12 Nutritional Changes for 2012

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As many of you know, I run fitness boot camps and I like to provide my campers with great information to help them meet their fitness and fat loss goals. To this end, we did a conference call with my ‘go to’ nutritionist, Danielle Cobbet from Simply for Life.

 

You’re in luck because, even though many of you can’t participate in my boot camp, you can still benefit from the info I provide to my clients. Here’s the download link so that you can listen in on the call.

 

In summary, here are the points that we discussed:

 

1. Breakfast

  • Eating within 20 min of waking up increases metabolic rate right away

  • Breakfast helps to ensure you don’t fall off the nutritional wagon by 10 am

  • Variety of breakfast – shakes, egg whites, greek yogurt, oatmeal

 

 

2. Add more veggies

  • Increase to 4 cups/day

  • Try new veggies

 

 

3. Be aware of sugar intake

  • Look for sugar content when reading labels!

  • Look for  <10 g of sugar/serving

  • 2 tsp of sugar (<10 g)/serving is an acceptable sugar content

  • Sugar consumption compromises the immune system

 

 

4. Eat more probiotics

  • Probiotics boosts the immune system, reduces inflammation, helps with lactose intolerance, helps those who suffer from IBS

  • Probiotics are live bacteria

  • Recommended amount is 40 billion active bacteria/day

  • Good sources include: yogurt, miso soup, fermented milk, kefir (a type of yogurt)

  • Store in probiotics in the fridge

  • A good Canadian brand is Bio K (found at Super store in capsules or liquid form)

 

 

5. Increase fiber

  • Try to have 30 g/day

  • Benefits include: feeling fuller longer, stable blood sugar levels, regular bowels

  • Great sources include: 2 kiwi, increased veggies, whole grains vs whole wheat, flax seed, chia seed

 

 

6. Eat coconut

  • It is a short chain saturated fat

  • For 1.5 oz  you’ll get 14 g fiber

  • It’s a great snack idea that’s very portable and easy to pack

  • Coconut water is a good elecrolyte replacement drink (but beware of liquid calories)

  • Recommended product is found at Costco (dried $10/bag)

 

 

7. Eat more dark chocolate 🙂

  • Dark chocolate is one of the highest anti oxidant food on the planet

  • Look for 85% cacao or higher

  • It can be bitter (start at 65% to 70% to work up to 85%)

  • 1 oz is a good snack to kill chocolate craving

  • Very easy to over eat chocolate so make sure to pre portion

 

 

8. Eat more fish

  • Brilliant source of omega 3’s found  in cold water fish

  • Great examples include sole, halibut, salmon

  • Expose kids to fish early on to help them develop a taste for fish

  • Eat wild fish not farmed when possible

  • Stay tuned for an update from Danielle on high mercury fishes

 

 

9. Get your Vitamin D supplement

  • Helps with a variety of things including weight loss and disease prevention

  • Most people in northern climates are deficient in vitamin D from Oct to May

  • Health practitioners won’t even test because deficiency is so prevelent

  • Recommended daily dose is 2000 IUD for adults

  • Milk drinkers can supplement with 1000 IUD/day

10. Drink red wine 🙂

  • Great health benefits!

  • Melbac is a great choice because it’s lower in sugar

  • Argentinian and French wines are best

  • European wines have less pesticides and sugar so can be a good choice too

  • Limit American wines

  • Limit consumption if weight loss is a goal since 4 oz  is 70 calories

11. Reduce eating processed foods

  • Shop on the perimeter of grocery store

  • Eat more natural foods, or foods as close to nature as possible

  • Look for less chemicals and preservatives

  • Be aware of advertising and marketing, not all claims are correct

  • Read ingredient list on all foods and learn how to interpret labels

  • Try to find foods with ingredients you can pronounce, if a 3rd grader can’t pronounce the ingredients it’s likely not a good choice

  • Eat out less

  • Eat home cooked meals so you know what you’re eating

 

 

12. Get prepared

  • Plan your meals in advance

  • Cook in batches

  • Keep nutrition ‘top of mind awareness’ versus an after thought

There you have some great tips to help you meet your fitness and fat loss goals. If you live in the Calgary area, check out Simply for Life. It’s a great resource and support for those of you that may need that extra push. The phone number is 403-220-9306

Again, you can listen in on the conversation with my nutritionist and take away 12 tips to help you get 2012 dialed in nutritionally. Click this link to listen.