No BS Nutrition and Fitness

For the last two months I have been eating vegetables like they’re candy; breakfast, lunch, and dinner many days.  My energy levels have been through the roof, I’ve been sleeping better, been in a better mood, and my workout performances have gotten better.  All because of a few extra nutrients and a lower glycemic load.  I’ve written posts about the different vitamins and nutrients found in the rainbow of vegetable selections at your farmer’s market and grocery store, but I didn’t mention that many of those vitamins, such as A, D, K and E are fat soluble, meaning they need to be consumed with fat in order to be fully beneficial.  

“When fat-soluble vitamins are ingested, they move from the mouth to the stomach to the small intestine. Their ability to dissolve in fat allows for their absorption: Fats are able to move across the cell walls of the small intestine and enter the body’s general circulation. Any vitamins dissolved in that fat are absorbed into the body as well. The dietary-fat vehicles carry the vitamins through the intestine, into the bloodstream, and then to the liver, where they’re stored until the body needs them.” (Layton)

When you eat vegetables make sure you get a healthy dose of fats along with them.  According to my husband, there is no better accompaniment to vegetables than organic grass-fed butter, which itself is filled with carotene and Vitamin K.  It’s as simple as a drizzle of olive oil or a dollop of butter or coconut oil, remember to avoid canola or vegetable oil.  I know eating more vegetables can be difficult, but covering them with butter makes them a little easier to swollow…and digest.

Resources:

Layton, Julia. “Discovery Health “How Does Dietary Fat Help Us Absorb Vitamins?”" Discovery Health “Health Guides” How Stuff Works. Web. 19 Oct. 2011. http://health.howstuffworks.com/wellness/food-nutrition/vitamin-supplements/fat-absorb-vitamins.htm.

Sisson, Mark. “Grass Fed Butter – Choosing a Better Butter.” Mark’s Daily Apple. The Blog Studio, 3 Aug. 2010. Web. 19 Oct. 2011. <http://www.marksdailyapple.com/grass-fed-butter/>.

After nearly a year with the world’s longest URL, I’ve finally cut it down.  From now on simply go to nobsnutritionandfitness.com to find your nutrition and fitness needs.  Notice, there is no www behind it!  Have a great weekend…

GO WORKOUT!

Just like pants, workouts are never one-size-fits-all.  We are all at different places when it comes to fitness but none of us are too unfit to workout.  We are meant to move, that’s why we have legs!  Fortunately all workouts can be scaled to each person’s ability.  Below I have a weeks worth of workouts that can be done with a jump rope and your own two arm and legs.  I have given three different scaling options:

Option 1: For the beginner, maybe you haven’t worked out in a while–or ever.  Work at your own pace and get the job done.

Option 2: You’ve been exercising but maybe not as intensly as you’d like, this will be a step in the right direction. 

Option 3: You’ve been exercising regularly and you’re ready to icrease your intensity.

At the age of 15  my mom told me I was eating too much fruit –and it was at that moment that I thought she had officially lost it.  Sure, sugary cereal and Twinkies are bad, but fruit?  Gimme a break…she was just looking for one more way to make me miserable.

I would imagine that is how my friend felt last night when I told her the same thing.  After 5 weeks of Paleo, she hadn’t had any weight loss.  Because of her commitment to Crossfit she was in better shape but she wanted to see that number on the scale change as well.  As always my first question was “What have you eaten today?”  She was eating lots of healthy foods throughout the day, but too many in the fruit category.

Robb Wolf, author of The Paleo Solution, suggests you stay in the range of 25-75 grams of carbohydrates per day.  Compared to the average American’s diet of 200-300 grams of carbohydrates this may seem like a “low carb diet,” but really it’s a necessary carb diet.  Your body doesn’t need more than that and giving it more than it needs is bad news.  But it’s fruit, it’s HEALTHY….. right???  It is, but it is also a carbohydrate which gets broken down to glucose when digested.    Therefore; too much fruit leads to excess glucose, which leads to fat.

excess glucose = fat

(and that’s that!)

Vegetables are also carbohydrates, but they have less  glucose per serving compared to fruit.  Therefore, filling your day with vegetables (green beans, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, etc) will keep your glucose levels lower and keep your body from storing excess fat.

When you shift from high carb to necessary carb your body will desire that sweetness or that sugar, but FIGHT IT!  That craving will go away and because you are not giving your body as much glucose , it will begin looking to another source for energy…..FAT!  That’s right, when you lower your carbohydrate intake, your body begins digging into those fat stores for that energy, reserving the glucose you eat as energy for your brain, red blood cells, and other tissues.  (Goodbye thunder thighs, jello arms, cottage cheese legs!   HALLELUJAH!)

So Lauren, what exactly does too much fruit look like?  For me, it looks like more than one serving per day (gasp, but what about the Food Pyramid ??)  Your body can get all the vitamins and nutrients it needs from vegetables.  Potassium from bananas can be found in peppers.  Looking for Vitamin C?  Eat your broccoli, baby!  When I hit a plateau, I turn to my vegetable consumption and amp it up.  I eat spinach for breakfast, cabbage for lunch, and I still live to see dinner!  If you’d like to get a more exact number so that you can stay between 25-75 grams of carbs per day (I would suggest starting yourself much closer to 75 and easing your way down), look below for a list of your favorite fruits.

The Carb Breakdown in Fruit

• 1 apple = about 18 grams of carbohydrates
• 1 orange=about 18 grams of carbohydrates
• 1 grapefruit=about 18 grams of carbohydrates
• 1 cup grapes = about 18 grams of carbohydrates
• 1 mango= about 30 grams of carbohydrates (woooow!)
• 1 banana= about 27 grams of carbohydrates (geeeeeez!)
• 1 c. strawberries= about 9 grams carbohydrates
• 1 peach= about 9 grams carbohydrates
• 1 c. blueberries= about 9 grams carbohydrates
• 1 c. black/raspberries= about 9 grams carbohydrates
• 1 c. pineapple= about 21 grams carbohydrates (ouch!)

You may have seen these cool lunch boxes, all over the internet are websites like Lunch in a Box, where fed-up Moms are packing their kids lunch in these cool Bento Boxes.  The fed up Mom who packed the lunches above happens to be my sister, the creative genius.  Lots of kids think they’re too cool to pack a lunch for school, but what if you sent them with something like this?  Here she has packed frog sandwiches on cinnamon swirl toast with bacon, fruit, trail mix, and Greek yogurt. I estimate in this lunch there are about 25 grams of protein, 65 grams of carbohydrates, and 15 grams of fat (coming from grass-fed bacon and nuts) at about 350 calories.

Compared to a normal school lunch which would be about 14 grams protein, 100 grams carbohydrates, 15 grams fat (coming from the processed meats and breads) that would be at least 664 calories, because that is the national minimum for elementary school children.  What is written on the school lunch menu may look pretty good, but on your child’s plate, it does not.  I have said it before, but I would guess that if I started eating the school lunch every day it would only take me about a week to gain 7 or 8 pounds and for my cholesterol and blood pressure to go up substantially.  Click here to learn a bit more about how the plan the menus at school.

Grown Up Lunch Box

When I saw my sister’s pictures I immediately wanted my own Bento lunchbox, but after perusing their selections I realized I was going to need something closer to the size of  a tackle box to fit my lunch.  When I take off for work in the morning I usually have my breakfast, lunch, and three snacks with me, which ends up taking up a whole shelf of our mini-refrigerator at school.  Putting together enough food for Evan and I throughout the entire day can resemble packing for a week-end camping trip.  BUT it’s very worth it.  We save money by eating from home and we always know exactly what is in our food.

Here is an example of our lunch from last week; salmon, salad, and butternut squash with vinaigrette.  It took me about 10 minutes to put this lunch together, starting with raw fish.  We buy Wild Alaskan Salmon from Costco and freeze it in individual bags for easy use.  I took a piece of defrosted salmon and put it in hot cast-iron pan with olive oil, skin side down.  When I saw that the salmon was cooked about half way through, I put a lid on the pan so that the top half of the salmon would cook.  I didn’t even have to flip it.  I did leave some space for condensation to escape so the skin of my fish stayed nice and crispy.

We also buy a big box of organic mixed greens from Costco (especially when there aren’t any at the farmer’s market).  It makes it easy to throw some on a plate to complete a meal.  As a vinaigrette, I whisked together apple cider vinegar, honey, and olive oil to my liking.  It’s easy to mix up a bottle of vinaigrette and keep it in the refrigerator for the week, just be sure to give it a good shake before you use it.  The butternut squash had already been roasted, but it would be very easy to top your salad with apples or carrots, something that doesn’t require cooking if you’re in a pinch for time.

There are lots of ways to get healthier food into your day, packing your lunch is an easy option.  I purposefully posted this on Sunday so you would have plenty of time to get prepared for the week.  May THIS week THE week you start getting healthy.