Posts tagged: Weight Management

Ramadan is the one month per year where Muslims fast from dawn until sunset every day by refraining from food, water, smoking, medications, and even gum. Pregnant and breastfeeding women, children, seniors, and those on important medications or requiring nutrition care (such as people with diabetes, renal failure, or patients on tube feeds) are exempt from fasting.

During this month, Muslims spend more time getting closer to God, refrain from bad habits, and focus on spiritual growth. It is important to note that fasting is not a “weight loss diet” but is a great opportunity to focus on improving one’s character, changing behaviours and developing healthy habits.

The following are 8 important things to remember while observing the fast

1. SAFETY FIRST

Pregnant women, nursing mothers, and those who are ill are exempt from fasting. Talk to your doctor before Ramadan begins as it is important for you to discuss your Ramadan plans 1-2 months before with your doctor and seek advice from a Dietitian to tailor specific dietary requirements to your needs. In some situations the fast may need to be broken and can be made up for at a later date.

2. HYDRATION  

Staying hydrated is key when you’re fasting.

Men, on average, need to drink about 3L (13 cups) of water per day, while women need to consume about 2.2L (9 cups) of water per day.

Break your fast with a glass of water, and drinks about 2-3 large glasses of water at your evening and pre-dawn meals. Also, you may want to stay away from caffeinated high sugar drinks (for example: pop, energy drinks, coffee, tea).

3. BREAKING THE FAST 

Breaking the fast (iftar) is one of the most important meals and is comparable to breakfast. Fill a third of your stomach with food, a third with water, and leave a third empty. This ensures hydration and prevent overeating at the main meal.

A common recommendation is to eat 5-6 dates soaked in 1 cup of milk. Dates are a potassium dense food, which aids in hydration and restores electrolyte balance. Milk is high in calcium, and water as is balanced in macronutrients. This combination is perfect for restoring energy.

4. EAT MINDFULLY AT MAIN MEAL  

After breaking the fast with a snack, such as the dates and milk, it is recommended that Muslims to perform sunset prayer (which usually takes 5-10 minutes) before they sit down to eat their main meal. This allows the body to absorb some of the nutrients and suppresses extreme hunger.

Eat slowly and chew very well to help pace yourself. It is quite common to eat a large portion of foods after a 12 hours fast, but remember it takes a 20 minutes for the stomach to tell your brain it is full. Eat till you are comfortably full.

Make conscious food decisions – remember the “Balanced plate”: ½ plate vegetables and salad, ¼ grains and starch (e.g., rice, pasta, potato), ¼ protein (e.g., chicken, fish, beef, lamb, lentils and eggs)

• Protein with high absorption factors, such as egg whites, fish, skinless chicken, and whey protein.
• Complex carbohydrates such as lentils, beans, quinoa, brown rice, and whole wheat pasta are released slowly, making you feel satiated for a longer period of time.
• Avoid simple carbohydrates, such as white bread, fruit juice, chocolate bars, and other packaged goods, as they will digest quickly and make you hungry sooner.

5. HEALTHY SNACKS 

It is recommended to eat at least two small snacks between breaking the fast and going to sleep. Since the timing for eating is so small, it is best to focus on faster digesting foods. Some great snack choices:

• Low fat greek yogurt with 1 piece of fruit
• A whole grain sandwich (egg salad, tuna, cheese, peanut butter)
• A cup high fibre cereal with a cup of low-fat milk
• A piece of fruit with a handful of nuts
• Popcorn (unsalted and unbuttered)
• Whole grain crackers with low-fat cheese
• Hummus dip with vegetable sticks

The last snack before going to bed should be higher in complex carbohydrates and good fats such as avocado, nuts, and seeds.

6. MAXIMIZING ENERGY FOR THE DAY 

Pre-dawn meal (Suhoor) is a very important meal for fasting Muslims. This is when Muslims wake up 1-2 hours before their fast begins to eat one last meal (between 3-4 am). If this meal is properly balanced, it can help those fasting to remain high energy for the morning-noon portion of the day.

It is better to prepare this meal before going to bed so you can sleep for as long as possible. A meal high in complex carbohydrates, fibre, slower digesting protein (such as the casein in Greek yogurt), and good fats is ideal to slow gastric emptying.

7. LIMIT SWEETS 

Due to the festive nature of Ramadan where lots of family and friends often gather at sunset to eat together, high sugar and fatty sweets are usually a regular after dinner.

Try to initially fulfill your sugar craving with one of the healthy snacks listed above and then have a small amount of the traditional sweets or other healthy alternatives.

Traditional Sweets and deep fried foods (fried samosas, fried chicken, fried spring rolls, fried banana (pisang goreng) and fried potato chips) are high in sugar and fat which can make you feel sluggish and fatigued. Other high-fat cooked foods including oily curries and greasy pastries (Kuih bahulu, Apam balik)

Healthy alternatives

• Baked samosas, baked spring rolls, oven baked potato chips
• “Dry frying” – using a non-stick pan or non-stick food sprays
• Grilled or baked meat, chicken, fish as a healthier alternative – while retaining the flavour and taste of the food

8. ADJUST EXERCISE ROUTINE 

If you are planning to continue your exercise routine, it is recommended to shift your exercise  to the end of the day when food is eaten. During Ramadan, the frequency, duration and intensity of exercise likely will need to decrease.

1 DAY MEAL PLAN

• 9:00 pm (breaking fast): 5-6 dates soaked in 1-cup milk or small soup
• 9:05 pm: Complete sunset prayer
• 9:10 pm (main meal): 1-cup brown rice + skinless chicken breast + sautéed veggies with olive oil, and a fruit for dessert + 1-cup water or soup
• *2-cups water
• 10:30 pm (snack #1): Fruit with low-fat yogurt + 1-cup water
• *2-cups water
• 11:30 pm (or 15 min before bedtime, snack #2): Half-cup rolled oats + walnuts + blueberries + 1-cup milk or kefir + 1-cup water
• 4:00am (Suho0r: 20 min before holding fast): sprouted grain bread + 2 eggs + ½-1 avocado +  Greek yogurt for dessert + 1-2 cups water

BOTTOM LINE

After 30 days of fasting, Muslims from around the world celebrate Eid. The day starts off with morning prayers and the celebration continues with friends, family and lots of food.

Ramadan provides a chance for Muslims to “cleanse” their lifestyle from bad eating habits and junk food. Since the window for eating is tiny, it is important for those that are fasting to cut out nutrient poor foods and focus on eating nutritious ones.

Overall, balanced food and fluid intake is very important during these fasting periods. In order to prevent weight loss or muscle breakdown, your meals must contain decent levels of energy-rich foods, which should include carbohydrates and some portion of fat. 

Share this post with your Muslim friends!

Grocery shopping can be complicated when you are trying to make healthier choices or to manage chronic diseases. With the diverse amount of available products on store shelves nowadays, smart, healthy choices seem confusing and burdensome. Here are some easy tips to help you make wise food choices in the grocery store.

GET READY, MAKE A PLAN 

Make a grocery list of what you need and stick to it! This will help keep you from buying things you don’t need or want. Using a list as your guide will help save TIME and MONEY.

GET SET, EAT FIRST 

Shop on a “full stomach”; if you shop when you’re hungry, you’re more likely to buy food that tempts you “at the moment”. You may see a bag of cookies or potato chips and get excited enough to stimulate your taste buds, eventually causing a mouth-watering sensation which leaves you more likely to purchase it. So, make sure you head to grocery store with a happy and satiated stomach so your appetite does not trick you and your wallet.

SHOP ALONE 

Take extra care when shopping with children. Many parents are influenced by children’s requests and end up buying more food and less healthy choices. If you can’t leave home without your children, try to stick to your list and make sure your children aren’t hungry during shopping.

READ LABELS 

Food labels give you information to help you make healthier food choices and compare similar foods. Remember, always, always, always….read ingredient lists before you simply throw the item in your cart. Ingredients are listed by weight from most to least. The first few ingredients are those in the highest amounts. If one of the first 3 ingredients is salt, sodium, sugar, oil or fat, you may want to choose a different food, or use that food in small amounts.

A simple rule of thumb for label reading is to choose foods with no more than 5 ingredients, no artificial ingredients, or words you can’t pronounce. Always note the serving size and the calories per serving. All the values listed refer to a single serving so if you eat 2 servings, double each number to get the accurate nutrient count.

BE ADVENTUROUS – TRY A NEW FOOD OR RECIPE 

Trying new fruits and vegetables can be fun and cool. Adding a fruit or vegetables you have never tried is a good way to establish healthy shopping habit. You never know what you may end up loving or hating. Incorporating new, exciting colors and flavours into meals will provide healthier lives for you and your family. You never know until you try!

SHOP THE PERIMETER FIRST, THEN CENTRE AISLES  

The center aisles of the grocery store are where most processed and junk food items are found. Shopping the perimeter will lead you to the sections with fruit, vegetables, dairy, meat and fish first. By the time you make your way around the perimeter you cart might be too full to even shop the centre aisle. Fill your cart with healthy perimeter items first, so you won’t spend as much time or money in the junk aisles.

To make shopping easier, group your grocery list items according to the aisles of the grocery store.

My Top 6 Centre Aisle Foods 

1. Dried and canned beans
2. Frozen fruit and vegetables
3. Dried herbs and spices
4. Vegetables oils
5. Whole grains
6. Nuts and nut butters

Learn how to navigate the grocery store with dietitian as your personal guide to healthy shopping. Contact Me, to find out how to make better food choices based on your individual preferences to achieve your nutrition goals.  

How many diets have you been on? The never-ending supply of new diet books and programs is proof that we are on a quest to find the perfect diet that will help us melt away those extra pounds.

DIETS ONLY OFFER TEMPORARY SOLUTIONS 

• They don’t change our long-term eating patterns, so when we stop dieting, we usually gain all the weight back, and sometimes more.
• Diets promote rapid weight loss, but when we lose weight too quickly we lose muscle as well as fat, which is counterproductive since muscle burns more calories than fat.
• When we severely restrict calories we put our bodies into “survival mode” and burn less calories doing the same activities. When we try to return to normal eating patterns, we gain weight because of our reduced metabolism.
• Diets create an unhealthy relationship with food, which can lead to deprivation, binge eating, and ultimately weight gain.

To achieve real weight loss we need long-term healthy eating patterns that we enjoy and that satisfy our hunger. And to maintain weight loss, we need to lose weight slowly – about one to two pounds a week. NO MORE DIETS !

CHECKLIST

Use the following checklist as your daily guide to help you achieve your weight goals:

• Portion size. It’s no secret that if you eat more calories than you burn you will gain weight. We eat 30% more if the plate is bigger. Get in the habit of ordering the small size, sharing your appetizers and desserts, and bringing half your restaurant serving home for another meal.
• Listen to your hunger. Stop eating when you’re full. You can always have more tomorrow, because you’re not on a diet. No restriction.
• Eat healthy and nourishing foods. Minimize processed and junk foods, and choose foods in season when you can.
• Load up on fruits and vegetables. Start your meal with a salad, load up your main course with veggies, and finish your meal with a little fruit.
• Choose whole grain foods. Whole grain breads, barley, brown rice, oatmeal, quinoa, whole wheat couscous, millet are delicious and offer substantial health benefits.
• Choose lower fat. Fat has twice as many calories as protein or carbohydrates, so it makes sense to keep your fat intake moderate if you’re trying to lose weight. Choose lower fat dairy products leaner cuts of meat and poultry, and use a light hand when adding salad dressings or cooking oils.
• Structure your days. Eating about every 4 hours. This will keep your metabolism up, support stable blood sugar levels and keep you from being hungry and overeating at the next meal.
• Eat some protein at each meal. It helps control your hunger and optimize your weight loss. Protein foods include animal sources like meat, fish, poultry and dairy products and vegetarian sources like nuts and seeds, peanut butter, legumes, tofu and soy beverages.
• Love and savour everything you eat. You don’t have to eat foods (i.e., salad) you don’t like to lose weight. It’s your day-to-day pattern that will determine your weight, not small indulgences.

A WORD ABOUT PHYSICAL ACTIVITY  

Eating well is the cornerstone of a health lifestyle. But being active is another important part of the equation. You don’t need structured time at the gym if that doesn’t suit you. You can walk, run, dance, swim, play tennis, walk the stairs, take a yoga class, zumba, etc. Just get moving and burn some calories. You’ll feel great !

Are you struggle with weight loss? Ditch the diets, be a mindful eater. Contact Me about starting a 3 months TRANSFORM Program.

Mindfulness is a powerful way to bring balance into every aspect of how we eat. It cultivates inner wisdom – awareness of how our body and mind are reacting; and outer wisdom – making wiser use of nutrition information to satisfy your needs and preferences.

Here are my mindful eating technique to use when you want a “snack or dessert” so bad. Not all of these tips or strategies resinate to you, but try a few and see how they work.

STOP FOR A MOMENT

Bring your awareness to your breath, slow down by taking 2-3 deeper breaths. You can close your eyes if you want. Tune your awareness into what is leading you to want to eat. Are you physically hungry?

How hungry you are?

How do you know that?

Are you just stressed? or bored?

Perhaps you just got home from work and saw a box of chocolate left out on the kitchen counter?

There might be several triggers to your urge. Simple notice what they are. Well, if you are physically hungry, give yourself full permission to have a snack or treat.

CHOOSE YOUR SNACK OR DESSERT MINDFULLY 

Consider what is calling you.

What would be satisfying ?

What would you enjoy, to help you relax, bring comfort, or hold you over until next meal?

Do you want something sweet, something crispy, something savoury?

Are the chocolate calling you? Or do you really want some cookies?

Give some thought to this, because you will be more satisfied and less likely to eat more than if you’d just grabbed the first thing in front of you.

USE OUTER WISDOM 

Thinking about how much you would eat? One good rule is to eat about 100 kcal per hour to sustain you until the next time you eat. That is about how much your body will burn during that time, and it is a way to give yourself permission to simply enjoy your snack, rather than feeling guilty about it.

COMBINE WITH INNER WISDOM 

Savour the food, eating it slowly and without doing anything else. Minimize distractions, such as watching TV or checking emails.

STAY AT NOW 

Most of the time, our thoughts wander somewhere other than where we are in the moment. Perhaps we are preoccupied with what happened an hour ago, stressed over what we need to do tomorrow, or worried about what might happen next week. Mindfulness encourages us to notice these preoccupations, and then to gently bring ourselves back to the NOW.

BE RELAX AND FLEXIBLE 

Use this approach at a snack time that occurs regularly and when you are alone, so you can fully focus on your experiences. You can then use these practices almost anytime you have an urge to eat. Explore how the quality of your experiences of food and eating shift when you bring a mindful, accepting, and open awareness to them.

If you enjoyed this post, you might also interested in reading about 7 Types of Hunger.

Last week, I talked about “Mindful Eating” and reviewed some research that showed a mindful eating can establish healthy eating habit. However, this has yet to answer the question how do you eat mindfully?

To start understanding the concept of mindful eating, you need to know the 7 types of hungers. We eat for many reasons – because we’re hungry, stressed, or feeling happy, because we feel like we deserve a cake or simply because it’s your lunchtime.

Eating mindfully is about expanding our awareness around eating habits, so that we can make a more conscious decision of what to put in our mouth and when.

According to pediatrician and mindful eating proponent Jan Chozen-Bays, MD, author of the book, “Mindful Eating: A Guide to Rediscovering a Healthy and Joyful Relationship with Food”. She reviewed in her book that there are 7 types of hunger relating to different parts of our anatomy – the eyes, nose, mouth, stomach, cells, mind and heart.

Once we are more aware of these different types of hunger and their reasons, we can respond consciously and more appropriately to satisfy them.

EYE HUNGER 

Our eyes see delicious foods and send a message to our brain saying, “We’re hungry for that”. The eye can convince the mind to override the signal from the stomach and body, even when we are not hungry.

To satisfy eye hunger, eat without distraction. You can feast your eyes on the food before you put it in your mouth. If you mindlessly wolf your dinner down while watching TV, you’re wasting an opportunity to really appreciate it.

NOSE HUNGER 

Our sense of smell is closely tied to our sense of taste, such that the “taste” or “flavour” of foods is nearly entirely the “smell” of it. Smell exerts a potent affect on our subconscious mind. You might be familiar with the intense aroma when you walk past the pastry shop at the mall. The powerful smell draws you in and is nearly irresistible, even though you may not be hungry at the time.

To satisfy nose hunger, practice sensitizing yourself to the smell of your food, isolated from taste, by taking a pause before eating to really take in the aromas.  

MOUTH HUNGER 

Our mouth has a desire for pleasurable sensations such as different tastes and textures. The mouth prefers variety in these sensations and can easily become bored. If we are not paying attention while eating, the mouth will not be satisfied, and will continue to ask for more food, which can cause mindless overeating.

To satisfy mouth hunger, increase your awareness around the flavours and textures in your mouth.

STOMACH HUNGER  

When our stomach is hungry it can signal us with rumbling, growling, or with an empty feeling in the abdomen. If we are in the habit of eating several times daily, and we miss a meal, our stomach will alert us of its hunger. It takes practice to sense when a grumbling stomach means actual hunger. Often, we can confuse the sensation with other feelings that affect our stomach such as depression and anxiety. If we feed depression with “junk food”, then get more depressed about our diet.

To satisfy stomach hunger, listen to the stomach hunger cues and start to familiarize yourself with them. Try to delay eating when you feel hungry and become aware of the sensations (make observation). You can also assess your hunger on a hunger scale from 1-10 before a meal, then halfway through check in again and do the same.

CELLULAR HUNGER 

Our body can give us various signals when we experience cellular hunger such as faintness, dizziness, irritability, a sudden loss of energy, or strong desires for certain foods. Cellular hunger is one of the hardest types of hunger to sense, even though it is the original reason for eating. When we were children, we intuitively knew when we needed to eat, and what our body was craving. But over time, we lose our ability.

Through mindfulness, it’s possible to become more aware of our body’s cravings for specific nutrients and develop some of the “inner wisdom” we had when we were children.

To learn to listen to cellular hunger is the primary skill of mindful eating” – Jan Chozen-Bays

MIND HUNGER 

Modern society has made us very anxious eaters. Constantly being influenced by the current fat diet or the latest nutritional guidelines, such as “Sugar is bad for me”.  The mind can hinder our ability to “listen” to what the body needs (our internal hunger cues).  This type of hunger is based on our thoughts.

To satisfy mind hunger, being mindfulness can help calm the mind and tune in to other cues our body is sending us.

HEART HUNGER 

This is based on our desire to be loved and cared for. We crave certain comfort food because we were given it as a child, or because we’ve associated it in our mind as a treat for when we’re feeling down. Many people experience heart hunger and attempt to satisfy it with food (emotional eating), which, though sometimes helpful in the short term, can’t always fill the hole in our heart.

To satisfy heart hunger, we need to find the intimacy or comfort our heart is craving. Try observing/noticing the emotions that you’ve been feeling just before you have an urge to eat that chocolate as you might be able to find other way to satisfy them, such as calling a friend or having a cup of herbal tea or a hot bath.

BOTTOM LINE

We can eat mindfully by assessing each of the types of hunger whenever we have the desire to eat. The goal is try to be mindful of what and how you eat, feast with your eyes, take in the aroma and savour every flavour – then you’ll be truly satisfied.

In next week blogpost, I will discuss mindless eating, and how to avoid this common obstacle to healthy eating.

The concept of Mindful Eating has been gaining popularity over the past couple years. You may hear your dietitian talking about it or your girlfriend who are trying to lose some weight doing this mindful eating practice. But what exactly does it mean to be a mindful eater?

In my culture, December to January are all about celebrations. One holiday party followed by another…and another until Chinese New Year !! Whether you want to avoid overeating and gaining those extra weight, you need to control your blood sugar (if you have diabetes), or you simply wish to consume only what your body requires, the holiday season can make that goal challenging.

MINDFUL EATING MIGHT HELP YOU REACH THE GOAL 

I use mindful eating strategies in my dietetic practice and personal life. I found that it helps me to rediscover a healthy and joyful relationship with foods.

Mindfulness is a powerful way to bring balance into every aspect of how we eat. It involves cultivating a combination of “inner wisdom” (awareness of how our body and mind are responding) and “outer wisdom” (engaging nutrition information and recommendations to meet your own personal needs and preferences).

Mindfulness refers to the practice of being aware and in the moment, without judgement.

HEALTH BENEFITS OF MINDFUL EATING 

• Help with weight management (here, here, here)
• Help diners feel more in control in their eating (here)
• Reduced disordered eating pattern (here, here)
• Improve glycemic control for those living with diabetes (here)
• Reduced perceived stress (here)

BOTTOM LINE

Yes, Mindful Eating has many health benefits, however, it is very challenging to practice. It takes lot of work and dedication to completely in tune with your hunger and satiety signals.

Stay tune for next week blogpost “Steps to Eat Mindfully“.

Did you know that I offer personalized nutrition counselling for kids and families? If this is something you’s like to learn more about, please Contact Me.