Don’t Buck Up Your Weight Loss Plans

If you know me, you know I love my Starbucks.  Or “S-bucks” as we simply call it around my house.  I am at S-bucks almost every day, at some point, to stop in for my usual: a grande bold blend with a bit of cream (yes, cream) and a sprinkle of cinnamon.  We even grind and brew S-bucks at home every morning.  Really… I should have shares.

That’s nothing special, though.  S-bucks is everywhere these days.  When I schedule a walk or park playdate for our New Toronto Moms Meetup (www.newtorontomoms.com), I often choose a Starbucks as our meeting point.  Not just because I’m an addict.  They really are everywhere.  They have change tables, they’re breastfeeding friendly, and they have such a wide variety on their menu (both food and drink) that they can usually make everyone happy.

OK, so I like Starbucks.  But the lovefest ends here.

Here’s a question for you: What’s your usual Starbucks order? Is it a “tall soy latte, easy foam” or a “venti iced coffee with milk” or maybe a “grande mocha frappucino, hold the whip”…?

Starbucks (or Second Cup, or Tim Horton’s or whatever your poison is) can be the pick-me-up in your day.  But it can also really mess up your diet.

Starbucks drinks range from 0-500+ calories per serving.  500 calories? That’s a meal!  Here are a few drinks to avoid when visiting S-bucks next time.  Loaded with saturated fat, sugar and calories, these drinks are diet bombs! Is your drink on this list? (all nutritional info is for grande size)

• Double Chocolatey Chip Frappuccino – 500 calories, 9 g fat
• Strawberry Vivano Smoothie – 280 calories, 2 g fat
• White Chocolate Mocha – 400 calories, 11 g fat
• Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha – 470 calories, 12 g fat
• Dark Cherry Mocha – 320 calories, 8 g fat
• Caffe Mocha – 260 calories, 8 g fat
• Iced White Chocolate Mocha – 340 calories, 9 g fat

Those calorie counts are all without whipped cream!  Add the whipped cream topping and you’ve added an additional 70 calories and 6 g fat to your “drink”!  You’d be better off drinking a regular cup of coffee and selecting a small pastry than choosing one of these beverages.

Here are a few tips to down-size your fat and calorie intake the next time you’re placing your order:

• avoid anything ending in “frappuccino” or “mocha”
• select hot or iced coffee or tea, unsweetened, and sweeten yourself with one packet of sugar for just 25 calories
• order sugar-free syrup when flavouring your drink
• not a fan of artificial sweeteners?  ask for just “half-sweet” iced coffee or tea
• skip the whipped cream
• order skim milk instead of 2% to save 40 calories per cup
• ask for a “light” version of your favourite drink and save up to half the calories of the regular version

Remember, S-bucks is not in the business of making you skinny.  They concoct their beverages to taste as yummy as possible.  And, like most cafes and restaurants, that means adding the sugar and fat necessary to give you that “WOW” flavour that keeps you coming back.

Be aware and you’ve taken the first step to changing your eating habits. Make yourself aware; check out the nutritional information for your favourite beverage on the Starbucks website.  Then order a plain coffee and be on your way…

Granola Bars for Your Inner Cookie Monster

trainer-approved recipes

- Beth Beauchemin (Read About Beth)

It is no secret that I am the Cookie Monster incarnate – I can scarf down my favourite oatmeal chocolate cookie (yep, the typical fat and sugar laden one that I find at my favourite coffee shop!) faster than you can blink an eye!  However, those delicious treats don’t really provide much more than a quick sugar high, followed by a more devastating crash.  Add to the mix my crazy 7 1/2-month pregnant state PLUS just life in general with a toddler, and you have me wanting NEEDING a yummy, but good for me, substitute for those delectable cookies.

At first, I turned to everyone’s favourite, and hopefully somewhat healthy, pocket snack – granola bars.  I think I kept Nature Valley in business for the first 6 months of my toddler’s life!  However, upon closer inspection, it turns out that my awesome snack food was not so good!  I won’t go into specifics, but suffice it to say that those sweet and salty bars have sugar listed 7 different times.  (The plain old crunchy bars only have it listed 1-2x, but as the second ingredient.)   While I’m not one to cut dessert out of my life, I do try to be selective about where and how much sugar I’m ingesting.  The occasional gelato run in the summer is all good (in my books, anyway) but my “healthy” snack food is not the place for sugar. (FYI – sugar has been linked to bloating, excessive flatulence, loose stools, insulin resistance, increased LDL (bad) cholesterol, decreased immune function, and obesity.  Can you blame me for wanting to minimize its appearance in my food?)

So, snackless and desperately needing a quick, easy, and portable pick-me-up, I turned to a fabulous friend and nutrition expert for some advice!  Counselling me away from processed sugars and empty calories, Lianne from Sprout Right has given me my newest fast and delicious treat.  These bars are officially for our little ones, but I think that they are just about perfect for almost any busy person who’s on the go.  The other great thing about these bars… start to finish (including loading the dishwasher) takes less than 20min.  Perfect!

Sprout Right “Go Faster” Granola Bars

Sprout Right founder, Lianne Phillipson-Webb

Yields 16 bars.

• 1 cup Nature’s Path Millet Rice Flakes
• 1 cup whole rolled oats
• ¾ cup dried fruit (raisins, dates, apricots, etc.), chopped
• ¼ cup sunflower, pumpkin, or sesame seeds
• ¼ cup chopped almonds or cashews
• ½ cup brown rice syrup
• 2 tbsp coconut butter or unsalted butter
• ¼ cup almond or peanut butter

1. Mix together all the dry ingredients in a bowl.  2. Gently heat brown rice syrup, coconut butter, and nut butter in a large saucepan until melted and smooth.  3. Add dry ingredients to saucepan and quickly stir well to coat completely.  4. Press into a 8” square pan.  5. Refrigerate for at least 1hr and cut into squares.  Store in the fridge or freezer.

Nutrition Information: (per serving; varies slightly) 128 calories; 5.5 g fat; 3.1 g protein; 18.3 g carbohydrate; 1.7 g fiber

• slow releasing carbs and healthy fats for longer lasting energy

• good source of vitamin E, calcium, zinc, vitamin B1, manganese, magnesium, protein, copper, selenium, phosphorus, vitamin B5, folate

My other go-to portable snack bar is from Weelicious.com.  Blogger Catherine McCord isn’t a nutritionist but a busy mom who loves good food.  Weelicious is a fabulous resource not only for when you need to feed the little people, but also for when you need to keep yourself going!  Her protein bars (a Lara Bar knock off, but WAY more affordable when you have the time to make them) are awesome!

Bon appétit!

the truth about breastfeeding & fat loss

You’ve heard it before, probably even from your OB-GYN or your midwife when she was listing the benefits of breastfeeding to you.  Your mom, sister, aunt, girlfriend or coworker might have told you.  Maybe you googled “baby weight” or “benefits of breastfeeding” and read it there.

hello baby, bye-bye treadmill?

Breastfeeding an infant burns about 500 calories per day. Wow!  500 calories a day!  That’s like jogging an entire hour.  Or doing two back-to-back bootcamp classes!

Only… it doesn’t quite work that way.  It’s true that maintaining a supply of breastmilk requires a woman to eat approximately 500 calories more than she normally would to maintain her own healthy bodyweight.  BUT… that’s the key – it requires you to EAT those calories.  If you don’t eat enough calories, you might not make the same quantity or quality of breastmilk.  So dieting is not really an option when you’re breastfeeding.  The LaLeche League recommends you consume a minimum of 1500-1800 calories per day in order to safely lose a healthy amount of baby weight while still providing quality milk for your little one.

The female body is an enigma.  No matter how much we learn about dieting, fitness and fat loss, we are still at the mercy of Mother Nature.

healthy baby, chubby mommy... fair trade.

I breastfed my first child for 23 months.  That’s right.  When I found out I was pregnant with #2 I was concerned about being active, nursing my toddler and providing enough calories for my growing baby, so I decided to wean my toddler.  After weaning, I actually LOST about 5 pounds that had, despite all my efforts and all my knowledge about fitness and weight loss, been clinging to me for 2 years since giving birth.  Now I’m nursing my second and, almost 5 months in, I am reigning in my expectations, settling in for a long chubby period and expecting to lose those last few pounds with some hard work once I’ve finished breastfeeding for once and for all.  And it’s not just me.  Friends, clients, acquaintances have all told me they’ve experienced the same sudden weight loss during and after weaning.

So what gives?  If nursing burns calories, why do you LOSE weight when you wean?  Shouldn’t the weight melt off while you’re nursing instead?

The truth is that a breastfeeding body is in many ways like a pregnant body.  Hormones produced during the breastfeeding stages help a woman (without asking her opinion, mind you…) maintain fat stores to help feed her and baby in the event of a famine.  Once baby is weaned, many women see a weight loss as hormone levels return to normal.

The best formula for losing that baby weight is to eat according to your hunger (read: not your cravings, your hunger), drink according to your thirst and exercise at least 3-4 days per week with a combination of strength training to boost your metabolism and cardiovascular exercise to burn off extra calories.

And patience.  The other part of that formula is patience.

How have your postpartum weight loss efforts worked?  Did you find you lost weight at certain stages more easily than others?  Share with us!



Finally Fit in 2010: Secrets from Belly Bootcamp

the trainer’s toolbox

We'll bet the farm this resolution is on your list....

Resolution déjà vu?  Make that fitness resolution for the last time this year and finally achieve it with these secrets from the popular Belly Bootcamp fitness classes for modern mommies.

Start by choosing a realistic goal with a specific timeline – instead of “I want to lose all my baby weight,” try “I will weigh 145 pounds by April 1” or “I will run a 10K race on May 20.”  Then break that goal down into manageable steps – figure out how many pounds you need to lose per week or per month, or how many minutes you need to run each week as you work your way up to your jogging goal, for example.

Got your goal set and your path laid out?  Every fitness achievement starts with effective workouts (and a healthy dose of willpower).  Take a page from the Belly Bootcamp bible and steal these women’s fitness secrets that help our mommies get their fittest ever:

1. super sets (and circuits) are super. Structure your workout so you perform two exercises working different muscles back-to-back.  Try pairing up one leg exercise with one upper body exercise or one core exercise with any large muscle move using the legs, back or chest.  Complete one set of each in succession, then rest 30-60 seconds before your next set. Cardio junkies will love squeezing in 1-5 minutes of sprinting, cycling or stepping as well – try completing one circuit of 8-10 different exercises, then a bit of cardio before completing a final set of each exercise.
2. power up your cardio. Interval training uses short bouts of high-intensity cardio (approximately 85% of maximum heart rate) with periods of active rest (65-75% of MHR) to blast off more calories in less time and boost your metabolism for hours after you step off the treadmill.  After a 5-10 minute warmup, try 1 minute running as hard as you can with 2 minutes jogging or speedwalking; repeat 6 times and cool down.
3. use your downtime. Instead of completing a set and resting 1-2 minutes before starting again, recover those lost minutes by performing a lighter exercise while you recover from your main move.  Try a standing shoulder press while you rest your legs or some crunches while you rest your back.  By the time you finish those crunches your back will be ready to go again! 
4. go for compound moves. These are the moves that really get your heart rate up in half the time and burn tons of calories by incorporating two exercises into one, such as a squat with a shoulder press or a bent-over row with a triceps kickback. Perform these moves as you would any others, in succession with no rest until you complete the set.  Not for the faint of heart!
5. know how much is too much. There is a difference between feeling “the burn” and feeling like you’re about to pass out.  Your workout should be challenging enough to make you grit your teeth a bit as you finish those last few reps or the last few minutes of your cardio.  If you breeze through it, it’s not stimulating your muscles and brain enough to make the impact you’re looking for.  If it’s downright painful or causes faintness, dizziness, or extreme fatigue, chances are you’ll burn out or become injured long before you’ve had a chance to reach that goal of yours. 

One last secret of Belly Bootcampers?  You can get fit without a gym membership, without much equipment and without spending a lot of money.  For tons of trainer-tested exercises you can do at home or to try a Belly Bootcamp class near you, visit www.fitfamily.ca or www.bellybootcamp.ca.

I don’t remember my jeans being THIS tight…

the trainer’s toolbox

- Beth Beauchemin (Read About Beth)

Wow!  Who can believe that the leaves have changed, the jack o lanterns are out with the compost, and November is upon us.  It feels like only yesterday that Max and I were still bouncing out the door in shorts and tee-shirts.  Now it’s coats, sweaters and jeans!  I love fall (it’s my favourite season!), but the cooler (grey!) days often leave me wanting more fatty foods and less runs around the neighbourhood.  The 2 of those combined (plus a few yummy Thanksgiving and birthday meals, along with Halloween goodies!) usually have my jeans feeling a “little” tighter than I like them to!

So, what’s a girl to do? Well, if these were my pre-baby days it would be MUCH easier – cut down on carbs after lunch, slightly increase my protein intake, increase my water consumption, eliminate “white (sugar, flour, etc), and throw in a few more workouts.  Humph, sometimes I miss the ease of my pre-baby life!  Max is a very healthy eater, but I think I would have a revolt if supper turned into chicken (or fish!) and steamed veggies every night of the week.  Exercise is another story:  I now dream of getting 3 workouts in a week, let along the 5-6 that I easily pumped out in my former life.   And cut out sugar?  Are you crazy? How are you supposed to drink coffee (which is a new life necessity!) without any sugar in it?  You must agree… this is quite a dilemma!  It’s also one that I can’t afford to get too lazy on.  Christmas is around the corner and the last thing I want to do is to go into Christmas already worrying about how tight my jeans are. That means they definitely won’t fit come Jan 2!

It’s clear my old tricks won’t work.  Let’s have a serious look now at what I can do within the boundaries of my current life as a mom.

1. Start looking at what I’m eating. I don’t know about you, but at each meal I was eating my portion, plus often half of Max’s.   If I was to add that all up over the course of the past few months…. (especially including the dessert part) – yikes!  That would explain the tighter pants!  If you are like me, a phrase similar to “we can’t waste food while people are starving” runs through your head when you look at an unfinished plate.  IT’S OK!  People are not going to be any less hungry because you forced yourself to finish not 1, but 2 plates.  In fact, they may even be a little upset with you.  Whatever your child doesn’t eat, either: a) wrap up and save for another meal; or b) toss it into the compost.  Perhaps your servings are too big and you can make them a bit smaller, or perhaps the little one wasn’t hungry.  Either way, keep your fork on your own plate.  It’s much better this way – trust me!
2. Cut out white things. Unfortunately there is no shortcut on this one.  White sugar and white flour (the cornerstone of all things “bad”) are just not good for you, and if you cut them out not only will your midline smooth, but so will your moods.  Need another reason to cut out the white, white sugar has a significant effect on your immune system, and decreases your body’s immune response up to 6hrs after ingesting it.  YIKES!  With the flu scare this season, I need my immune system running at full capacity.  No white for me!  (No, I still haven’t given up on caffeine completely, but I’m taking it in a form that doesn’t need sugar – hello green mint tea!)
3. Increase my water intake. Did you know that the body misreads the “I’m thirsty” trigger, and sends you an “I’m hungry” thought?  When you are hungry, first have a big glass (or two) of water.  If you are still hungry in 20 minutes, then you are really hungry.  If you aren’t, then you were just thirsty!  I’ve just bought a new, really cool stainless steel water bottle – no leaving home without it!
4. Schedule in my workouts. This is an absolute must!  Like anything else, if workouts are not written down they will not happen.  I have found a terrific pilates studio that is on the way from home from where I teach Belly Bootcamp classes (you could just come to our wicked Belly Bootcamp classes – awesome workout AND get to hang with other cool moms!).  It’s a great way for me to sneak my workout and “me time” in!  I also have started to use Max again as a weight… now that he’s a toddler, “games” for him are workouts for me.  Singing “zoom zoom” and lifting him up in the air is a fabulous full body exercise; I combine that with a few (thousand!) laps chasing him around the living room, then finish with him crawling all over me as I try to hold a plank – voila, a very kid and mommy friendly, doable, workout that will make a difference!

So, there is my game plan for the next 6 weeks or so….. stop finishing Max’s food, get rid of white (which also includes that big barrel of Halloween candy that I won’t let my kid eat, but I’m somehow allowed to. What a bummer!), drink even more water (ideally 2-3L/day), and make a promise to myself, via my daytimer, to get my exercise in.  I’ll report back in a few weeks and let you know how it’s going!

Have a great November!