Tag Archives: sodium

Stop sabotaging your goals

Posted on July 11, 2012 | 3 Comments

I absolutely applaud anyone who decides that they are going to take control of their health and change their bad habits to meet their goals.

It doesn’t matter if you are trying to maintain your weight, lose weight or gain weight (yes there are people who do that on purpose), all your best efforts are for nothing if you sabotage yourself.

Here’s what I mean.

You have set you goal to lose twenty pounds.  You figure out that to do that you need to commit to an exercise program so that you can increase your calorie use. (Key to weight loss, burn more calories than you take in (remember that)).

You go to the gym, do some weights, run on a treadmill, spin on a bicycle, take a yoga class, go to boot camp, do more weights, meditate.  You get the picture.  You are committed to your new routine of calorie burn and feel great!

At the same time you EAT LIKE CRAP! You suddenly think, “Oh, I’m burning all these calories, I can afford to eat the same as I did.” True enough, if you are burning more calories than you are taking in, you will eventually lose weight.

It’s OK, I’m exercising!

But why slow down the process? Why prolong achieving your goals?

I can’t understand how people justify eating crap to themselves.  Wake up call…you didn’t get overweight because you ate healthy and exercised.  You got overweight because you made bad choices.

I’ve seen this cycle hundreds of times.  Your “commitment” to your exercise program falls off.  Skip a day here, cut short a work out there, dinner with friends, working late, weekend away and pretty soon you just stop.

But what didn’t stop was you eating.  You continued to eat garbage, fast food, processed foods. You know, the foods that are convenient to your busy life style.  The restaurant meals that are “super yummy”.  There’s a reason they are yummy…they are cooked in gobs of fat, brushed with butter, loaded with salt.  You don’t even get to taste the food.

So you really want or need to lose weight.  Here’s how.  Stop opening your mouth to fill it with crap or to whine about how fat you feel and open it for great food, nutritious meals and the calories you NEED to support your lifestyle, not to support your weight.

Don’t drive the wrong way to fitness

When you eat right, the exercise will be easier and more efficient.

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Super Bowl Belly Hangover

Posted on February 6, 2012 | 3 Comments

If you’re like a lot of people, you may have over-indulged last night while watching the Super Bowl.

This morning you might even have a food hangover. Part of the food hangover is the actual hangover of pudge. Your pants are tighter, you feel icky, you have LOTS of regret.  Thoughts like, “Why you ate that 4th piece of pizza?” might even come to mind.

If you are one of those scale jumpers, you know who you are, you might even be cursing yourself this morning!!  The ones that get on the scale a few times a day may be having a fit today trying to figure out where the extra weight came from this weekend.  You will notice that your weight is up after the weekend festivities if you decided to indulge, (over-indulge).  For those of you professional dieters, you are likely trying to do some kind of math to figure out how in the world you are up 3 -5 lbs in one day. Pizza x beer + nachos – water / chicken wings + chips (insert a lot of math lingo here) = WEIGHT GAIN!!

For those that have been at this weight loss game for a while you will know that a pound of fat is about 3500 calories and with your rough estimate there was no way that you scarfed down that many calories this weekend.  (Oh, for you points people, just hush….I will deal with you and your points in another blog post.)

Maybe you didn’t and I really hope you didn’t eat over 3500 calories yesterday. So, why the weight gain???

Drum roll please…………

SODIUM

All of that party food tends to be loaded with sodium.
Women have a terrible time with hormones and water weight.
Men will be feeling the super bowl belly this morning as well!

Don’t stress, I have your post super bowl binge recover plan.

How to overcome this….well, boot camp of course.  You need to move your body! Oh and don’t use excuses like super events to sacrifice sound nutrition in the first place!

I am not a fan of Madonna but I will give her props for looking great at 53yrs old and poppin’ and lockin’ like a 25 year old.  Who doesn’t want to be in fab shape at 53??  I can guarantee you that she doesn’t take her fitness lightly and she sure doesn’t eat like a lumberjack, “just because”.

Don’t just talk about how you want to be fit.  Become fit.  Show up and do what has to be done!

Here are some other steps to take to get back to your pre-super-bowl weight:

Action Step #1:  Water, water and more water.  That is your drink of choice. You need at least 3-4 litres to flush that sodium out.

Action Step #2:  Add 2-3 cups of dark leafy greens to your food intake today (spinach, kale, etc)

Action Step #3: Show up to boot camp and we will do the super bowl shuffle and sweat out the bloat!!

Action Step #4: Have a post boot camp recovery protein shake (add in some spinach).  Feed your muscles the nutrition they need.

Action Step #5: REPEAT tomorrow and the next day!!

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Fast Food and Fat Loss

Posted on November 11, 2011 | 11 Comments

I bet a lot of you decided to open this because of the title.

Oh yeah, I can hear you now, “Finally, Carrie has come to her senses and is going to say that it is ok to eat fast food.” Hahaha no way!

I want to give you yet another wake up call about the “food” or should I say “faux food”.

As many boot campers know, I always ask, “What did you eat today?” There are always a few that give me the look of shame and say, “Oh, today was not a good day.”

The ‘reason’ *cough* excuse is usually one of the following:

  • I was soooo busy, I had to grab something fast
  • I forgot to pack my lunch
  • We had nothing in the house so I had to eat out

Let me give a reality check about your beloved fast food and I’ll pick on the ever popular, here for a limited time only, back by popular demand, “The McRib is back.”  I use this because I haven’t seen it as available in Canada, not that I’m looking, but this shouldn’t give anyone the urge to go out and get one at their nearest Rotten Ronnies.

Ever wonder what the McRib is actually made of?  It’s claim is that it’s made of 100% pork and there is no doubt in that! 100% of the pig including the parts that you won’t find on the butcher’s shelf, or floor, or garbage.  Quality places won’t ‘stomach’ what goes into processed food and I don’t have the ‘heart’ to tell you.

Does it not worry you that it does not actually resemble pork ribs. The bone like look is pressed and sculpted “meat”.  Oh yeah, are you still lovin’ it???

The bun contains 34 additional hard-to-pronounce ingredients and chemicals, including ammonium sulfate and polysorbate 80. And don’t forget azodicarbonamide, a bleaching agent that dyes the flour, and is also used in the production of  mats and shoe soles. Yummy! It’s a bun…not a science project. Ever made home-made buns…5 ingredients, all of which you can pronounce!

Let’s now add to this concoction.  It has nearly 1000mg of sodium (about 3/4 of the daily recommended total), high fructose corn syrup, artificial colours and flavours. Why in the world does any food require artificial flavour?  Oh, never mind, I know…because if it wasn’t used you couldn’t stand the taste of it.

This mystery meat sandwich comes in at 500 calories, 26 grams of fat and 11 grams of sugar.

This is just to give you a glimpse what is in your fast food.  Think about your body or your children’s body trying to process all of these chemicals and crap.

Quick and easy is dangerous and reckless.  You have choices; choose wisely.  You would NEVER eat this stuff if you actually saw or realized how this “food” was made so stop it.

Its gross and you know it.  I don’t want to be a fear monger but you are filling your body and your kids with poison.  Re-read what’s in the bun.  Do you really want to eat what you can’t stomach, pronounce or make??  You wouldn’t feed that stuff to your dog, but you are willingly and blindly eating this stuff.

Ba-da-ba-ba ba–I’m not lovin’ it and neither should you!!!

Fast food and fat loss? FAT CHANCE

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Salt: A love / hate relationship

Posted on March 7, 2011 | Leave a comment

What’s not to love and what you should hate.

As most of us know, too much salt can be a major contributor to high blood pressure, which can lead to heart disease, stroke, or kidney disorders. But our bodies also need a certain amount of salt every day, because it’s required by all cells to maintain fluid balance, and it’s vital for proper nerve and muscle function. Because salt is excreted through urine and sweat, the most intense exerciser’s need even more of it to maintain a proper balance.

So how much salt should we be consuming? The amount of salt we need on a daily basis varies with each person, depending on age, size, activity level.

Generally, it’s agreed that our bodies need about 500 mg of sodium a day to function properly. Have you ever wondered how much that is? What does 500 mgs look like? That’s about a quarter of a teaspoon of table salt. Most people average about 5,000 mg of sodium per day. That is about 10 times as much as our bodies require and more than 2X the recommended maximum. So unless you’re working out (about the amount of an elite athlete) and excreting excess sodium, you may be getting way more than you need. That can lead to a list of health problems associated with high blood pressure.

Even if you don’t believe in, or care about the medical repercussions of excess salt consumption, how about this? It’s estimated that most of us are carrying around an extra five pounds of water weight, retained simply because of the excess salt in our bodies. Drop five pounds of water weight just by passing up the salt shaker? Sounds like a good deal to me!

I love watching people in restaurants pound the salt shaker over their food before they even taste their food.

 

NO SALT? Ahhh, real taste!

Almost all processed foods contain high levels of sodium. Levels in some cases so high, that you will get enough sodium to last several days. For example, Wendy’s Triple Baconator 2780mgs of Sodium!! But you know that a burger with three patties and bacon and cheese will be horrible. How about a nice healthy salad? TGI Friday’s Santa Fe Chopped Salad? 1800mgs!! Not too good either is it? OK so Cheerios…uber-healthy Cheerios…one cup of Cheerios contains 200 mg of salt, so you’re kicking off your day with 8 percent of your recommended sodium. Salt has been used as a preservative for centuries to cure meats and pickle vegetables, among other uses.

 

And while we’ve developed new preservatives over the years, salt has other advantages as a food additive. It can thicken soups and sauces aid in making breads, cookies, and crackers moister. It can enhance certain flavors (like sweet and sour) and mask other tastes, like the chemical additives in soft drinks. So even if you’re steering clear of salty treats like pretzels, pickles, and popcorn, if you check your labels carefully you may find you’re still getting a fair amount of sodium from food items that don’t even taste salty. Foods labeled “diet” or “light,” may also have pretty high sodium levels.

Companies add extra salt can make food taste better but because of labelling laws, still allow them to be advertised as low-calorie, low-fat products. Even if salt isn’t in the ingredient list it can be spread out throughout the ingredient list under different names. Make sure you check the overall sodium on the nutrition label to determine the total sodium content. And don’t forget to take the serving size into account.

Many food manufacturers will say that their product contains several tiny servings of salt instead of a couple of regular servings to minimize the less savory elements of the product’s nutritional profile.

Common hiding spots in some popular foods…

Processed Meats – 1 slice of processed meat starts at 300mg sodium – 2 slices of bacon is 400mg (plus the fat) Soups – Processed soups start in and around 900mg of sodium Canned vegetables – 1200mg. Yes you read that right. You need to rinse them Frozen foods – 2 slices of frozen pizza 1000mg .

If you are looking to lower your sodium or are salt sensitive the most important thing to do is check the labels of everything you eat and make sure you’re not getting more salt than you need.

 

Screw this up with salt?

One of the best things our family ever did to improve the taste of foods was to stop adding salt when cooking foods that called for it in a recipe. The real taste of food is incredible when you allow it to come through naturally!!

 

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Tuesday Turkey Recovery Tips

Posted on October 11, 2010 | 2 Comments

Well, it’s over…another Thanksgiving has come and gone.  Did you pause before eating with family and friends to mention things you are thankful for? We did in our house.  We do it every year.  It’s great listening to the kids come up with what they are thankful for.

I even made a point this year to make a point of using each day of the weekend to give thanks for something.  Today on Twitter it was simple, heart felt two-parter:

 

 

 

 

Really, that’s what it is for me, plain and simple, an honour to be trusted to take that journey with you…thank you, each and every one of you that has allowed me into your life to help you.

OK…enough of the touchy feely stuff…onto the reason I’m writing.

Turkey, potatoes, beans, squash, cranberries, bread, butter, gravy, stuffing…. sound familiar?  No, I wasn’t peaking in your windows; it’s what everyone has.

Feel a little bloated or heavy now?  Clothes a little more snug today?  Well, that’s to be expected hours after Thanksgiving.  Had you listened to me before the meal (remember the last post…Attitude for Gratitude) you probably don’t feel off at all right now.  For the rest of you…here is your recovery tips:

  1. Water.  Yes, time to flush your body out.  One of the biggest hidden gems n your meal that may or may not realize was hiding in obnoxious amounts was sodium.  Time to get it out of your body, along with all the other benefits that water will provide you.
  2. Get Moving.  The natural tendency is to sit down, get off your feet and rest from a probably very hectic weekend.  I don’t blame you one bit, but don’t!! Go outside, play with the kids, take the dog for a walk, rake the leaves.  The more you move, the more your body uses energy, the less stores that your body will want to hid away for later.
  3. Don’t Starve Yourself.  So many people think skipping the next meal is ok since you probably over ate at this one.  Don’t.  The last thing you want to do now is trigger starvation protection in your mind.  You want your body to get the energy used up, not stored up.
  4. Exercise. No, this isn’t the same as get moving.  This is the actual act of resistance training.  Making your muscles use the energy that you just consumed (sounds nicer than saying you just ate calories).

So, a pretty simple road to recovery.  4 steps that you should already be doing anyway.  But they are even more important right now.

What I want to know is did you do any of these steps after your meal on your own or did you take the prep steps I laid out in the last blog post?  Let me know how it worked for you.

I would also love to know what you did to help you stay on track if the evil foods that were laid out before you didn’t tempt you.

By the way…do you realize the eating season has begun? Are you ready for it? Next blog post…

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The good old days

Posted on August 2, 2010 | 1 Comment

Do you know why we eat?  How about what food really does for our bodies?  Well, the simplest reason behind our eating is to satisfy hunger.  Hunger comes from deep down inside of us.  Our ancestors would answer this hunger by going out and hunting their food, killing it and dragging it back to the cave to serve it up with some roots and berries from a nearby field.

Now when we get hungry, we walk to the fridge, grab whatever, cook it up (Microwave) and bon appetite!

Foods now are genetically engineered, modified and injected with mass amounts of chemicals to help it grow faster to get to our tables matured sooner.  With all of that processing three elements will almost always be present that make our mouths water.

Sugar, sodium and fats perfectly blended to make what is called, ‘mouth appeal’.  When companies get this combination right, we drive out of way to hit their drive thru windows, their extended lineups and over priced products.

In our grocery stores; low-fat, sugar-free and reduced sodium are all the buzzwords on every store shelf that you walk by right now. But have you ever asked yourself, “Lower than what, sugar-free? or sweetener free?, reduced from what to what?” We take for granted that we are being sold healthier and more fit conscious foods.  At the same time, society is getting bigger and bigger.

Two generations ago our grand parents made just about everything from scratch.  Sugar, fats and salts made everything taste better.  People then, were healthier than they are now. (Less heart disease, cancer, diabetes, joint replacements, arthritis, etc.) We just have better medicines and drugs to keep our failures at bay.  People ate to supply their bodies with energy.  Just like the cave man did.

We used to eat unhealthy (by today’s standards) but we also used to walk everywhere.  We made things without conveniences.  Can you imagine what it’s going to be like for our grand children.  They won’t even have to get off the couch to get their food.  It will be created out of their iPad 10th generation.

Maybe we need to get back to the old days.  Not quite as far back as our caveman ancestors, but going back to making foods that aren’t processed, salted to death or sugared to make your mouth water.  Using today’s healthier foods like whole grains and natural sweeteners to make a great taste…you know…the taste of food, remember what that was like?

Make your food, don’t buy it.

In Part 2…over eating ->the vicious cycle and exercise -> the lost skill.

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