May Newsletter: How to be a vegetarian (or sometimes eat like one)

How to be vegetarian (or sometimes eat like one)

Without being hungry, tired, or malnourished

I grew up in an omnivorous household, and I was the only person in that household who opted to forgo meat as a matter of choice.

Family holiday dinners can still be a little awkward. At this point, my mom understands that I do need something to substitute the meat – it doesn’t work to just have the side dishes. However, she doesn’t have the energy to make a non-meat high protein dish that I will be the only one to eat. So I have to bring my own.

I first went vegetarian in high school. Honestly, I started because one of my friends was doing it. Feel free to laugh about my initial motivation.

Since high school, I have been everywhere on the vegetarian spectrum, from vegan, to standard lacto-ovo vegetarian, to pescatarian (vegetarian + eat seafood/fish). Currently I consider myself a “selective pescatarian” meaning  that I do sometimes eat fish but I am selective about it, and most of the time it is far easier to tell someone that I vegetarian than to explain why don’t want to eat whatever fish they have. I have learned to be selective about what non-meat protein sources I choose. I realized recently that I tend to feel better if I only consumed a small amount of dairy each day; in particular I do better with cultured dairy products. I have also recently realized that fake meat products made with mostly wheat protein (gluten) tend to have undesirable effects on my digestive system. Not a major problem, but it is something I’d rather avoid if I can.

A 2008 phone survey of Americans indicated that about 3% of us are vegetarian. Only 0.5% of Americans are vegan (which is a subset of vegetarians that eat no animal products, meaning no eggs/dairy). So I realize that many of you reading this newsletter are not vegetarian, and may have no plans to be.

However, there have been many times that I spoke to members about their diets, and they tell me that sometimes they just don’t feel like eating meat at a given meal, and just want to know to put together a meat-free meal without being so hungry afterward. Other members of the Fitness Center tell me that they are vegetarian for religious or cultural reasons, or may be vegetarian for certain time periods. Many of these people come to me with their struggles of being vegetarian while keeping their hunger and body fat in check.

Currently, the US government is considering recommending a plant-based diet as part of the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The Guidelines won’t be finalized until later this year, but it shows that the idea of eating more plants is gaining traction. I am not here to convert you, but just to show you how to intelligently consider your options.

It’s Tough Being Green

The internet loves to ridicule vegetarians and vegans. In many areas of the country, it is hard to find vegetarian restaurants, or even individual menu items that are meat-free. It’s a lonely road sometimes.

Another difficult aspect of vegetarian life is the fact that everyone in your life seems to become very concerned about your nutrition. Let me tell you, it is just as easy to be a malnourished meat-eater as non-meat-eater. However, American culture is so based on meat-eating that public knowledge of how to build a healthy meat-free diet is sorely lacking.

Vegetarians get sick of people asking them “where do you get your protein?” However, there are still plenty of newbie (and not-so-new) vegetarians that are mismanaging their diets that people still feel the need to ask. Stereotypes of weak frail vegetarians eating plain rice abound, and I don’t want you to be just another stereotype.

So here are my Top 3 Big Ideas for putting together a vegetarian meal or diet.

*Be aware of protein sources (and also how much fat and/or carbohydrate comes along with those grams of protein)*

Yes, protein matters. Protein is an essential building block for your muscle and connective tissue. Protein also contributes significantly to your satiety (feeling full) from a meal. Protein needs vary depending on your size and activity level. As a general rule, try to aim for somewhere between 0.7 – 1.0 grams of protein per pound of body weight. For someone who is 120lb, that would be somewhere between 84 and 120 grams of protein per day.

Many foods contain protein, and many of the foods on this list (below) have a lot of carbohydrate and/or fat that come along with that protein. So if you are trying to watch your weight, you may find that you need some foods that are more concentrated in protein without all the other calories from carbs or fat. Chlorella and spirulina (microscopic algae common in “greens” powders) are both almost 60% protein by weight. They are a good quality protein, but most people who consume them only have a small amount. If you want a great source of protein plus vitamins and minerals, try a big scoop of chlorella or spirulina in almond or coconut milk. I suggest cocoa powder and stevia for taste.

*Vary your protein sources and focus on whole food (don’t over-rely on just soy products, or a certain brand of fake meat)*

Depending on where you get your news from, you may have seen some negative press about soy and the phytoestrogens in it making you fat. The reason soy became so popular in the US is that we looked to Eastern cultures where soy is popular and has been eaten for centuries, and they enjoy good health and longevity. We wanted that health and longevity, so we started using more and more soy. It has gotten to a point where soy derivatives (like texturized vegetable protein) are in all kinds of food you wouldn’t expect. We took a healthy food, and then took it out of context with heavy processing. If you choose to eat soy, it is best to stick with traditional, minimally processed forms – edamame, miso, natto, and tofu. The lesson here is to stick with whole foods as much as possible and limit processed foods. Check out ingredient lists, and if you aren’t sure what something is – find out!

Many of the most popular meat substitutes are made with proteins that are common allergens, such as wheat and soy. While veggie “meats” have been getting a lot better in the past 20 years, soy and wheat proteins are still the most common but you may find that you need to avoid or limit them. Other protein sources, such as brown rice, pea, and even mushroom, are becoming more common and give you a variety of options.

*Be aware of key nutrients that are frequently lacking in vegetarian/vegan diets*

Vegetarian diets are very healthy when planned correctly. The problem is that they are often not planned correctly. Vegetarian and vegan diets commonly lack sufficient protein, iron, zinc, calcium, vitamin B12, vitamin D, and vitamin A (or carotenes, precursor to vitamin A). Most of these are well taken care of when the diet includes a variety of nuts, seeds, legumes (beans), dark green and orange vegetables. However, many vegetables and legumes also contain factors that inhibit the absorption of other nutrients. Supplementation for vitamin D and B12 may be needed – always ask your doctor to get a blood test. This will help ensure you are supplementing the right nutrients for you.

March Newsletter: Hunger & Appetite

Hunger and Appetite: Aren’t those synonyms?

We all know about the concept of “Freshman 15,” so let me share my experience with you.

I have had a steady body weight through my adult life, but the first year of college brought a lot of stress. Most of it was good and exciting, but of course there was the academic course load, and holding yourself to a very high academic standard is tough for anyone.

Living in the dorm with a bunch of other 18 year olds was both exciting and frustrating, and we were all required to be on the meal plan that included meals at the cafeteria. There was an urban legend going around the dorm that the cafeteria staff secretly sprayed extra starch on the salad bar lettuce so that girls didn’t become anorexic. I‘m pretty sure that was false.

I never really liked it as much as home cooking, but there were just always so many choices. Dessert was available every day. That wasn’t normal to me. In my household, dessert was an infrequent treat, so I probably went overboard, eating things mostly because the choices were there and it was exciting for me.

I was physically active. I took some early morning kickboxing classes, plus I was still trying to keep up my high school habit of running in the morning. I distinctly remember waking up regularly at about 6am and being SO. DARN. HUNGRY. Really, so hungry that it was my hunger waking me up, not my alarm. I couldn’t even think of sleeping in when my stomach growled that much in the early morning.

I also recall having frequent digestive issues at that time, which I never really figured out at the time. You know – issues of the stinky, embarrassing variety. Not good for anyone’s social life. I felt that my diet was “off” in some way, but I couldn’t figure out how to fix it.

Bottom line – I gained 10 pounds during my first year of college. How did that happen?

For years, this has puzzled me; even as I got my bachelor’s degree in nutrition, and went on to start my career in fitness.

It has taken me many years to come to terms with the fact that I, like any other human may do at some point, had mistaken my appetite for hunger.

Appetite, hunger, satiety… will this be on the test?

We all like to think that we can’t be fooled. Once we have seen how a magic trick works… we won’t be taken in. That is for other people, the ones who are ignorant. But not me – I am too smart to be fooled. Famous last words.

The thing is – once you think you know it all, you stop looking at everything else around you with open curiosity. The sad truth is that people who think they are too smart to be fooled are exactly the ones who get fooled.

For decades, the officially accepted dogma in nutrition and weight loss (and the way I was taught in my college nutrition courses) was that all you had to do was expend more calories than you take in. Simple as that – your body is a math equation. Aerobics were the superior form of exercise for weight loss because it burns the greater percent of calories from fat. Oh, and definitely a low fat diet was the way to go, since obviously eating fat will make you fat. A healthy individual should be able to self-regulate food intake based on hunger, but if you have trouble with that, then tough, you just need to count calories.

So scientists had it figured out, and government health agencies disseminated the information to the public. Low fat diets and steady-state aerobic exercise reigned supreme throughout the 20^th century, and America continued to get fatter by the year.

We started with this equation for energy balance:

Calories in = calories out

Now, the equation looks more like this:

Calories in + stress + inadequate sleep + inattentive eating habits out of proportion to real hunger cues + addictive nature of processed foods = Calories out (consists of: resting metabolic rate + all movement and exercise, which is affected by sedentary lifestyle, movement patterns, and metabolic adaptation to aerobic exercise)

It turns out that there are several factors on the “calories in” side of the equation that complicate things by affecting your hormones or your psychological state. It also turns out that appetite doesn’t always match up with hunger.

Appetite is a psychological desire for food, and as such it will be affected by your past experience with food, as well as your current mental state. Hunger is your body’s physical need for food.

Theoretically, hunger should drive appetite, but in real life it doesn’t always work out nice and clean like that. Likewise, the satisfaction of physical hunger should give a satisfaction of appetite, but once again satiety doesn’t always work out that way.

There’s a saying that reflects this mismatch between hunger and appetite. Have you ever said that someone’s eyes were bigger than their stomach? Have you ever said it about yourself? The phrase is usually in the context of dishing yourself up more food than you can eat, and being left with a lot of wasted food – a common phenomenon at buffets and potlucks. A similar phrase is biting off more than you can chew – and these are just the American English phrases. Each language and culture has their own phrases for similar situations. After all, eating and culture are deeply intertwined, and appetite is universal.

So what happens if you override your physical signals telling you to put the brakes on eating, and just keep going back and back again for more because you simply have to try everything? The immediate effects are typically painful, usually involving heartburn and other digestive upset, and the long term effects are an increase in girth. The more often you do it, the more your friends and family come to regard you as a member of the “clean plate club.” They start to anticipate your reaction and offer or leave you food.

Are you someone who always eats the leftovers from your kids’ dinner plates? It is a common thing, and I have heard it from members of this gym. When you finish your kids’ leftovers on a regular basis, appetite gives way to habit. If you are in this situation frequently, you may not have the appetite to finish the other’s plate, but habit and culture can be strong driving forces. I know many people who struggle with their weight because someone else in the family (child or spouse) has eyes bigger than their stomach, but the composure to stop eating when satisfied. The other person (who hates wasting food – which I completely understand and relate to) is left to most likely become the human garbage disposal for the other person’s sampled fare.

We all have times that we succumb to such feelings, even more so at parties, holidays, or other celebrations. The first step in getting things under control is to acknowledge that you are human, and therefore your desires can get the better of you sometimes. I find that the more thoroughly I accept the ebb and flow of my desires, the easier is the whole process of self-regulating food intake.

The second step is to slow down your eating. Chew more, take smaller bites. Ask yourself if you are really still hungry. Sometimes this can be hard question to answer for yourself, so I have found that an even better way to go about it is to ask yourself if you are still enjoying your food as much as when you started eating. If you are still not sure, just put your meal on pause for a few minutes. You can always resume if you later decide you are still hungry.

The third step is to never punish yourself, no matter what dietary “transgressions” you experience. As soon as you mentally chastise yourself, a different part of your brain will most likely feel upset at the restriction, and then proceed to drive you further off your plan to complete dietary abandon. When your meal is that emotionally charged, it is next to impossible to discern the signs of satiety from your body.

In the paraphrased words of best-selling author and gym owner Rachel Cosgrove, “if you had a flat tire, would you stop and fix that one tire, or would you just slash the other three?” Of course you wouldn’t slash your tires, so quit derailing your nutrition goals.

It takes time to get to know your body well enough to keep your appetite in line with your hunger. It can be particularly difficult to anticipate your changing hunger levels when you start doing more metabolically demanding workouts, such as we do in our classes. It is natural that working out will stimulate your appetite, but when you are trying to trim your waistline, it doesn’t do you good to overcompensate in terms of diet. So remember, when in doubt, slow down. It also helps to keep a food/exercise journal so you can see the trends of how different types of exercise affect your hunger the following day.

Wash-and-Chop: The answer to getting yourself to eat more vegetables

Getting yourself to eat more vegetables like you know you should can be a battle. There are lots of common hurdles, including the time and effort to prepare vegetables for meals, or just not “liking” vegetables. The answer to “not liking” vegetables is to buy better quality (fresh, local, in season) and learn to cook! The answer to the time stumbling block is…

Wash-and-Chop

A streamlined method for washing and prepping your vegetables for the week ahead of time. This is a simple concept: right after you do your weekly grocery shopping (and plan out your meals for the week – planning is big key to success), you gather up all your veggies in a colander, wash them, cut/chop, and put back into the fridge in tupperware (or if you are like me, GlassLock reusable containers).

I know from my own experience comparing weeks when I successfully wash-and-chop versus failing to do so that I easily double my intake of vegetables by doing this.

Having the veggies ready to go makes it super easy to throw them into your omelette or salad or stir fry.

Have leftover shopped onions and broccoli (or whatever) at the end of the week? Put them in a frittata. (this is a baked egg dish that you can put any kind of meat or vegetable you like – it is the answer for leftovers!)

But what about pre-cut veggies?

Pre-cut is convenient, and convenient comes at a higher price. Also, there is a price in terms of compromised freshness. In my limited experience with pre-cut fresh veggies, I also seem to be slightly more likely to get food poisoning from them (and that is after washing and cooking!). That’s just my take on it, but I suggest washing and cutting your own vegetables.

actually, this is enough vegetables for just 2 meals for me – a week’s worth would be a lot more

But I don’t like drinking water

At Sanctuary Fitness, we keep our nutrition advise pretty simple for clients, and it can be summarized in just a few words: protein, veggies, fish oil, and water.

Of those 4 concepts, water intake is the simplest to explain, but occasionally someone will say “but I don’t like drinking water.”

I certainly enjoy ice cold water on a hot day, but there are times that I don’t feel like drinking plain water, so I can sympathize with this sentiment. So here are some suggestions for healthy hydration. Start with a good water filter at home, and of course use reusable bottles when on the go.

1. Lemon/lime juice added to water – juice of half a lemon or lime added to a glass of cold water makes a very refreshing drink. Here is a convenient water bottle that already has a citrus juicer built in: Zing Anything. Also, you can boil a cut lemon in 2 cups of water to make a healthy detox drink full of limonene.
2. Mint water – someone made a fortune of bottling this concept, but you can make your own easily. Add a few drops of mint essential oil to you water and stir, or add mint leaves and refrigerate overnight.
3. Carbonated water – this idea can be combined with any of the other flavoring ideas, or add a few drops of liquid stevia to make your own soda. Make your own with Soda Stream.
4. Tea – herbal, green or white teas are a great way to get hydrated. I like having tea in winter, but you can also do iced tea in the summer time. Keep it lightly sweetened.
5. Any fruit or vegetable combination that appeals to you – I never got into cucumbers in water, but I have seen lots of people do it. Try whatever you like with your own infused water.

Note: Sometimes people don’t want to drink enough water because they aren’t absorbing it (feel like it is just sloshing around in stomach). In that case, adding a pinch of sea salt to a water bottle will help you to absorb the water better. Use just a pinch – you should not be able to taste it. Try Celtic Sea Salt.