11 Tips to Staying Slim This Holiday Season

This is the time of year when insulin levels can sky rocket throwing your blood sugar levels all out of whack causing you to store the food you eat as fat. Your focus should be on eating balanced meals while consuming low glycemic foods if you want to avoid to typical 5-7 pound weight gain that accompanies all of the Yule-tide cheer.

There is something to celebrate other then the upcoming holidays…there are a number of food tips that will help you to lower the glycemic index of your meals or snacks to help stabilize blood sugar levels as well as simple food swaps that will help you keep your weight in check this holiday season.

1. Add a high fiber choice to breakfast. Choose steel cut oats instead of quick cooking or instant oats. They are higher in fiber and lower on the glycemic index. Research shows that adding a high fiber choice to breakfast helps to cut hunger and cravings over the rest of the day. Make a batch on the weekend and warm it up in the morning for quick breakfast choice. A portion size is ½ cup cooked.
2. Avoid having a fruit by itself. Pair your serving of fruit with 1 tablespoon of raw nut butter or an ounce of cheese. When you add a protein or a fat to with your fruit it helps to keep the glycemic index of the fruit down.
3. If you drink alcohol then skip the starches. Pass on the rice, potatoes, bread and desserts. The alcohol counts as your carb for that meal since it digests as a carbohydrate.
4. Choose a sprouted grain bread. My recommendation is Ezekiel from Food For Life. It’s best to avoid white and whole wheat 80% of the time. If you can’t find Ezekiel then Stonemill or Silver Hills is also a good choice. You want to look for breads that have less then 15-18 grams of carbohydrates per slice.
5. Steer clear of fruit flavored yoghurts. The yoghurt isle is an overwhelming space. Stick to the basics. Low fat, plain yoghurt or low fat Greek yoghurt which is much higher in protein. If you need it flavored, add your own berries and vanilla extract.
6. Be picky with cold cereals. If you must consume a cold cereal for breakfast choose Kashi Go Lean which is higher in protein or Fiber One which has 14 grams of fiber per serving. The secret to avoiding the insulin spike that comes along with most breakfast cereals is to add a hardboiled egg or some nuts to slow down the carbohydrate metabolism.
7. Choose raw or lightly steamed vegetables over fully cooked. This tip depends on whether you can tolerate and digest raw vegetables. Raw or lightly steamed maintains the fiber and water content.
8. Choose blackberries for dessert. Skip the banana or orange. Blackberries have 8 grams of fiber per cup and berries in general are lower on the glycemic index.
9. Cook pasta and rice al dente. When you overcook your pasta, rice and potatoes it raises the glycemic index. Keep the starches firm to avoid the blood sugar spike.
10. Add protein to your cake. This tip might sound odd but adding a small amount of protein slow downs the carbohydrate metabolism and helps to avoid the blood sugar spike that generally comes along with eating cake.
11. Keep your daily calories in check. Although these tips help to control blood sugar and insulin spikes they do not negate tracking your food choices to ensure that you take in the appropriate amount of calories to avoid packing on the pounds.

If you are unsure whether you are making quality food choices that keep your blood sugar levels in check write down for 4 days during the week and 1 day on the weekend all the foods you eat and drink. 

Call me at 604-489-02002 to schedule your complimentary nutrition analysis so I can help you achieve your health and weight loss goals this holiday season.  

If you thought freezer foods were bad for you…think again!

Home cooking is starting to make a comeback but it’s not like the home cooked meal your grandmother used to make. If the words free-range, grass fed, antibiotic free, hormone free, organic, local and/or non-GMO are not somehow included in the dinner menu you are probably feeling a bit nutritiously inferior. Forget the all the hype and go old school, to the freezer section. It’s the ordinary frozen foods found right in your local grocery store that may end up being the healthiest and won’t break the bank account at the check out line.

What you may not know is that some frozen foods are actually better for you then the supposedly fresh ones. The flash freeze method was invented in the 1920’s. Before this vegetables were frozen at slow temperatures causing large ice crystals to form in food, damaging its fibrous and cellular structure and robbing it of taste and texture.

A man by the name of Clarence Birdseye created the flash freezing technique which freezes veggies superfast and keeps them super cold. This ensures that only small crystals form and preserve much of the vitamins and freshness.

Since the 1920’s technology has advanced and a couple of new tricks have been invented to improve quality. Blanching fruits and vegetables before freezing deactivates the oxidation process that causes browning, degrades colours and nutrient content. The best part is that blanching actually increases the fibrous content of the foods making it even better and lower glycemic.

The downside to blanching is that the water-soluble vitamins C and various B’s decrease in nutrient quality somewhat. Steaming is preferable to blanching before freezing but it’s more expensive which is why most manufactures don’t do it. This is where label reading comes in. The packaging should tell you the process that went into freezing. So keep an eye on brands that steam rather than blanch. It seems that all other vitamins and nutrients are not affected by flash freezing so you don’t have to feel like you are lacking in the nutrition department or guilty that you are feeding your family second grade food.

5 Tips For The Perfect Freezer Feast:

1. Avoid the frozen fruits and vegetables with sauces, added spices, seasoning and sugars
2. Stay away from bags with large icy chunks which means they’ve been thawed and refrozen
3. No name brands are just as good as the brand name brands. Most of the time they are from the same farm as up scale brands, but packaged as lower end.
4. To thaw vegetables leave them on the counter while you are cooking dinner. You can also lightly steam them instead of microwaving
5. Add some variety to your frozen feast by choosing from the large variety of frozen choices

Top 10 Freezer Fruits and Vegetables

1. Artichoke Hearts – At six grams of fiber per cup this sweet vegetable is a freezer front-runner.
2. Berries – High in antioxidants and fiber, berries are always a nutritious choice but frozen berries (raspberries, blueberries, strawberries or blackberries) should be a freezer staple.
3. Brussels Sprouts – The cruciferous vegetable is jammed packed with nutrients including Vitamin C, folate, fiber and potassium.
4. Mango – The tropical fruit cannot be found all year round. High in Vitamin C and B6 this frozen treat is a great addition to smoothies and salads.
5. Spinach – The most popular frozen vegetable contains iron, folate, Vitamin A and K. A cup of frozen spinach is much for dense then the fresh that gives you more nutrition in every serving.
6. Butternut Squash –Squash is filled with beta-carotene which is converted in the body to Vitamin A. Squash is also a great lower glycemic carbohydrate choice.
7. Broccoli – There are only 41 calories in a cup of broccoli and 5 grams of fiber. Frozen broccoli doesn’t wilt and go brown making it last longer.
8. Peas – A high fiber starchy vegetable that has 5 grams of fiber cup and 50% of your daily recommended Vitamin C. Peas are an excellent source of leutin which is an antioxidant known to help disease of the eye.
9. Cherries – Usually only available in season these sweet treats are great for baking and putting into smoothies. Cherries are high in antioxidants and help to reduce gout and arthritis.
10. Edamame (soy beans) – This one is best to get NON-GMO. Soy beans are a great portable afternoon snack high in protein and low glycemic carbohydrates.