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How are your eating behaviors? Good eating habits lead to maintaining a healthy weight. One of the top poor eating habits my new overweight clients need to work on is:
Standing and Eating
Walking through the kitchen and grabbing a few nuts, opening the fridge for a few grapes, tasting the macaroni salad while cooking, licking the peanut butter off the knife while packing lunches, etc. can add up to 5-10 pounds a year or more.
Make a resolution - NO STANDING AND SNACKING.
Often my patients stop exercising because they get bored.
Try something new.
I love the DVD's or videos in Collage Video's catalogue. Call to get one, 1-800-433-6769 or check out their website www.collagevideo.com.
For clients with busy lifestyles and “no time” to exercise I suggest the “10 minute exercise opportunity”. You don't need to find 30 minutes to exercise each day, instead three 10-minutes exercise opportunities will do the trick.
I have lots of favorite easy-grab nutritional favorites. I find new foods every month. A few recent favorites are:
Van's Frozen Whole Grain Waffles
(Whole Foods or Hillers)
Edamane (frozen soy nuts, so easy to
prepare; available everywhere)
Couscous, whole grain, Hodgson Mills
(Whole Foods)

I love this recipe on a cold winter night. I especially love it when I have a jar pre-made in the freezer. It reheats beautifully.

 
White Chili
2 cans (14-1/2 oz.) chicken broth, all fat removed from top
1large onion, chopped
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 can (4 oz.) chopped green chilies with liquid
(in the Mexican section of the grocery store)
48 ounce jar of great northern beans with liquid
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon crumbled leaf oregano
3-4 good dashes of hot sauce
4 large skinless/boneless chicken breast halves cut in bite-size pieces

For garnish: thinly sliced green onions, fat-free shredded cheese, sliced hot jalapenos, fat-free tortilla chips
In a large pot, cook onions and garlic in a few tablespoons of chicken broth. Add chilies and stir. Add beans (with liquid); mix in the cumin, oregano and hot sauce. Bring to a boil and add chicken, torn into bite-sized pieces.

Simmer, covered, for at least 30 minutes or for several hours on low heat.

Serves 12.

Approximate calories: 1 cup = 135 calories
1 starch + lean meat
The book is almost finished. We're shopping for publishers now. It contains practical lifestyle tips for the real woman's special needs. Here is a sample page.
WHAT IS YOUR EATING PROFILE?

Have you ever wondered what type of eater you are? Each of us has our own eating style and behavioral pattern that integrates our food choices, attitudes and nutritional habits.

My clients are often amazed during their initial 80-minute interview that I can usually predict many of their eating pitfalls. By listening to key words and phrases, I can almost always recognize their problem areas and develop healthy solutions they can use to work through these difficulties. Although I do ask many open-ended questions to get information from clients, my diagnostic guesses are usually pretty good.

Many clients are relieved to learn that their issues are universal. They like to hear that they're not out there alone with these challenges, and that is a huge comfort. Although my clients are unique individuals, they are also usually a combination of several different core eating profiles which need to be addressed. I have never had a client with just one eating issue.

By studying the profiles in this chapter carefully, you may be able to identify and compare some of your daily eating habits and weakness areas. Nailing down your eating profile will help you focus on the lifestyle changes needed, and the eating behaviors and nutritional mistakes that should be adapted.
The following eating profiles are based on real clients coping with everyday issues and problems. Perhaps, you will recognize yourself in one of the profile descriptions, or most likely you will see yourself as a blend of several examples which you can relate to. Which ones are your issues?
 
Behavior: if you are an official member of this club, there will almost never be a scrap of food left on your plate. It's a personality trait built upon parental upbringing and command. Remember the images of the starving children of Europe and Africa when you refused to finish your pasta? You will have to alter these thoughts, or you will clean your plate permanently.

Healthy Solution: This eating behavior really challenges your hard-wired thinking about the starving kids of Africa. Are those hungry children really going to receive that food left on your plate? When you realize this, you will be challenging the very basic instincts on how you were raised by your family and you must continue to be aware of this in order to successfully break this habit and change your behavior. If you don't, this habit can add up to pounds of extra eating in a year.
This type of change takes practice and more practice. As my clients come in, I'll ask them if they were successful at leaving half their portions on the plate and were they no longer hungry? That's one small step but a very important one. Clients have to repeat their successes at least 10 times before they can truly “own” or master a new behavior.
For clients with busy lifestyles and “no time” to exercise I suggest the “10-minute exercise opportunity”. You don't need to find 30 minutes to exercise each day, instead three 10-minutes exercise opportunities will do the trick.