5 Tips for Getting Back On The Rails with Your Diet After the Holidays

The holidays are a time for indulging, but you might wonder once you've gotten started how you will stop. The five tips below can all help you get back on track if too much rich food and other indulgences have put your diet plan in jeopardy. 

Eat on schedule

Holiday snacking and big meals served mid-afternoon can all contribute to losing track of the good health habits you've been working on. Make sure that you start eating your meals at regular intervals again with healthy snacks built in as needed.

Drink water

The holidays are ripe for overindulgence in eggnog, sugar-laden punches, alcohol and other unhealthy beverages. Get back into the habit of staying healthily hydrated by drinking water regularly again. Add a sliver of lemon, lime or cucumber if it tastes too plain.

Get rid of temptation

If your house is still stocked with holiday treats and leftovers, it's time to get rid of them. Take them to work, give them to a neighbor or throw them out, and put healthy food back in their place. If it isn't there, you can't be tempted by it.

Don't be discouraged by holiday weight gain

A big diet derail can occur if you feel as though there's no point in trying to reset your healthy habits just because you've been indulgent. Whether it's one meal, one day or several weeks of unhealthy eating, you don't have to throw your hands up in despair. Just shift back to your old healthy habits and you'll start to see results.

Rethink your diet

This can actually be a great time to do a reset of some of your habits. You might want to look into signing up for a meal planning service, doing more cooking and freezing of food on weekends or cutting back on your restaurant meals in the year ahead.

The holidays can be a tough time for healthy eating. However, you can follow the above steps to shift to a healthier mindset and better habits no matter how indulgent you've been.

Summary: 

Why Veggie and Steak Bowls Should Find Their Way Into Your Diet

As you enter the retirement years, a main goal held by many people is achieving a healthy lifestyle. Everyone loves those sweet and savory treats at times, but healthy food tends to make you feel better. Pinpointing healthy foods can be difficult at times, however. Mature adults will often turn to veggie and steak bowls as a way to stay healthy. Learn why these meals should find their way into your diet today.

Cutting Out the Carbohydrates

There are essentially no carbohydrates in a veggie and steak bowl. Rice, potatoes and other starchy foods are carbohydrates. Your body uses these nutrients to burn as fuel. However, you want the body to burn the fat already stored in the tissues. By reducing the carbs in your body, the muscles and other tissues burn your fat reserves instead. You'll lose weight while supporting your body with a strong balance of energy versus food.

Filling up on Fiber

Vegetables are naturally full of fiber. When you fill your bowl with veggies instead of carbohydrates, your digestive system benefits with the fiber necessary to clear out your intestines. You'll notice better digestion with solid regularity. As you age, your digestive system will often have problems with regularity. Vegetables are a better source of fiber compared to supplements. If you must decide between the two choices, natural foods will always win by comparison.

Benefiting From Protein Fullness

Your steak is a healthy choice regardless of the cut of meat. The body gains protein when you eat steak. Protein is a critical substance that supports the muscles, which translates into a strong skeletal system. Because protein takes time for the body to digest, you'll have a full sensation in your stomach for a lot longer than other foods. As a result, hunger won't overwhelm you until the protein finally moves through the system.

Diversifying Your Meals

No one can eat just one type of meal and be satisfied each day. Diversify your veggie and steak bowls during each meal. Pick different veggies to complement a particular meat, such as pork or beef. Saute or cook the veggies in various oils so that there's a complex, taste sensation with each meal. By diversifying the food, you won't be bored or tempted by other foods. You might even choose chicken as your steak meat to further diversify the ingredients.

Eating Out or In

It's possible to have a veggie and steak bowl whether you're eating out or staying in. Look for healthy eateries with these bowls as the stars of the show. Ask for the rice or carbohydrate to be removed from the bowl so that you can eat it as you desire. You have more control over the ingredients with a home-cooked meal, but it's nice to have a change as you celebrate a meal with friends.

Don't forget to fill your other meals with healthy foods too. Look for whole grains, such as quinoa, to cover your carbohydrate needs for the day. By selecting healthy foods in moderation, you'll feel and look younger than ever. Veggie and steak bowls are simply one part of a larger diet that can help you reach your 70s, 80s and beyond.

How to Use Your Diet to Benefit Before, During, and After Running

What you eat before, during, and after running can have a great impact on your health and your overall performance. Running is a high endurance exercise and your body needs the right fuel to perform well and to recover afterwards. Even if you are just out jogging at a slow pace, you should fuel your body with what it needs.

What To Eat Before Running

If you are going to run for more than an hour, you should take the time to load up on some good carbs about two hours before you go out for the run. Eat a bowl of oatmeal with a banana or a bowl of pasta and some veggies. Make sure that you drink at least eight ounces of water. Hydration is very important to exercise success. The glycogen contained in the carbs will be used as fuel during your run.

What To Eat While Running

Unless you are running a marathon or half marathon or for more than two hours, you should probably avoid doing anything other than drinking water or sports drinks while you are running. If you are running for two hours or more, it is important that you take a protein bar with you, or two depending on the length of time. You need to restore your protein and carbs to keep your energy levels high. You should also sip on a low calorie sports drink to replaenish your electrolytes.

What To Eat After Your Run

When you are done exercising, it is also important to replenish your body of the fuel that it used so that it can continue to make energy and burn calories. Eat another high carb meal that also has a balance of 3 to 1 with proteins. This will help your muscles to recover and store more glycogen for future energy use.

The Most Important Things To Remember

Regardless of how experienced of a runner you are, or how far you run each time, it is very important that you stay properly hydrated for optimal performance. Your body needs the glycogen for fuel and water to ensure that all of your organs perform properly. Being dehydrated can lead to serious risks to your health before, during or after your run.

If you are going to drink sports drinks, you are encouraged to look for low calorie alternatives. The important part of the sports drink is the electrolytes, not the sugar for energy. You have already fuels your body with the right type of carbs and do not need sugar to enhance this energy level. Remember, only drink these types of drinks during or after you run. You really do not need to replenish your electrolytes before you run.

There is one final thing to remember before you run for optimal performance. When you load up on carbs before you run, make sure to give your body at least two hours to process what you eat. It takes your body a minimum of two hours to absorb the glycogen and get it ready to burn as energy. Giving yourself at least two hours between your meal and running will also reduce the risk of cramping from having a full stomach. 

Making the Case for Food Prep

A recent study has suggested that individuals that choose their meals at least an hour before they eat them will choose lower-calorie options than their counterparts that order in the moment. This study shows that a company that offers lunch options to employees at least an hour before their lunch break will have employees that choose lower-calorie, nutrient dense meals. This choice leads to happy and healthier employees. With just an hour of preparation the company saw a tremendous change it its employees’ eating habits, with a day’s preparation imagine what food prep could do for you and your loved ones.

There is nothing special about food prep. It is the simple act of preparing more food than you need and then storing that food in individual serving-sized containers and eating that food through the week. Many practitioners of this dieting method find that cooking several large meals on a Sunday can have them prepared for the week that lies ahead.

We see that food prep clearly leads to healthier food choices and we also can see how it saves time, but food prep also saves another valuable thing, money. By buying food in bulk you can save money, and by preparing you food ahead of time many practitioners of this dieting method find themselves eating out far less than their unprepared counterparts.

Regardless of whether you prepare your food at home, or you find yourself ordering in with a couple of coworkers for lunch on a Friday, it is always better to decide what you will eat at least an hour before you plan on eating it. Our stomach and our brains are closely connected, so it is easy to order that piece of pie in the diner window when you haven’t eaten since breakfast.

Stay away from the pie. Next week give food prep a try. Your waistline, calendar, and pocketbook will all thank you.

Greek Yogurt and Why You Need it In Your Diet

Greek yogurt is a dairy based food that is high in protein and has been shown to have many nutritional benefits. Greek yogurt tends to be thicker than other types of yogurt because of the way it is strained out and is an excellent source of probiotics, potassium, protein, zinc, and vitamins B6 and B12. Also, Greek yogurt can be a vital part of a diet structured around weight loss because when eaten in moderation, Greek yogurt is very low in calories compared to many other food options. When compared to other yogurt choices, Greek yogurt is also high in calcium, which helps keep your bones strong and healthy.

Because Greek yogurt is a high-protein choice, it is considered effective as part of a high-protein, high-fat and low calorie diet. Diets that are particularly high in protein can help you feel fuller longer after you stop eating, which may help to reduce the total amount of calories that you eat during a typical day. The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute recommends that healthy women trying to lose weight should consume between 1,000 and 1,200 calories per day. For healthy men attempting weight loss, they should consume between 1,200 and 1,600 calories per day. Given that many Greek yogurt options contain between 120 and 160 calories per serving, it is easy to see why this nutritional choice could help assist your weight loss goals without robbing you of the vital nutrients and vitamins that you need each day.

One thing to make sure that you do when shopping for Greek yogurt is to always read the nutritional label. Not all yogurts are created equally. In fact, some brands of Greek Yogurt may be so high in sugar and calories that it is almost more of a dessert than a nutritional meal choice. You also want to check to make sure that your Greek yogurt is high in protein in order to get all of the nutritional benefits of consuming Greek yogurt. In addition, the brand that you choose should also be as low in fat as possible, which could help contribute to further weight loss.

Another important consideration about Greek yogurt is that if you are trying to lose or maintain a healthy weight, stay away from add-ons to Greek yogurt. For example, Greek yogurt options that contain fruits and other syrups are likely higher in sugars and calories than other types of Greek yogurt. If you can handle eating just plain, vanilla Greek yogurt, you can likely save yourself a few calories and avoid adding unnecessary sugars to your diet. 

Two Ways to Get Happy: Eat Fruits, Eat Veggies

Eating an apple or a carrot stick may not induce the immediate spike in energy or joy that a cup of coffee or a hot fudge sundae creates, but the long term benefit is enduring happiness. A recent study from England and Australia promotes the increase of fruits and vegetables in one’s diet to experience happiness long term.

Two joining universities studied the food journals of about 12,000 people and the effects diet had on mood and health. The results showed that people who ate an extra serving of produce in a day experienced happiness symptoms congruent with the amount they consumed. Those participants that went from zero to 100, having consumed no produce in the past and changing their diets to eating eight servings a day, reported happiness feelings similar to those who went from being unemployed to getting their dream job. The difference was staggering.

We have all been told to eat our vegetables and fruits from the time we were little kids, hearing that they were good for us. Studies have shown for years that produce consumption increases health and long life, but these foods do not create instantaneous spikes in serotonin. The feel-good benefits of fruits and vegetables generally start to show after around two years of changing one’s diet.

Despite all we know about how good produce is for us, the CDC says that 76% of Americans still do not eat the recommended servings of fruit per day, and 87% aren’t eating enough vegetables as well. In an instant gratification kind of world, these foods don’t seem to have an attractive record because the health benefits often come years later, like preventing cancer. We like results we can see right away.

This study hopes to show that mental health benefits may not be instantaneous, but are felt rather quickly in comparison. A year or two of eating vegetables and fruits is not a very long time, especially if it could monumentally upgrade your mood and general happiness.

The study did not show exactly why produce seemed to increase happiness, and more investigation is under way. The hypothesis is that these types of foods heighten the level of antioxidants in the blood, which can have a similar effect.

The case for fruits and veggies keeps getting stronger and stronger. For all the curmudgeons who still doubt the benefits and stay away from produce, eat an apple and try not to smile. 

Study Shows Fasting Could Reduce Gastrointestinal Inflammation

A new study suggests that fasting triggers molecular activity in the brain that can reduce bowel inflammation.

The study, conducted by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California, shows that the brain communicates with the gastrointestinal tract through a molecular channel. This line of communication strengthens the gut’s barrier against microbes in the GI tract, which prevents the immune system from activating during fasting. The discovery of this communication channel could lead to improved treatments for inflammatory bowel diseases.

The study was led by Mark Montminy of the Clayton Foundation Laboratories for Peptide Biology and John Thomas of the Salk Institute. Montminy says that fasting can affect the GI tract, the metabolic system, and brain function. Further understanding of how the GI tract maintains its barrier against microbes will allow the creation of more effective medicines that can reinforce that barrier and treat inflammatory bowel diseases.

This study was one in a series of experiments by the Montminy and Thomas research teams to examine a genetic switch called Crtc that occurs in the brain to control the balance of energy. 

Communication networks between the brain, the GI tract, and other tissues in the body helps to regulate the expenditure and storage of energy.

To investigate the Crtc mechanism, the research teams used fruit flies, because fruit flies and humans share many metabolic genes. Prior experiments by the researchers showed that flies whose Crtc gene had been deleted were more sensitive to fasting and lived half as long when deprived of food compared to flies whose Crtc gene was intact. The researchers hypothesized that the non-Crtc flies died more quickly because their bodies stored fewer fats and sugars.

When the researchers examined the flies more closely, they found that the non-Crtc fruit flies’ immune systems had kicked into overdrive. Without the Crtc gene, the flies’ immune systems were activated, which used up a lot of their energy. In the absence of Crtc, many gut bacteria leaked into the flies’ circulation, which is what triggered the immune system.

In normal fruit flies, the Crtc gene is used to strengthen the GI tract’s defenses to prevent bacteria from leaking into the bloodstream and activating the immune system. When the Crtc gene is removed, the cells in the gut lining were disrupted and caused the bacteria leak.

While performing these experiments, the researchers also discovered a molecular protein in the fruit flies’ brains called short neuropeptide F, or sNPF. Its counterpart in human brains is called neuropeptide Y. This protein causes flies and mammals to respond to hunger signals by seeking out food. Fruit flies without sNPF exhibited GI tract inflammation just like the flies without Crtc. Additionally, the non-sNPF flies showed breaks in the lining of the GI tract, which allowed bacteria to escape.

Flies with above average levels of Crtc or sNPF survived longer without food and displayed less disruption in their GI tract’s barriers.

So far, the results are very promising, and the researchers hope to continue experimenting on flies to better understand how the neuropeptides communicate with receptors in the gut.

Magnesium Consumption Good for the Body’s Circadian Clock

The circadian rhythm is the body’s natural clock. Important physical and mental changes follow this rough 24-hour cycle and correspond to natural environmental cues. Sleep plays a big role in keeping our body’s internal clock on track, but as many as half of Americans are not getting enough rest or are suffering from poor quality rest. A recent study found that magnesium could play a role in the sleep-wake cycle and maintaining a properly tuned internal clock.

Magnesium is a mineral that is involved in many diverse biochemical functions, including muscle and nerve function, blood pressure regulation, blood sugar control, bone development, nerve impulse control, muscle contraction and normal heart rhythm. It improves mood, increases power, helps relax muscles, calms nervous system, reduces effects of stress and anxiety and eases the symptoms of restless leg syndrome. It also has a powerful effect on the body’s metabolism and energy production. When your natural level of this mineral is higher, the cells are better able to process energy, but they are also better able to follow the natural sleep-wake cycles.

Researchers were able to adjust the mineral levels to improve the way humans converted food into energy and thereby were able to influence their sleep and wakefulness cycles. The RDA for this mineral varies according to age and sex. Men should get between 400 and 420 mg. per day while women should get between 310 and 320 mg. per day. Pregnant and lactating women may need between 310 and 400 mg. per day depending on their age.

While supplements can be an option, getting this nutrient through your diet offers more nutritional benefits. Good sources include sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, almonds, bananas, dark and leafy greens, fish, avocado, soybeans and dark chocolate. Getting more of this mineral in your diet might help you get your circadian rhythms back on track, boost your metabolism and help you feel well-rested in your daily life. It can have a big impact on your productivity and health. Your system will be better regulated, and you may just find your overall wellness improves as well.

Red Foods Linked to a Reduced Risk of Prostate Cancer

According to the American Cancer Society, prostate cancer is the second most common form of cancer for men. The average man has a one in five chance of developing prostate cancer at some point in his life, but these odds increase for African American men, men over the age of 50, and men with a family history of the disease.

Issues with the prostate are typically identified through a blood test called a PSA, or prostate-specific antigen. High PSA levels can indicate inflammation or infection in addition to cancer, so a biopsy is usually required to further test for prostate cancer.

Previous research has been done to study the effects of nutrition on prostate health and the risk of developing prostate cancer. A vegetarian diet has been proven to protect against prostate cancer. This is likely due to the high level of lycopene in a vegetarian diet. Lycopene is a pigment that gives fruits and vegetables like tomatoes, apricots, and watermelons their red color. Studies show that lycopene can lower PSA levels and reduce the risk of developing prostate cancer.

Some studies have found a benefit in using lycopene supplements, but lycopene is usually beneficial because it comes along with the cancer-fighting nutrients found naturally in fruits and vegetables. Eating red foods cooked in fat, like tomatoes cooked in olive oil, improves the body’s absorption of lycopene compared to eating raw red foods.

Another nutrient that has been proven to reduce the risk of prostate cancer is vitamin D. Vitamin D has a protective effect on the cells that make up the prostate gland. It is still unclear whether receiving vitamin D naturally through sunlight or by taking supplements is more beneficial. However, prostate cancer patients often show low levels of vitamin D in their bloodstream.

When considering preventative measures to stave off prostate cancer, the National Cancer Institute cautions that vitamin D can become toxic when taken in high doses. It is always best to consult your doctor before adding any supplements to your diet.

Your Short-Term Diet Might Be Doing More Harm Than Good

Short-term diets are very popular in today’s society, due to their easy availability and instant gratification of shedding pounds in a short amount of time. These short-term diets are successful in helping people lose weight quickly, but they yield few long-term results.

These diet plans are typically based on drastically reducing a person’s caloric intake, resulting in a calorie deficit. This deficit in calorie intake is usually combined with a limited array of permitted foods. Dieters often try to cut out an entire food group, like fats or carbohydrates, rather than maintain a balanced diet.

Short term dieters generally only consume 1,000 calories or fewer each day, achieving less than half of the recommended daily amount of 2,000 calories. This drastic reduction in calorie intake puts a lot of stress on the body. The body enters survival mode and begins to slow the metabolism and fat burning processes as a way to conserve energy. It is common for short-term dieters to quickly return to their pre-diet weight after quitting the program, because their body is rapidly trying to replace the lost calories.

Short-term diets are also harmful because they cause the body to lose muscle mass. Rather than drawing energy from stores of fatty adipose tissue, the body tries to make up for the lack of calories by pulling energy from water and muscle mass. Thus, the initial weight loss experienced by rapid dieters is usually due to a loss of muscle, not fat.

Additionally, the lack of food diversity in these diets causes deterioration to occur in the hair, nails, and teeth. The immune system is weakened due to lack of nourishment, making the body more susceptible to illness. Short-term dieters often experience a breakdown in mental and emotional health, which can lead to mental illnesses and eating disorders.

Quick diets promise immediate weight loss and a great physical appearance, but the positive results rarely last. Those looking to shed pounds and gain a healthier lifestyle should perform in-depth research into whatever diet plan they choose, and make sure to maintain healthy exercise and sleeping habits while dieting.