4 Ways to Blast 100 Calories From Meals and Snacks Did you know that you make over 200 food-related decisions every day, most of them without even realizing? An extra spoonful here, a bigger bite there. As anyone who has ever sat in a movie with a gargantuan tub of popcorn knows, subtle (and not so subtle) signals from our environment are constantly nudging our eating behavior in one direction or another, usually toward eating much more than we had planned. Now is a great time to spring clean your habits and make sure your food routines work with your biology to propel you on the path toward your best health, rather than making life a whole lot harder by relying on hope and willpower to eat less. Read on to discover some of my favorite tricks to move toward a healthier body weight by effortlessly shaving 100 calories off of your meals and snacks. Breakfast: Turn Your Bowl Upside Down A bowl of breakfast cereal can certainly be a healthy start to your morning, as research suggests it’s linked with a healthier body weight and improved nutrient intake. But there are a growing number of seemingly “healthy” breakfast cereals, (i.e. certain granolas or clusters) that can have upwards of 500-600 calories in a cup! An added challenge is that the size of our bowls have ballooned in the past two decades – along with the rest of our dishware – which means we pour more than we used to. A lot more. Here’s my trick: Fill the bottom of your bowl first with fresh sliced fruit (I love strawberries, which are loaded with vitamin C and antioxidants), then put about half as much of your favorite whole grain breakfast cereal on top. Your eyes will still see a hearty bowl of food, so you’ll feel satisfied, yet because you’ve flipped your habit on its head, you can easily trim 100 calories from your bowl. If you trade down from a high-calorie cereal to a lower-calorie choice (one that contains 100% whole grains with no added sugar), you’ll blast even more calories. Lunch: Start With a Soup Shooter Did you know that thanks to primitive hard-wiring, human beings tend to eat roughly the same weight of food every day, regardless of whether it’s high-calorie or low-calorie food? This is one reason why high-calorie fast food and sweets are so easy to overdo. The secret to spontaneously eating less without feeling hungry or deprived is to choose foods that weigh a lot but are still low in calories. Usually, these are foods with a high water content, such as fresh fruits and vegetables. Enter soup. Soup is almost a magical food in terms of the trick it can play on your brain: A broth or veggie-based soup helps you to spontaneously eat less because it fills you up on fewer calories, sending all the right physiologic responses (including our hunger-regulating hormones, ghrelin and leptin) that you’re full and satisfied. Then, when you eat the rest of your lunch, you naturally stop eating sooner. Research from Penn State has found that, on average, people who start lunch with a broth or veggie-based soup consume 100 fewer calories per day compared to people who don’t have the soup. I created a fun fresh twist on this idea with Dr. Oz with some deliciously easy “soup shooters.” Made from water-rich fruits and vegetables, they are delicious, hydrating, loaded with vitamins and minerals, and can be made in your blender or juicer ahead of time, so you can quickly grab and go. Start your lunch with a refreshing shooter (a chunky gazpacho works well, too) to boost your nutrition and to naturally cut calories from your total lunch. Chilled Ginger Cantaloupe Shooter Recipe courtesy of chef Heidi Olson Makes: 2 servings Ingredients 1 ripe cantaloupe, seeded and cut into chunks 1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger (or to taste) Juice of half a lemon 1 tablespoon of honey (or to taste) Small pinch of salt Julienned mint to garnish the soup Directions Put cantaloupe, ginger, lemon juice and honey in a blender, and process until completely smooth. Taste and adjust amounts of honey, ginger or lemon juice if desired. Serve well chilled and top with julienned mint. Nutrition Information Per Serving 128 calories, 1g fat, 44mg sodium, 32g carb, 3g fiber, 30g sugar, 2g protein. Chilled Cucumber Avocado Shooter Makes 2 servings Ingredients 1 hothouse cucumber, peeled and chopped 1/2 avocado Juice and zest of 1 lime 1/2 fennel bulb, chopped Handful basil leaves 1/2 cup green grapes Directions Place all ingredients in a blender and combine until very smooth. Taste and add a pinch of salt if necessary. Add 1/4-1/2 cup water to thin to desired consistency. Nutrition Information Per Serving 119 calories, 6g fat, 36mg sodium, 18g carbs, 5g fiber, 8g sugar, 2g protein Dinner: Set a Smarter Table Your table is another place that’s teeming with choices that can tip your eating in favor of weight gain or weight loss. Research from Cornell University has discovered some surprisingly easy ways you can shave up to 30% of the calories from your meal without even noticing it. I like to think of this as the “low-hanging fruit” of calorie-skimming, as it’s a powerful way to blast calories simply by setting a smarter table. These secrets include: Serve your dinner on a plate that contrasts in color. For example, use a red plate for grilled chicken and corn on the cob, rather than a white one, and you’ll naturally put up to 20% less on your plate. Eat off of a blue plate. The color blue is most linked to eating less – up to 30% less – perhaps because that color rarely exists in food from nature, or because it signals relaxation. Serve the main course in the kitchen, but your salad and veggies family-style. When you put serving bowls on the dinner table so family members can “help themselves,” they usually do. In contrast, if you have to get up and walk back into the kitchen for seconds, that effort can be enough to thwart that second plate. The best strategy is to go –family-style only with the foods you want to be eating more of for a healthy weight, such as sides of veggies or salad – and leave the higher calorie main course and starchy sides in the kitchen. Snack: Deep Freeze Your Favorite Greek Yogurt A recent report from the USDA found that Americans now consume approximately 30% of their total calories each day from snack foods, which is more than ever before. And unfortunately, most of these calories are coming from high sugar/fat combinations – exactly the type of foods that hijack the brain’s pleasure and reward systems (and our natural “off” switch) and encourage overeating. For a fresh twist on a superfood snack, take your favorite 6 oz. container of low-fat Greek yogurt (it should be about 150 calories) and spoon it into a pastry bag or a sandwich bag. Snip the corner, and pipe small “dots” (about 1 teaspoon each) onto a cookie sheet. Freeze for 2 hours, and then put these yogurt dots back into the (cleaned) yogurt container. Youve got a powerful snack thats ready when you are. Here’s why it works so well: Greek yogurt contains about twice the protein of regular yogurt, and protein helps you to feel fuller and focused longer (so you don’t need to reach for another snack). By deep freezing your snack, you’ll find it takes much longer to eat, is incredibly refreshing, and gives your body time to hear and respond to it’s natural “off” switch.
Posted on: Mon, 04 Nov 2013 19:04:42 +0000
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