How Many Servings Are On Your Plate?

Appetizer
Eat LESS servings at each meal. Try this experiment for a week - or even just a day: Fix your plate as your normally would, but before you eat, take the time to determine how many servings of food you are taking in. You may be surprised to find out that you are ingesting 3-4x the recommended servings.

Most Americans don't know what an actual serving looks like because we're so used to receiving and eating such large portions. If you find that you're "supersizing" at every meal, you should gradually reduce your serving sizes because chances are that you will be satisfied with less food.

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There are many resources on the Internet to give you guidance on proper serving sizes, but here's a simple guide to get you started:
Chopped Vegetables: 1/2 cup

Raw Leafy Vegetables (such as lettuce): 1 cup

Fresh Fruit: 1 medium piece, 1/2 cup chopped

Dried Fruit: 1/4 cup

Pasta, Rice, Cooked Cereal: 1/2 cup

Ready-to-Eat Cereal: 1 oz. (which varies from 1/2 cup to 1 1/4 cup - check label)

Meat, Poultry, Seafood: 3 oz. (cooked); About the size of a deck of cards

Dried Beans: 1/2 cup

Nuts: 1/3 cup

Cheese: 1 1/2 oz. (2 oz. if processed cheese)

Dessert
OK, I struggle with many things on my wellness journey, but if I had to name just one thing that I struggle with more than anything else, it would be portion sizes. I swear that my stomach has got to be 10x bigger than the average woman's stomach because I can E-A-T!!! For some reason, I'm able to hold so much food in my tummy.

When I'm eating something like pizza or pancakes (2 of my favorites), I honestly have a really hard time stopping at just 1 or even 2 servings. It tastes so good, and I still have room left, so I continue to eat. If I could conquer, or even just tame, my insatiable appetite, I would be so much better off.

About Cafe Physique:
The mission of Café Physique is to help clients reach and exceed their personal fitness and nutrition goals. If you’re in need of an a nutritionist in Atlanta or an Atlanta personal trainer – Café Physique is the perfect solution. We offer Atlanta yoga instruction, Atlanta prenatal workouts, and Atlanta personal training. We also have private sessions of pilates that Atlanta residents are raving about. We invite you to let a member of our Atlanta registered dietitian staff or personal training team develop and implement a realistic and healthy lifestyle plan to meet your personal goals.

Sugar & Spice and Everything Nice

Appetizer
Satisfy your sweet tooth MORE often. I bet you didn’t think I was going to say that, did you? Well, it’s true. You should periodically allow yourself to reasonably splurge on something that you’re craving because this will help you avoid an all-out binge.

Please pay close attention to the words “periodically” and “reasonably.”

Periodically = About once a week
Reasonably = 1 or 2 cookies – not the whole package


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Whenever that sweet tooth starts talking to you, try to quench it with a piece of fruit. The natural sugar in fruit, called fructose, will usually take the edge off. Here is a very tasty recipe that incorporates fruit and other ingredients:

Sliced Bananas with Butterscotch Pudding
This recipe serves: 8

1 large egg
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup low-fat milk
granulated sugar (optional)
8 bananas, sliced

1. In a 1- or 2-quart stainless-steel saucepan, whisk the egg, cornstarch, salt and vanilla for 2 minutes. Set aside.

2. Melt the butter in another saucepan. Stir in the brown sugar. Cook over low heat until the butter and sugar blend together. Add the milk and heat until the sugar dissolves. (The sugar will get hard when the milk is added; it will melt again as the milk heats.)

3. Whisk a few tablespoons of the hot milk mixture into the egg mixture. Gradually whisk in the rest of the milk mixture.

4. Over medium heat, whisk the combined mixture constantly until it comes to a boil. Immediately remove from the heat.

5. Pour into a bowl. (If you don't want a skin to form on the top of the pudding, sprinkle it lightly with granulated sugar.) Refrigerate. Cover with plastic wrap when cool.

6. Place 1 sliced banana into each of 8 serving bowls. Top with a few tablespoons of pudding.

Serving Size: 1banana and 3 tablespoons of pudding, 216 calories, 4g fat (2g saturated fat)


Dessert

Luckily, my sweet tooth is not too out of control. I usually prefer to take my not-so-healthy calories in with dinner, not dessert. However, there are times when my body decides to completely revolt against what my mind has planned, and I need (want) something sweet. As I recommended to you above, my first choice is usually fruit. I am quite partial to strawberries, and I like to cut them up and sprinkle ‘em with Splenda. Mmmm…this is tasty.

While I wish I could say that this always does the trick, I can’t. I have to keep it real and acknowledge that sometimes I want something that is a real dessert – not something healthy dressed up like dessert. For these occasions, I turn to frozen desserts from Smart Ones. They have 11 desserts to choose from, and my personal favorite is the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Sundae. With only 170 calories and 3 grams of fat, it keeps me satisfied and guilt-free.

Finally, for those days when only the best will do, and I’m completely craving something delicious and decadent, I break down and go for the gusto with fresh based brownies. They can’t be store-bought because I want to experience the process of making them and smell them baking in my kitchen. By this time, calories aren’t really mattering to me at all (oops! Did I say that?), so I go ahead and add caramel and lots of nuts too. These things are so good they should be downright illegal.

Warning: These brownies can only be eaten once a month or less because weekly is way too often. Also, find someone to give the rest of the batch to after you’ve indulged in a couple.

About Cafe Physique:
The mission of Café Physique is to help clients reach and exceed their personal fitness and nutrition goals. If you’re in need of an a nutritionist in Atlanta or an Atlanta personal trainer – Café Physique is the perfect solution. We offer Atlanta yoga instruction, Atlanta prenatal workouts, and Atlanta personal training. We also have private sessions of pilates that Atlanta residents are raving about. We invite you to let a member of our Atlanta registered dietitian staff or personal training team develop and implement a realistic and healthy lifestyle plan to meet your personal goals.

What EXACTLY Are You Trying to Do?

Appetizer

In order to reach your health & wellness goals, you’re going to have to get serious about what you’re doing:

You need to commit to eating no less than 6 meals a day consisting of exactly 200 calories each, and you are no longer allowed to ever have chocolate, juice or anything with sugar.


You should be waking up at 2am every night to drink an 8oz. low-carb, low-calorie, low-fat protein shake in order to jump-start your metabolism (you can go back to sleep afterwards).

In addition, you need to workout at least twice a day…an hour of cardio in the morning before work and 45 minutes of weights in the evening before dinner.

If you make a good schedule and really stay on top of things, you should still have time for your job, your family & friends, church and running errands.

Is this a plan that you are willing to commit to for the rest of your life?

Obviously not. So, stop making plans like this in the name of creating a new healthy lifestyle. There is no way in the world you will be able to make all of these drastic changes, and planning to do so is a recipe for failure.

Set MORE realistic goals.

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It’s been said that people who set goals tend to be more successful in life, and I believe this to be true. Long-term goals help you map out where you’re going, and short-term ones keep you motivated while you’re getting there.

The most important thing to remember when setting a healthy lifestyle goal is that you make your goal SPECIFIC. Instead of thinking “I want to lose weight,” think “I want to join a gym and workout 3 times per week in order to fit into my favorite size 12 jeans by the end of October.” Creating a detailed and precise goal helps direct the steps you take to reach it.



Important questions to ask yourself when setting a goal:

What do you want to do?
You may want to increase stamina so that you can keep up with your kids, lose weight to make shopping for clothes easier, or lower your cholesterol to help reduce health risks.

Who do you need to help you?
Depending on your goal, you may need your spouse to watch the kids while you head to gym, or maybe it would help immensely if your roommate would stop buying Edy’s Slow Churn Butter Pecan ice cream every weekend.

What do you need to be successful?
Decide up front if your goal requires any kind of paraphernalia – gym membership, cookbook with healthy recipes, blood glucose monitor, etc.

When are you going to do it?
Your goal needs to have a finite date. If you plan on making a lifestyle change (i.e. drink more water), break it up into a smaller goal in order to periodically measure your success (i.e. drink @ least 64oz. of water a day for 3 months).

Why do you want to do it?
It will be much more difficult for you to reach your healthy living goal if you’re doing it for someone else. You need to make sure that this is something that YOU want, and articulate why you want it.

And don’t forget…BE REALISTIC!

If you need help setting your goal, or if you want somebody to help you evaluate what you’ve already written, just let me know. I’d love to help.


Dessert

My Goal:
In order to reduce the number of extra calories I consume, I will stop overeating by making sure I put at least 1/3 of my meal in a doggie bag every time I go out to eat this summer.



What? Reduce intake of unnecessary calories

Who? I need the waiter/waitress to bring me a to-go box, but other than that, I don’t need anyone else to help me.

Needs? I need to make sure that I eat regularly throughout the day so that I’m not completely starving (and therefore greedy) when I get to the restaurant.

Why? I want to do it because I get frustrated that all of my hard work in the gym is not creating the results that I want because I eat too many calories at each meal.

REALITY CHECK: My goal is realistic because I am willing and able to do what’s necessary for me to achieve this goal. Normally, I’m full about halfway through my meal or so anyway – I just keep eating because it tastes good & I’m a greedy little bugger.

About Cafe Physique:
The mission of Café Physique is to help clients reach and exceed their personal fitness and nutrition goals. If you’re in need of an a nutritionist in Atlanta or an Atlanta personal trainer – Café Physique is the perfect solution. We offer Atlanta yoga instruction, Atlanta prenatal workouts, and Atlanta personal training. We also have private sessions of pilates that Atlanta residents are raving about. We invite you to let a member of our Atlanta registered dietitian staff or personal training team develop and implement a realistic and healthy lifestyle plan to meet your personal goals.

Eating Moderately Despite The Evil Cookie Master

Appetizer

Eat MORE moderately. There really is no food or drink that you can’t have at least occasionally because everything is okay, in moderation. If you’re waiting for me to give you an exact amount that you can get away with, you’ll be waiting for a long time. I’m not going to do that because you already know. How do I know this? Because we’ve all read just enough, watched just enough T.V., and have been educated just enough to know when enough is enough.

Do you want an Oreo? Go ahead and have one then. Heck, go ahead and have two of them, but please don’t eat the whole bag.


Maybe you’ve been craving pizza for two weekends in a row. Put your appetite out of its misery, and have a couple of slices on Friday night, but (a) don’t have more than that, and (b) don’t save the leftovers for Saturday.

Moderate = “Being within reasonable limits; not excessive or extreme”

Strive to live a life of moderation, and you won’t have to concern yourself with crash diets or the newest food fad because you’ll still be able to enjoy your favorites from time to time without feeling like you fell off the wagon or ruined all of your hard work.

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I’m by no means psychic, but I already know what many of you are thinking… “Amber makes this whole ‘moderation’ thing seem so easy, but she doesn’t know how hard it is for me. If I had that kind of willpower, I wouldn’t need her help.” Ahhh, but you’re so wrong! If you think back to what I told you the first time you dined with me, all of the information that I provide is for you – the every day person, not for all of the super dieters of the world or the genetically gifted. I know and understand your struggles, and we’ll work through them together – just stick with me!

If you have an addiction to certain foods, then I’m pretty sure that my whole discussion on “moderation” just doesn’t seem feasible to you. In fact, it probably sounds as though I just told you to scale a huge building in a single bound.


You may have even noticed that others can take a small pinch of the to-die-for birthday cake and be okay, while for you, a small pinch leads to the complete and total destruction of the entire upper left quadrant of the darn cake.
Moderation, you say? Humph!

If this sounds familiar, take heed of the following tips (and keep visiting Café Physique for more on the subject):

1) Eat regularly. When you're super hungry, it's very tempting to forget about good nutrition.

2) When you go out to eat, share your meal or dessert with a friend; ask for a doggie bag or a smaller portion.

3) Balance your food choices over time. Not every food has to be "perfect." When eating a food high in fat, salt or sugar, select other foods that are low in these ingredients. If you miss out on any food group one day, make up for it the next. Your food choices over several days should fit together into a healthy pattern.

4) Make concessions. Do you add a lot of butter, creamy sauces or salad dressings? Rather than eliminating these foods, put them on the side & just dip your fork into it rather than drenching your entire plate.

5) Make changes gradually. There aren’t an easy answers to a healthy diet, so don't expect to totally revamp your eating habits overnight. Begin to make small changes that can add up to positive, lifelong eating habits.

6) Buy your favorite snacks in pre-packaged portions like Kraft’s 100-calorie snack packs of Oreos, Chips Ahoy, Nabisco cracker, Ritz Chips and Wheat Thins. Otherwise, create your own snack packs (measure out single portions into plastic baggies) as soon as you come home from the store so that you never find yourself double dippin’ into a huge bag of something.


7) Get over the notion that you can’t throw things away. Yes, I know that there are people starving in other countries AND right here in the U.S. If that’s your excuse for why you have to clean your plate at each and every meal, then arrange to give your leftovers to a local homeless shelter – keeping in mind that you eating the extra food isn’t going to help prevent starvation.

Dessert
Last weekend, I had every intention of just tasting ONE of the tiny pecan puff cookies my sister’s accountant was kind enough to give her for her birthday (thanks a lot buddy!). They had been sitting on her kitchen counter, wrapped up all nicely since mid-April. Every time I went to her house, the cookies would start talking to me. This particular day the conversation went like this:

Evil Cookies: Amber, look at me! I’m wrapped up really nice in a fancy package, so you know that I came from a yummy bakery or specialty store – not just the local grocery store.

Amber: I don’t care what you look like ‘Oh Evil Ones!’

Evil Cookies: OK, but I just want to point out that each one of me is made with a delicious looking pecan – your favorite – tucked into the center, wrapped with a light “puff” of melt-in-your-mouth, indescribable cookie-type pastry.

Amber: Yeah, I know. I totally peeped that when I walked into the kitchen today.

Evil Cookies: And look how small I am. I mean, how many calories do you think I can actually contain? You can easily eat me in single bite.

Amber: That’s probably true, but I don’t need you.

Evil Cookies: You may not need me, but you certainly deserve me. After that hard-core, sweaty workout that you put in this morning, surely you can have just one? What’s the point of working out if you can’t enjoy yourself sometimes?

Amber: Uh-huh…true, true.



So, yeah I went ahead and had one. I tried to make it last, but just as the Evil Cookie Master had warned me; it melted in my mouth before I had a chance to fully absorb the essence of its goodness. So, I had another and another and another…and then I spilled the entire container all over the floor…and continued to have several more as I returned them to their proper place – while all the time reasoning that my sister is a clean person so therefore her hardwood floors are quite clean by association, despite the fact that they are trampled on by two teenage boys and their friends daily…but, I digress.

All in all, my attempt to MODERATELY taste just a single Pecan Puff (PP) led to a guilt-ridden ride home as I attempted to calculate just how many Stairmaster steps I would have to climb to work off my PP binge. I eventually came to the conclusion that, somewhere on the books (what books?), there was a law prohibiting the usage of any stair-climbing apparatus for more than 225 consecutive minutes. Cool…

About Cafe Physique:
The mission of Café Physique is to help clients reach and exceed their personal fitness and nutrition goals. If you’re in need of an a nutritionist in Atlanta or an Atlanta personal trainer – Café Physique is the perfect solution. We offer Atlanta yoga instruction, Atlanta prenatal workouts, and Atlanta personal training. We also have private sessions of pilates that Atlanta residents are raving about. We invite you to let a member of our Atlanta registered dietitian staff or personal training team develop and implement a realistic and healthy lifestyle plan to meet your personal goals.