How I did it # 2 : Making substitutions

First a really quick review of The Biggest Loser from last night - man these people are fat. That's it. Kidding :) The black team got sent home for a week by the blue team and as a result lost the weigh-in, even though Danny Large put in a huge 15 pound loss. I thought it was ironic seeing how pissed off a couple of the women were at their husbands for continuing their poor eating habits, I can forsee the ends of their marriages right now. Really found it touching to see Dina's son sitting by the treadmill marveling at how fast she was running and saying "Wow, my mommy can do ANYTHING..." In the end Dina went home tho, leaving me another week to be completely pissed off listening to Chucky...I mean Tracey whine and fake crying fits. No clear winner pulling out in front yet, though with the losses Danny is certainly killing it.

Ok back to MY show. When you're modifying your diet, there are a number of little things you can do to cut calories and fat and generally improve your situation. Since the bullet point thing worked so well yesterday, let's continue on with that format...

How I changed my diet, and what you can do too:

• Don't be afraid of carbs. So much noise gets made by the Zone/Atkins/South Beach people about carbohydrates being evil and wrong that they neglect to mention the benefits that they provide - energy for physical activity, proper organ function, a good source of fiber, etc. You NEED carbs in your diet, just make sure they're the "good carbs" that don't include large amounts of sugar. Allow me to translate this from dietician to English - the reason the fad diets work on a temporary basis is because if you tell FAT people to stop eating the bulk of their calories (in white bread, pizza, sodas, candy, etc), they lose weight. However, when they get off the diet and go back to eating what they were before, BAM it all comes back.


• Continuing with the first point - I'll treat you like an adult and explain that the simplest substitution you can make for carbs is by eating wheat/whole grain products instead of their "white" counterparts which contain loads of sugar. Instead of Wonder bread, eat whole grain bread instead. You can still have spaghetti, just use wheat noodles. I make a homemade pizza using the whole wheat Boboli shells that the kids totally love. Just make sure when you're examining the ingredients for whatever it is that the FIRST ingredient is "whole wheat flour" or "100% whole wheat" or "entire wheat flour" - see here for more possible references to whole grain. If the word "enriched" shows up at all, then you're still eating the wrong thing. Just because it says "wheat" on it doesn't make it good, and if it says "butter top" well...come on, what do YOU think...


• Take the soda you have in your hand and pour it the hell out. I don't care if it's diet or zero or whatever. If you're just starting out, you don't get to have that right now. Not until your body learns how to deal with the sugar withdrawals you're about to experience. I would recommend quitting soda entirely for the first 2-3 months at least, I did. If you're worried about not having any caffeine, stop - 1-2 cups of coffee per day is fine, so long as you're not overloading it with sugar and full-fat milk


• Get the fat out - yes I know you need 15-30% of your diet to come from fat. The thing is, you have to get the right KIND of fat - you want to mostly eat unsaturated fats, and avoid the trans/saturated variety. Getting your fat in mayonnaise, sour cream, milk, cheese, butter, or any other dairy is not what you're after, you may as well be loading up on cheeseburgers and refried beans. This is not to say that you can't have dairy - just aim for the fat-free or non-fat variety. Instead of ice cream, eat frozen yogurt, I do it almost every day. There are usually low-fat or fat-free varieties of cheese, milk, mayo, sour cream, salad dressing, etc at your average grocery store. After a while your taste buds won't even notice the difference, I swear (and in fact, the whole-fat stuff starts to taste funky and heavy). Better to get your fats from lean meats (poultry and fish), nuts (like almonds or plain unsalted peanuts - not peanut butter, sorry), and fruits like avocado and banana. If you do eat trans/saturated fat, keep it to a minimum, but honestly if you can avoid it as much as possible you'll be far better off.


• Don't drown your food in anything really - but particularly not oils or dressings. If you can't stand the taste of it without the junk poured on top, then find something else to eat. This is particularly important when ordering a sandwich - most people with weight problems load up on the mayo, cheese and oil. You'll want to avoid at the very least the mayo and the oil (a slice of cheese won't kill you). Pickles are also not a very good thing to have routinely - they're cucumbers loaded with sugar - I avoid putting those on my sandwiches as well. So when I go to a place like Subway I get: wheat bread, no mayo, mustard, provolone cheese (not processed cheese like American, I eat enough of that at home), lettuce, tomato, olives, cucumbers, bell peppers, salt/pepper (because they mix them together), vinegar, and no oil (say "and JUST vinegar"). You can get onions, jalapenos, pepperoncinis, avocado or spinach if you want, I just don't do that because I think they suck on sandwiches.


• Butter, margarine, bad. Butter substitute good. I'm partial to Brummel & Brown's Natural Yogurt Spread which honestly looks tastes and smells enough like butter that it's good enough for me. Any time a recipe I have calls for butter I use this stuff. It's natural at least, and not loaded with a bunch of crazy chemicals to make you believe it's not butter.


• Salt - getting too much salt is a bad idea, so don't do it. Avoid adding salt to things, use it sparingly, or better yet - my preference - substitute garlic salt which is basically table salt diluted with ground garlic so you automatically get less sodium.


• Eggs - I get asked this one a lot, actually. Eggs are an incredible source of protein and tasty on top of it but they're loaded with cholesterol. The solution most give you is to strain out the yolks and eat only the egg whites. That does work, but it tastes and smells like grilled farts. Since it's ok to have one egg here and there (IF you are eating an otherwise-balanced diet) so what I usually do is strain out about 4-5 eggs worth of egg whites, and then crack one whole egg in it for taste. And eat em scrambled for chrissakes unless you're really TRYING to get salmonella poisoning (can the Rocky impersonations now).


• Veggies are a free-for-all. Load up on them. You should see the size of the salad I make on a routine basis, it takes up a 2-3 quart bowl. The key is to load up with lettuce/veggies and leave out the croutons and salad dressing (unless they're fat-free). If you need more crunch in your salad, try walnuts, they're awesome with a little fat-free caesar italian over them

Further resources can be found at (I've used this extensively) :
Eat This, Not That
That should be good for now.

Diet for Tuesday 10/20/09:
Breakfast

• Fiber one original w/fat-free milk
• 4 oz orange juice w/vitamins
• Big cup of coffee
• 2 pieces wheat toast w/yogurt spread

Lunch

• Tuna sandwich on wheat
• 3 large carrots, raw, peeled

Dinner

• Turkey sandwich on wheat
• 1 red apple
• 1 cup Baked Lay's potato chips

Post-dinner

• one glass red wine

Dessert

• fat-free frozen yogurt w/Hershey's lite chocolate syrup

Exercise for Tuesday 10/20/09:

• 5 min @ 3.5 mph on treadmill
• 10 min stretching
• one set of 20 reps of the Tar Heels Medicine Ball workout

Sleep for Tuesday 10/20/09:

• 8 hours

Speaking of sleep, I know this is backdated, I'll post a summary for Wed - Sun tomorrow.