Fix Your Goals

Not reaching your fitness goals? The problem may not be with what you’re doing — it may be with the goals themselves.

The fitness goals you set need to be SMART: Specific, Motivating, Achievable, Relevant and Trackable.

Specific: What exactly do you hope to achieve? Instead of making the mushy goal “I want to get healthy,” say “I want to lose five pounds, drop an inch from my waist, be able to run five miles, and eat five servings of fruits and veggies per day.

Motivating: You need to be excited about what you want to achieve! If the idea of walking regularly on the treadmill makes you want to snooze, even if it’s a goal for a lot of fitness buffs, maybe it’s not the right goal for you right now.

Achievable: Nothing is more discouraging than a goal that’s too difficult to achieve. No one can lose 20 pounds (healthfully) in a month or be ripped in a week. Give yourself a break!

Relevant: The goal needs to make sense for you. If you choose some pie-in-the-sky goal because it looks good on paper, chances are you’ll ditch it within a month.

Trackable: If you can’t measure or track your goal, how will you know when you’ve achieved it? We’re talking numbers here! Instead of setting a goal to get fit, resolve to lose a certain amount of weight by the end of the year.

More on the Motivating goals: The reason we don’t reach our goals may be that they’re not exciting enough to motivate us. If this is the case for you, heed my life coach, who recommends setting big, audacious goals. For example, instead of making a resolution to walk three times per week, how about vowing to train for a triathlon? Instead of losing five pounds, why not resolve to enter — and win — a fitness competition? And rather than making the vague goal to nosh on more veggies, why not promise (as I’ve been doing for the last month or so) to eat a big salad every day of the week.

A quick note: I’m taking a hiatus from the Designer Way blog due to other commitments. I hope to see you — and motivate you — again soon!

Stay healthy,

Linda

Okay, here’s the deal: For breakfast I have a blueberry smoothie. For lunch I have a grilled chicken salad with nonfat vinaigrette or a PB&J on whole grain bread. For a snack, I have raw nuts or another smoothie.

And for dinner: All hell breaks loose.

I’m a good cook, so when I make dinner, I tend to fix a plate overflowing with food. But we’re meant to eat one serving of each food, and I’m pretty certain one serving of pasta is not one giant bowl. I’m also not so sure a serving of mashed potatoes is “as much as I can eat.” So I decided to educate myself on what a serving size really is. Luckily, experts are starting to understand that we humans have trouble eyeballing measurements such as a half cup or a tablespoon, so they’re comparing proper portions with everyday objects. Here’s the scoop:

One serving of this food = The size of this item.

Veggies or fruit = One baseball.

Cooked rice or pasta = A rounded handful.

One snack, such as pretzels or chips = A rounded handful.

Meat = A deck of cards or the palm of your hand (not counting fingers).

Fish = A checkbook.

Nuts or dried fruit = One large egg.

Ice cream = A tennis ball.

Baked potato = A computer mouse.

Pancake or waffle = A CD.

Peanut butter = One thumb tip.

Cheese = Six dice.

Boy, some of these serving sizes seem so tiny! A thumb tip of peanut butter on a sandwich? A single CD-sized pancake, when we’re used to getting a stack of plate-sized flapjacks at the local breakfast joint? But there you have it — we eat way too much.

I know that if I can manage to keep my portion sizes under control, especially at dinner or when I have an occasional treat, I’ll become more fit and healthy. How are your portion sizes — are they reasonable or way too big? Do you plan to cut portion sizes to reach your weight-loss goals? Please share your experiences in the Comments below.

Stay healthy,

Linda

I love to eat at restaurants. But being a nutrition writer, I know that what typically makes restaurant food taste so good is lots of fat (and bloat-inducing salt). Even that healthy-looking grilled fish is likely topped with a good-sized smear of butter. But who wants to cook every night? We all deserve to dine out once in a while. I’m at a healthy weight even though my family eats out a lot — so here are my tips for dining out without gaining weight.

Share. There’s a dessert at Longhorn that’s delicious — but it consists of two full-sized pieces of chocolate cake surrounded by several scoops of vanilla ice cream. (Oh yes, and whipped cream.) While we rarely order dessert, if we do we always split it among three or even four people. Another way to use this tactic: Order one fewer dishes than there are people at the table and share. For example, if there are four of you at a Chinese restaurant, you can order three (healthy!) dishes so you each get to taste everything without going overboard.

Watch out for watch words. No matter what the cuisine, words like crispy, smothered, fried and golden brown signal lots of fat and should make you head the other way.

Order sides. At one restaurant we frequent, I used to order the salmon — which included a salmon fillet and a salad anda baked potato and rice. I would eat until I was stuffed, and there would still be food left over. Then, one day, a friend said to me, “Why don’t you just order side dishes?” So now I typically order a salad and a baked potato and that’s plenty to fill me up. (When I’m feeling especially virtuous, I get the baked potato dry instead of with sour cream.)

Instead of sides, you could also order two appetizers; many restaurants now offer boiled pot-stickers with a dipping sauce, shrimp skewers, or other healthier apps.

By the way, this tip is perfect for vegetarians who go out to eat with non-veg friends. So many restaurants have a sorry selection of meat-free meals, but you can almost always put together a nice meal out of sides and appetizers.

Box it up. I mentioned this tip in my post Sneaking Health Into Your Day : When you order a meal, ask the server to box up half of it before bringing it to you. That way you’re not tempted by the mounds of food on your overflowing plate even after you feel full. Bring home the other half and you’ll have dinner tomorrow too!

Skip the soda. There are 155 calories in one 12-ounce serving of Coke, and something like 12 teaspoons of sugar. If you’re eating out, why not treat yourself to some wine, which has heart-healthy benefits, plus fewer calories and less sugar than soda? One serving of Sauvignon Blanc has 119 calories .

Just ask. I once went out to a restaurant with a fitness model-slash-personal trainer. Even though it wasn’t on the menu, she asked the server for grilled chicken breast with no added fat, plain steamed broccoli, and a dry baked potato. The chef was happy to oblige. You’ll never know if you can get healthy options unless you ask — and if enough people ask, more restaurants will start to offer them. Try asking for meats cooked without added fats, salads served with dressing on the side, crudité plates with fresh veggies, smaller servings (even if you have to pay full price), and veggies that are steamed instead of fried.

Okay, now you have the tools to get a healthy restaurant meal that won’t wreck your weight-loss efforts. Try them the next time you go out!

Stay healthy,

Linda

For many people, stretching is a chore. Touch my toes? Do a yoga pose? Forget it, you say — I’m tired after my gym workout and just want to head home. But stretching can reduce your recovery time after a workout, promote healthy joints, increase flexibility, and decrease muscle tightness. Remember, if you feel good after a workout, you’re more likely to head back to the gym again!

Staying flexible can help keep a bounce in your step as you age. There was a woman in my yoga class who was 60 years old (as she liked to let everyone know), but she had the body and attitude of a 30-year-old. I like to think it was because of her faithful yoga practice, which incorporates stretching.

Want to get started? Try these options:

Yoga class.  You’ll get a good full-body stretch in each yoga class. In the yoga class I used to take, the instructor would ask the students where they felt tight that day, and would customize the session to target those muscles. Yoga Finder can help you locate a class near you.

Online instruction.  About.com: Physical Therapy offers instructions and photos for dozens of stretches, including sports-specific stretches.

Tai chi. This is a calming martial arts workout that can help improve flexibility. Tai Chi Central lists some schools, and you can also find martial arts schools in your local Yellow Pages.

Videos.  There are several free stretching videos on YouTube, such as this 5 Minute Stretch Routine.

 You can also find stretching videos for rent or purchase on Amazon.com. Besides stretching, look for keywords like Tai Chi and Chi Kung (an ancient Chinese health care system that includes physical postures and breathing techniques — also spelled qigong).

Books.  Amazon.com and the sports section of your local bookstore offer books on stretching and flexibility. Try The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Stretching.

Whatever kind of stretching you opt for, follow these three easy tips to get the most out of it:

• Stretch warm. I used to take a karate class where we’d do extreme stretches before the main workout. Ouch! Stretching cold muscles can cause injuries, so be sure to save your stretching for afteryour workout. If you’re doing stretching exercises from a book or video at home, warm up with some light cardio first.
• No bouncing! Use a steady pressure.
•  No pain, all gain.  A slight discomfort is fine, but pain is a red flag.
• Hold it.  Hold each stretch for at least 30 seconds.

I’m lucky that I love stretching, but even if it’s not your thing, you should give it a try. You probably didn’t like cardio or weight training when you first started, either, but you kept them up because you know they’re key for a healthy lifestyle. Add some stretching to your day, and your body will thank you.

In my 12-year career as a health writer, I’ve discovered many ways to fool yourself into eating more healthfully. These trick-yourself principles, all backed by research, can help you eat less and lose weight. Here’s how to psych yourself slim:

Unplug

Forget about Project Runway, and put down that copy of the latest bestseller. Instead, focus on your food. Chewing slowly and paying attention to the feel and taste of your meal helps you feel full faster and eat less. In a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, women who concentrated on the taste of their food ate much less than those who listened to a detective story while eating.

Choose Tall and Skinny

Research conducted by Brian Wansink, Ph.D., author of Mindless Eating, showed that people tend to drink more from short, wide glasses than from tall, thin ones. Apparently, the short glass looks smaller to us — even when it holds the same amount as the tall, thin glass — so we pour more. Prepare your drink in a tall, frosty glass and you’ll probably down less!

Imagine It

Whether it’s your high school reunion or an upcoming cocktail party, pick an event you want to look your best at and keep it in your mind as you make and eat your meals. You’ll eat more healthfully if you’re hoping to look and feel great at an upcoming event.

Go Dark

In another study by Wansink and his colleagues, researchers gave 30 secretaries clear or opaque containers full of Hershey’s Kisses. The secretaries gobbled an average of five treats per day from the clear containers, but just four from the opaque containers. The upshot? We tend to eat more of what we can see, so stow your goodies in opaque containers (and your veggies in clear containers!).

Put Them Away

All done with your scrumptious chicken piccata? No problem — there’s more in the kitchen! If that’s the way your mind works, fix your plate and then stow any leftovers before sitting down to eat. Along the same lines, put the least nutritious leftovers in the fridge and leave out the veggies in case you crave seconds. This same M.O. works at restaurants as well: Ask the server to pack half your meal in a to-go container so you’re not even tempted.

Scoop Small

In yet another study (boy, is this guy prolific!), Wansink and his colleagues gave people either large or small scoops and let them serve themselves ice cream. The result? The ice cream fiends who used the large scoop ate 15 to 20 percent more than those using small scoops. When you serve yourself food, use small spoons instead of ladles and other large utensils and you’ll likely dole out less.

Toss the Techno

Scientists at Fairfield University in Connecticut piped fast and slow music into the university cafeteria on different days. Researchers then counted the bites taken by the diners in the cafeteria. (Do you think the diners wondered why people were staring at them and scribbling in notepads?) The results: People take an average of 4.4 bites per minute to fast music, and only 3.8 bites per minute to slow music. So ditch the disco and listen to soft tunes when you dine.

Back in the olden days, the only way people knew how many calories were in Ye Olde Bigge Mac , how many calories they burned hoeing the fields, or whether their BMI was on target or over the top was to guess. Now, though, we have the Internet, which has tons of free resources for the health-minded among us. As a freelance health writer, I use many of these resources when I’m researching articles, and they can also help you in your quest for fitness. Here are my favorites:

1. The USDA Nutrient Data Laboratory : This website is truly amazing. Type in a food, and the site will bring you to a list that lets you further refine you choice. For example, if you enter “beef,” it will bring up all the different cuts of meat, both raw and cooked. Choose one, enter the amount — and you’ll get a spreadsheet listing the number of calories and the amount of everything from saturated fat to vitamin C to selenium. You can use this site to keep very detailed track of what you’re eating and make the best food choices.

2. Wondering how many calories an hour of water polo will torch? InternetFitness.com’s Calorie Burn Calculator lets you enter in your weight and  the amount of time you do a certain activity, from aerobics to shoveling snow, and calculates how many calories you’ll burn.

3. NutritionData lets you analyze recipes and creates a nutrition label for the entire dish. You need to register, but it’s free.

4.  YouTube has more than funny videos of cats — You can also find free vids of cardio workouts that you can use on days you can’t make it to the gym. For example, SparkPeople.com offers this 10-Minute Jump Start Cardio Workout.

(I’ve done this video — it really does kick my low-endurance butt!) Just search on YouTube for keywords like “aerobics workout” or “cardio workout” to find free vids.

5. No need to search the Wendy’s website to dig up nutritional data on its salads: The Calorie King Food Database boasts the nutritional information for over 50,000 American generic and brand name foods, including over 260 fast-food chains.

6. The National Institutes of Health offers this BMI calculator so you can find out whether our Body Mass Index says you’re fit or fat. Just enter your height and weight and the calculator will do the rest.

7. If you’re sick of your workout music mix, check out PodRunner, which offers “free exercise music mixes for runners, joggers, power walkers, cyclists, elliptical trainers, or anyone who can use nonstop, fixed-tempo music when they train.” These free techno and house beats will keep up your energy while you work out.

Getting healthy — and staying motivated to get healthy  – requires the right balance of adding and subtracting things from your life.

For example, my life coach, Kristin Taliaferro, is big on eliminating energy drains from your life. Taliaferro recommends deleting what the coaching world calls “tolerations” — those little annoyances that make you feel resentful and demotivated, such as “The dog keeps jumping on the bed,” “I hate the way my phone rings,” and “My nails look terrible.”

Make a list of 100 of your tolerations (and believe me, it’s easier than it sounds), then pick three to get rid of this week. You’ll find that many of your tolerations have very easy solutions! When you start clearing out your tolerations, you’ll start to feel lighter, more energetic, and more motivated — the perfect state for living healthy. I did this in February and then stupidly let it lapse until just now. I deep-sixed a dozen or so tolerations and felt incredibly energetic. This week, I revamped my list and plan to remove three more tolerations.

You can also subtract activities that suck your time and your energy. If you watched one hour less of TV every night, what else could you be doing — maybe exercising? If you surfed the web one less hour a day, you’d have time to prepare healthy meals. Find out what’s holding you back and bringing you down — and subtract it.

Then there’s adding. One thing I’ve learned in my nutrition writing is that if you want to eat more healthfully without feeling deprived, concentrate on adding good foods to your diet instead of subtracting bad ones. For instance, make a deal with yourself to eat one salad a day for the next week (something I’m doing right now). And make it delicious, with grilled chicken, dried cranberries, nuts, whatever it will take for you to love your salad! Just by adding a daily delicious salad, you’re automatically eating less junk. Salad for lunch means no fast food fries, no cookies-for-lunch, no nachos loaded with sour cream and cheese.

What foods would you like to add to your diet? More water automatically means less Coke, and you can add lemon or a splash of juice to make it tastier. More healthy fats means you dip your bread in olive oil instead of slathering it with butter, that you add nuts to your salad instead of bacon bits, and that you layer avocado on your sandwich in place of mayo. And you don’t feel deprived because you’re adding yummy foods to your diet.

So: What things can you add to or subtract from your life to get healthier?

Stay healthy,

Linda

 Make Over Your Drinks

I don’t eat much in the way of sweets — store-bought cookies are not at all tempting, and whenever we make a homemade dessert like cake or brownies, my husband and I tend to eat one serving and let the rest go stale. But drinks are my downfall. I just love Pepsi, extra-sweet iced tea, lemonade, hot cocoa, and sweet milky chai — not to mention sugar in my tea and coffee. Even healthy-seeming orange juice packs in a lot of calories.

And guess what else? I don’t like water. So replacing all the baddies with H2O isn’t going to cut it for me.

So what’s good (besides plain water?). Well, seltzer water, unsweetened teas and coffees (preferably black or with low-fat or non-fat milk), water or seltzer with a splash of juice or a slice of lemon or lime, and low-fat protein drinks all make the cut. (Protein drinks have calories, but they’re functional drinks: You need the calories to get you through a workout and the protein to boost your results. They also serve as meal- and snack-replacements, while most people drink Coke and other sweet beverages in addition to a full day’s worth of food calories.)

To make over my drink profile, I started by cutting the sugar out of my tea and coffee. It’s a small change that has big impact, since I tended to pile three teaspoons of sugar into each cup of coffee or tea. It took a few days, but now the sweet stuff tastes strange to me and the healthier options taste better!

I then replaced Pepsi at restaurants with unsweetened iced tea. I don’t love iced tea without sugar, but it still beats water. I save the soda for a rare treat, just as if it were dessert (and it kind of is dessert when you think about how much sugar is in there!).

Then there are the lemonade, chai, hot cocoa, and Thai iced tea (which has sugar and half-and-half). I don’t want to deprive myself of everything I love, so I try to keep it to one sweetened beverage per day. The rest of the time, I drink unsweetened tea, iced tea, and coffee.

Can these small changes really work? Here’s how it plays out. Say you used to have one can of Coke and three cups of coffee or tea with two teaspoons sugar each every day. There are 155 calories in a 12-ounce can of Coke. One teaspoon of sugar has 16 calories. One can of Coke and six teaspoons of sugar add up to 203 calories per day through beverages. That’s 74,095 calories in a year. It takes 3,500 calories to make a pound, so if you cut out those beverages and do nothing else, you’ll lose 21 pounds in a year. That’s no small potatoes (or should I say small Coke)!

Do you drink your calories? Have you done anything to move towards less caloriffic choices such as water or unsweetened beverages? I’d love to know. Please post in the Comments below!

I’m in New York City, and tonight I’ll be participating in an especially rigorous martial arts class with a woman I’m profiling for a business magazine. I’ve stepped up my weight training and cardio in the last month and a half, doing weights four to five times per week and interval training on the treadmill three times per week. Hopefully I can make it through this class, but I’m not confident…my endurance is still low.

I’ve realized that I have a lot of trouble pushing myself when I work out. A couple of days last week, I just did a moderate walk on the treadmill instead of interval training, and I didn’t weight train as much as I had been due to scheduling conflicts between my trainer and me. Of course, I could have picked up my handy dumbbells at home, but with no one pushing me, I dissed that idea.

I think that in order to lose weight and get fit, we need to push ourselves more than we think. Many magazine articles tell you that being active just a half-hour per day is fine, and you can even split up your activity into three 10-minute sessions, such as walks after meals. But when you read the profiles of people who have lost weight and kept it off — and who look great — they don’t just meander around for half an hour every day. They work hard! For example, some of them do an hour of cardio every day, and weight training three to five times per week on top of that. They watch their calories. They’re dedicated to being healthy.

I have a friend who would like to lose a lot of weight. But when he tells me about his workout, I realize that he’s just walking slowly on a treadmill at 0% incline for half an hour, then lifting weights that even I, who am in no way a trainer, can tell are way too light. He can go on forever without reaching failure! Then he gets demotivated because he isn’t losing any weight.

In contrast, the person I’m profiling has a fit body. She does vigorous martial arts for one to two hours a day, weight trains with heavy weights, and runs. And when we went out to lunch, I noticed that she ate only a half slice of bread from her open-faced tuna sandwich. (I ate all my bread.)

Me, I’m somewhere in the middle — I usually push myself, especially with weights (I lift heavy enough that I can do only eight to 12 reps), and I take care not to eat a crazy amount of food. And my results are…well, middling. I’m not overweight, but I’d like to look and feel fitter, and to fit into the jeans I wore in graduate school. The woman I’m profiling has inspired me: I think when I get back to New Hampshire, I’ll feel a renewed commitment to push myself harder during exercise.

How about you? Do you push it, or are you a slacker? What kinds of results are you seeing? I’d love to know…please post your experiences in the Comments section below.

Stay healthy,

Linda

If you’ve been reading my posts, you probably realize that I am not a natural exerciser. Natural couch spud is more like it. And I’m also not a naturally healthy eater — in fact, it’s something I struggle with. But in my research and interviews for the health articles I write, I’ve come across lots of ways to trick yourself and to “sneak” healthy eating habits into your day so it doesn’t feel like such a burden. Here are some that work for me.

Box it. When you order a meal at a restaurant, ask the server to pack up half the meal in a to-go box before serving you. I like to eat out at restaurants way more than I should, and this tip keeps me from chowing down on a huge meal (since we all know how big restaurant portion sizes are). I don’t do this every time, but when I do, the server looks confused at first, and then is understanding when I explain why I’m making that strange request.

Healthy-up fatty foods. If you can’t resist fatty dishes like mac and cheese and meatloaf, try bulking up the dish with good-for-you grains and veggies. These higher-fiber, higher-nutrient foods will replace some of the less healthy ingredients, and they also fill you up more so you’ll eat less. Try adding oatmeal to meatloaf, tossing shredded carrots into muffin mix, and hiding grated zucchini in casseroles. I like to add lots of finely-chopped broccoli and bell peppers to store-bought macaroni salad.

Go undercover. Feeling hunger pangs when you’re on the go is the perfect excuse to run through the drive through and gobble down a large order of fries. But if you carry your own healthy snacks, you’ll be ready when hunger hits. For example, I always carry a baggie full of unsalted raw cashews, which I buy at Trader Joe’s. Other good snacks include whole wheat pretzels, fruit like apples and bananas, and lowfat popcorn.

Pack it up.  Brian Wansink, Ph.D., author of Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think (Bantam 2006), and his colleagues did studies to find out if people eat more from large packages than from small ones. The researchers sent people home with either a half-pound, one-pound, or two-pound bag of M&Ms and some videotapes. The researchers asked for the subjects’ impression on the videos, but they were really interested in whether the size of the bag influenced what they ate. The outcome? Snackers with the one-pound bag ate twice as much as the people with the half-pound bag. Take a tip from this study and buy your snacks in single-serving sizes, or purchase big bags and portion out small servings into sandwich bags yourself. When I snack at home (my favorite is lime-flavored tortilla chips), I always put a small amount into a bowl and then put the bag away so I’m not tempted to grab more.

Take small steps. Recently, I started replacing my usual ranch salad dressing with fat-free raspberry vinaigrette. It’s such a small change, but, based on the nutrition info from the dressing packets I get at lunch, it saves me about 200 calories per salad. I’ve also stopped buttering my bread when I eat out at a certain chain restaurant that offers up big bread baskets. One tablespoon of butter has around 100 calories and 12 grams of fat — and considering how much bread I sometimes eat, that’s a lot of fat and calories! Other small steps you can take include switching from regular to fat-free mayo on your sandwiches, putting lowfat milk in your coffee instead of half-and-half, and leaving the shredded cheese, croutons, or bacon bits off your salad.

These tips have helped me cut calories without feeling the pinch. I hope they work for you, too — and of course, you can probably come up with lots of sneaky ideas on your own!

Stay healthy,

Linda