Healthy eating doesn’t mean missing out on fun activities – Greenville Daily Reflector

A shout-out to “Baby-Friendly” Vidant Medical Center. It takes a great commitment to women and their babies by staff, doctors and the administration to earn the certification by the Baby-Friendly USA organization, and VMC has done it again. Our moms, babies and the community benefit from breast-feeding mothers receiving optimal level of care. Congratulations and thank you.

 

Q I have finally gotten serious about protecting my health, but I don’t want to miss out on fun activities. How do I eat healthily at a cookout? — A.J., Winterville

A Congrats on your commitment to healthy eating and physical activity. Healthy eating doesn’t mean missing out on fun. My patients tell me they “cheat.” I don’t really like the concept of cheating. I prefer to “plan” for eating events that may not be “optimal.” I asked Rachel Jonas, a third-year Brody medical student, to give you some suggestions and discuss the concept of “self-efficacy.”

You decided to drop a few pounds. You met with your family doctor and created an exercise and diet plan. You have been sticking to the plan and the pounds are coming off. Then invitations to cookouts and tailgates start arriving in your inbox. You have a dilemma: You want to go, but you know that cookouts are a nightmare for sticking to dietary lifestyle modifications. Here are some tips to navigate cookout and tailgate season.

Give yourself some slack and recognize that a cookout probably won’t be your healthiest meal of the week. Don’t expect to eat perfectly or you may be disappointed and feel like you failed.

Many studies show that high self-efficacy, or your confidence in your abilities to accomplish something, predicts success with lifestyle changes. Do not let the cookout compromise your belief in your ability to stick to a healthy lifestyle. Your loss of self-efficacy could be even more detrimental than the unhealthy eating itself. And the cookout doesn’t have to be horribly unhealthy.

Before arriving at the cookout, eat a small, healthy, filling snack, such as almonds, low-fat yogurt, low-fat string cheese or veggie sticks and hummus. This ensures you do not show up hungry and ready to load up your plate with everything. Take small portions of calorie-laden dishes like pasta and potato salad. Eat a lot of salsa on few chips.

Here are nutrition facts for one serving of the store-bought version of sides. One 5-ounce serving of pasta salad has 390 calories, 29 grams of fat, 29 grams of carbohydrates, 1 grams fiber, 4 grams of protein, while a 5-ounce serving of potato salad has 210 calories, 13 grams of fat, 21 grams of carbohydrates, 3 grams of fiber, 3 grams of protein. One serving of tortilla chips (regular, not baked) has 140 calories, 7 grams of fat, 19 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of protein. The values listed above are for one serving. Be conscious of serving size, which will be a lot easier if you do not arrive at the cookout on an empty, growling stomach.

If you have a choice between a burger or a hot dog, here is some information to help you make the decision. One 3-ounce burger patty has 213 calories, 13 grams of fat, 0 carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber and 22 grams of protein. Three ounces of a hotdog (about two hotdogs) contains 260 calories, 24 grams of fat, 2 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber and 10 grams of protein. A burger has fewer calories, less fat, and more protein than two hot dogs.

However, be conscious of how you prepare the burger. If you start piling cheese (1 slice is about 60 calories), mayonnaise (1 tablespoon is about 100 calories) and bacon (2 slices are about 80 calories) on top, the calories surpass that of a hotdog. Low-calorie burger toppings include onions, pickles, tomatoes, lettuce and mustard.

If you are a vegetarian, black bean burgers are a great option to throw on the grill. You can bring your own to the cookout. The beans in a black bean burger recipe can be replaced with lentils, white beans or any mashable vegetable. If you make your own veggie burger, they tend to be a little looser and less compact than the store-bought kind, so put them on foil on the grill to prevent them from falling through.

People often struggle with dessert at cookouts. Offer to bring a fruit. This guarantees a healthy option yet something sweet at the end of the meal and reduces the temptation for pies, cakes, cupcakes and cookies. In eastern North Carolina, every cookout or tailgate should have a juicy watermelon. Watermelon is healthy (one cup of diced watermelon has fewer than 50 calories) and also has been shown to help with blood-pressure control. Recent studies show that a compound in watermelon, lycopene, can contribute to bone health. Watermelon or another fruit should satisfy any sweet tooth.

 

Professor emeritus Kathy Kolasa, a registered dietitian nutritionist and Ph.D., is an Affiliate Professor in the Brody School of Medicine at ECU. Contact her at kolasaka@ecu.edu.

from myhealtyze http://www.myhealtyze.tk/healthy-eating-doesnt-mean-missing-out-on-fun-activities-greenville-daily-reflector/