Be a Fat and Calorie Detective

“Healthy eating involves eating less fat.”

 

Fat is the most fattening of all things we eat because if contains more than twice the calories as the same amount of sugar, starch, or protein.

Fat is related to heart disease and diabetes.

Research has shown that eating a lot of fat can increase your cholesterol level…the higher your cholesterol, the greater your chances of having a heart attack, or getting diabetes.
But keep in mind that eating too many calories  from any type of food is also fattening and will cause weight gain.

Most f the fat that we eat (70%) is hidden in foods. Check out your Calorie King Book and find out how many calories are in fast food such as burgers and fries from McDonalds and Burker King…

The key to eating better is to become aware of what you’re eating…start writing down everything you eat and drink, and be honest about what and how much you really eat. Be accurate and be complete…this not for the world, but for you so that you can begin to analyze what and how much you are eating from day to day.

Figure out how many calories and how much fat you are eating each day, add it up, and see what you get for a total…start keeping track everyday.

Recipes

And when you are cooking, whether you are following a recipe or making something from scratch write down what ingredients you are using and how much…how many servings are you making? How many calories and grams of fat are in each serving?

 Packaged Foods

When eating pre-packaged foods…READ THE LABEL…know what you’re eating – read the ingredients, look at the serving size, calories per serving, and total grams of fat per serving.

Weight & Measuring

Measure and weigh your foods to help you stay with in the recommended portion size as explained by my plate

If you weigh and measure at home, it will be easier for you to estimate portion sizes when eating away from home.

For more information like this join the FIT body & soul program…it’s a free program that teaches is how to eat better, exercise more, and lower your risk for diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and many other weight related diseases…our next class is on Thursday, May 24, 2012 at Spring of Hope Church on 35 Alden Street, Springfield, MA

You have any questions and/or are interested in joining the program call us at 413-733-1032 


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Group Lifestyle Balance Program

Guess what FIT body & soul readers?!!!

FIT body & soul  is live! We recently started our classes using the Group Lifestyle Balance Program , and we want you to be able to take full advantage of the information and resources that the program has to provide for living healthier lifestyles…

The Group Lifestyle Balance Program stems from the original Diabetes Prevention Program, in which 27 health centers throughout the United States conducted a study on over 3,000 adults who were at risk for Type 2 Diabetes…which means they all had a condition called pre-diabetes. Pre-diabetes is when the body has blood sugar (glucose) levels that are elevated but not high enough to be considered diabetes.

Participants were assigned to one of three groups: one group participated in a program  to lose weight and be more active, one group took metaformin – a pill that treats diabetes, and one group was given a sugar pill (placebo).

After 3 years of following the participants, metaformin cut the risk of diabetes by 31%, however making lifestyle changes such as, losing 10 to 15 pounds through moderate activity (150 minutes a week), cut the risk of diabetes by 58% (over 71% for 60 +), and metabolic syndrome (syndrome in which large amounts of fat are stored in the body, along with other symptoms including high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and/or high blood sugar) by 41%.

The Group Lifestyle Balance Program is designed to help you make lifestyle changes to both prevent diabetes and prevent or treat the metabolic syndrome.
In the Group Lifestyle Program we will help you:

  1. Learn facts about healthy eating and being active
  2. Learn what makes it hard for you to eat healthy and be active
  3. Learn how to change these things so they work for you, and not against you
You’ll learn how to:
  • be more aware of what you are eating and make healthier choices
  • find time to be active
  • ask for what you want when you eat out
  • keep things around you at home and work that make it easier for you to eat healthier and be more active
  • stop negative though and replace it with positive thought
  • get back on your feet if you slip/cheat when it comes to eating healthy and being active
  • handle stress, social events, and other people that make it hard for you to change

The main goals of Lifestyle balance are:

  1. Lose 7% of your weight through healthy eating and exercise…
  2. Do 2 1/2 or 150 minutes of brisk, physical activity each week.
You can reach these goals by making gradual, healthy, and reasonable changes in your eating and physical activity

 

And reaching the Lifestyle Balance Goals:

  1. May prevent diabetes
    -the DPP showed that reaching the same weight loss and physical activity goals reduced the risk of Type 2 diabetes
  2. Will help you look and feel better and be more healthy.
    Research shows that losing weight and being active can
    -relieve tension and help you sleep better
    -give you more energy, and make it easier to get around
    -lower blood pressure
    -lower blood levels of LDL (bad cholesterol)
    -raise blood levels of HDL (good cholesterol)
  3. Will set a good example for your family, friends, and community
Changing behavior takes work…but you can do it!

 


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Foods’ Aromas Might Help You Lose Weight

Stronger smells led to smaller bites, research found

WEDNESDAY, March 21 (HealthDay News) — Strong smells lead people to take smaller bites of food, which suggests that aroma might be used as a way to control portion size, new research suggests.

The study included volunteers who ate a custard-like dessert while they were exposed to different scents. The stronger the smell, the smaller the participants’ bites of food, the Dutch researchers found.

The study was published March 20 in the journal Flavour.

The volunteers were able to control how much dessert was fed to them by pushing a button. “Bite size was associated with the aroma presented for that bite and also for subsequent bites [especially for the second-to-last bite],” study leader Dr. Rene de Wijk said in a journal news release. Perhaps, in keeping with the idea that smaller bites are associated with lower flavor sensations, there is an unconscious feedback loop using bite size to regulate the amount of flavor experienced, de Wijk explained.

The findings suggest that manipulating the aroma of food could lead to a 5 percent to 10 percent decrease in food intake per bite, according to the researchers. Combining aroma control with portion control could trick the body into thinking it was full after consuming a smaller amount of food, an approach that could help people lose weight, they said.

However, while the research is intriguing, it does not prove that preparing aromatic foods will help anyone lose weight.


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