calories make up ONE pound of fat. To lose weight, we need to lower our intake. Try using this calorie calculator. Enter your data and it calculates how many calories you need to lose weight or maintain your weight.
CARBS
The next thing I look for is the grams of carbs. Depending on the type of diet you are doing, looking at carbs is just as important as your caloric intake. Too much carbs can lead to your body to not break it down which turns into sugars and causes fat. Unless, your an athlete who needs physical endurance, carbohydrate intake should be at a moderate low.
SODIUM
Avoid consuming products with high sodium levels. Sodium is a major factor for high blood pressure. Also, sodium retains water. Therefore, if you need to lose a few pounds quick, sodium-free diets are the way to go. Now, I will never promote get-lean fast diets.
% DAILY VALUE
This part of the label is actually helpful. On labels, you will see a percentage of each nutrient that makes up your FDA approved daily food intake. Following the correct serving size, anyone can tell the percentage of each nutrient they are putting in their body for that meal. This percentage factors in all meals of the day so don’t think it dictates one meal, but one day.
Using all this information. You are now able to to march down the aisles and pay attention to what you are buying and consuming. Remember, that it takes math to understand these labels so a calculator would not hurt.
260lbs - Check In
Okay, I lied. I definitely wrote that the next blog post will be on nutritional labels. However, I forgot my twice-monthly check up was coming up soon.
I currently weigh around 260 pounds. This is a 5 pounds lost in 2 weeks. This is great news because my weight loss is slowing down, a little bit, to help my body recover from its shock.
This past week has been simply amazing. I finally fit in these pants I bought at Goodwill a couple months ago. Yes, I shop at Goodwill, when I have the patience. I find it a bit silly to keep shopping for smaller clothes when I can save at a thrift stores.
and to contradict completely the above statement, I went inside a real clothing store this past Thursday. I think it was Macy’s and I found great clothes, in my size, on sale. I went inside the store on a fluke, just to see what jean size I was actually at. Normally, I buy jeans online which you can never try on. Now, I wear a 38w which is pretty surreal because all my life I’ve lived in the 40s, upper 40s. It’s kind of funny that my closet is full of clothes that are too big for me. When I donate them all this year, I am hope for a big tax refund. Yes, I am that frugal. :)
The next post should (hopefully) be about reading nutritional labels.
~LaRell.
Basic Routine To Get Lean
So the most popular question I get asked is ‘How did I lose the weight?’ I wish I could tell people of an awesome trick or a secret ingredient that sheds pounds. I can say that getting into a routine has been beneficial.
Rough daily routine:
10:30 - wake up
11:00 - at gym to watch The View (40 mins elliptical)
12:00 (ish) - back home, drink a protein shake
12:15 - shower
12:45 - cook dinner and lunch
3:00 - at work
I workout the first thing in the morning. I know it may be hard for some people, but it has been advantageous to start my day burning calories and releasing endorphins. Also, I go to the gym to watch TV. Right now, I do not have cable and the gym is where I watch programs that I want to see. I love The View and when I’m on the elliptical time flies by. [LaTip: I notice when I go to the gym when my favorite show is on, I lose track of time and the workout seems less of a burden.]
Every day I workout on the elliptical for 40 minutes. I actually started out at 30 minutes and I increased it. My daily goal is to do 3 miles in 40 minutes.
Every other day I do strength exercises on my upper-body. I spend about 25 more minutes at the gym working on my arms, chest, and shoulders.
After the gym, I try to give myself some protein through Evolution protein shakes. I did not go on protein until 3 1/2 months in my “transformation”. I noticed how malnourished I was in protein intake and I started to use shakes to supplement it.
For lunch I make an omelet with onions, store brand sausage, and egg whites. It is high in protein, yet low in carbs and calories.
Typically For Dinner I make a casserole of the following ingredients: Cabbage, Carrots, Onions, Chicken, Broccoli, Mushrooms, Potatoes, and Corn. I typically don’t use every ingredient, but its usually made up from something from the list. I use spices for flavor.
I can make a huge list of snacks that are healthy that I have tried. I have an oral allergy syndrome in which I cant eat a lot of raw fruits and vegetables. It has something to do with pollen getting on the vegetation. Once cooked, my allergy reactions will be reduced. Because of this, I rarely eat fresh fruits. Below is a list of things I tried and love.
Small salads: Lettuce, Cold cuts
Celery + Hummus
Lettuce + Hummus
Kale Chips
Small servings of Cereal
Rice Cakes
Okay, so I think I listed the basics of my day-to-day routine. If you have any topic suggestions or any questions in general, please email me at LReynolds@wdbj7.com
My next blog will dive into how to read nutritional facts labels on products. Can not wait!
