| Tuning up Your Fall Diet |
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Summer is over. Fall is here. Winter is coming. Since you don't plan on hibernating, there's no reason this should be an excuse to chunk up. Nevertheless, many people do. With all of this extra summer activity comes extra caloric intake. As a general rule, people don't lose weight over summertime in this country. With all the playing and exercising come barbecuing and drinking and time on the patio after work, so it has a tendency to even things out. Competitive athletes are also more likely to go through a caloric intake spike during the summer months because they are so focused on fueling for their sport that they tend to ignore just how much they eat. Well, summer is nearly over and your activity levels are probably going to decrease, so you need to get your diet back to a state of normalcy or you are going to start putting on weight, and not the good kind of weight. With Thanksgiving just around the corner and Christmas not far behind this presents an additional challenge. With some advance planning, however, you can maintain your bodyweight or perhaps even lose some unwanted pounds. Oops, this is Canada. Let's make that "kilograms."  There are numerous strategies you can follow to get your diet back on track, but before we get into that, one simple bit of advice is that just because summer is over doesn't mean you have to exercise less. If you're a fair-weather runner, then maybe it's time to make the shift to running outside year round. And just because it's going to snow soon doesn't mean you have to put your bike away.In addition, baseball season may be over, but ski season will be here soon. In short, embrace everything this wonderful country has to offer, and winter will pass a lot more quickly. One of the most important things you can do to get your diet back on track is to watch your liquid calories, such as soda pop and fancy calorie-loaded lattes. A typical can of pop contains 150 calories, and many large coffee drinks have five hundred or more calories each. Yes, five hundred calories in one overpriced drink! Other liquid calories to watch out for are those from alcoholic beverages. If you are the type of person who likes to soak up beer and UV radiation in equal quantities, or indulge in a bottle of wine with the partner over your BBQ dinner, then it's time to start cutting back. A typical beer, aglass of wine, or highball (with regular pop) contains anywhere from 120 to 150 calories. Just eight drinks per week can increase your total caloric intake by one thousand calories, leading to four thousand extra "empty" calories per month, which can add more than a pound of fat. What's more, excessive alcohol intake is associated with numerous health problems. It is common knowledge that alcohol can be hard on your liver, but what about your heart? J. Fernandez-Sola et al. reported in a 1994 issue of The Annals of Internal Medicine that higher intake of alcohol interferes with heart function. What's more, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism reports that the more alcohol consumed, the greater the risk of cancers of the upper digestive tract, the liver, breast, and elsewhere. Finally, a 2008 study by Carol Ann Paul et al. in Archives of Neurology found that even moderate intake of alcohol caused brain shrinkage. Brain shrinkage? That doesn't sound good at all. Whether or not there was a change in alcohol intake over the summer, if you found that your food calories went up, then now is the time to get back to a regular routine of healthy and calorie-restricted eating. This does not necessarily involve a complex new diet routine for the fall season, but it may involve just following a few simple rules to make sure the coming change of seasons doesn't result in a similar change in what the bathroom scale tells you. An important first step in getting your diet back to normal is to get more of your calories from the grocery store versus the patio dining or takeout you may have grown accustomed to during the summer season. When you make the choice to shop and prepare for yourself, you are also in control of your portions and caloric intake. Restaurants are less concerned with your health than they are with repeat business, and making food taste good equals return customers. How they make it taste good is by adding extra fat, extra sugar, and extra salt. And don't forget the plus-sized portions and the temptations of the liquor and dessert menus. Every time you eat out, hit the drive-through, or order in you need to motivate yourself to pick from a limited selection of healthy and lower-calorie choices, but at the grocery store the healthy choices are more plentiful and you only have to be motivated during your shopping trip. If you're committed to eating mostly at home, and the only food available in the fridge and cupboards is healthy, this makes everything much easier on your gut and your wallet. While grocery shopping, there are a number of things to keep in mind. One of the best tips is to purchase "whole" foods as much as possible; stick to the outer walls of the grocery store where you will find all four food groups in their natural state, meaning unrefined and unprocessed and retaining their nutritional value. Foods that are fresh and in their natural forms contain far more nutrients vital to bodily function, and as a result they are better at satisfying appetite. When you eat overly processed junk food you get a high dose of calories with few nutrients that the body needs, so it sends out hunger signals a short time later. When you eat whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, lean meats, and non-fat dairy, your body gets the nutrients needed to function, and appetite is better controlled, your body functions better, energy lasts all day, and you're healthier as a whole without overeating. Also important to note is that unprocessed food is generally lower in calories than processed. The basic advice is, if nature made it that way, go big. What about the timing of what you are eating? Your choices are important, but it is also important that you time things well to benefit you throughout the day, starting with a healthy breakfast. Research by Francis Bellisle in a 2004 issue of the Scandinavian Journal of Nutrition shows that eating breakfast as your biggest meal of the day can control caloric intake all day and assist with weight maintenance. Bellisle reported that "[o]bese people tend to eat little in the morning and much in the afternoon and evening. In extreme cases, a ‘night-eating syndrome' is observed." Eating every three or four hours from breakfast on is a great plan to keep your calories under control, and this includes nutrient-dense snacking. This means making sure you get a combination of protein for satiety, and carbohydrates for energy. Aside from breakfast, the next most important meal of the day is, believe it or not, the mid-afternoon snack! It is imperative that you don't go home hungry after work, because this is where most weight-maintenance plans are sabotaged. Prevent overeating at the dinner table or evening junk food snacking by making a plan to have a healthy snack by three p.m. Of course the subject of fat content often comes up in discussions about weight loss, and the reason why a high-fat diet leads to getting fat is because of its high caloric density and its low satiety factor. Carbohydrates and protein each contain four calories per gram, whereas fat contains nine, so you get a bigger caloric bang for your buck when eating fat. Fat also is proven to do little to satisfy appetite, whereas protein and unrefined carbohydrates do decrease feelings of hunger. Finally comes the subject of diet willpower. The holidays are coming and this means ample access to sugary treats and fattening meals. Renowned sport nutrition author Nancy Clark suggests that people give in to their desires during the holiday season, yet use restraint at the same time. She reports that when people try too hard to avoid treats completely they end up binging later, whereas a modest sampling of favourite desserts can prevent you from going overboard. If you love pumpkin pie, then have some. Just don't eat the whole pie. And don't forget to keep exercising. About the AuthorsJames S. Fell, M.A., M.B.A., the author of Body for Wife: The Family Guy's Guide to Getting in Shape, gives politically incorrect fitness advice at www.bodyforwife.com.
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