Sweet Truth about Sweeteners
Sweet Truth about Sweeteners
- Becky Wibbenmeyer, EBF Fitness Coach
Whether you are cutting your sugar intake or looking for alternatives and deciding between natural or artificial sweeteners, there are many choices out there these days. So let’s take a look at a few, all of which have been tried and tested by your EBF coaches.
SUGAR:
Pros: Whatever form it is in, the body “knows” it is sugar and therefore can break it down accordingly.
Cons: 15 calories per 1 tsp, calorie-for-calorie, sugar, in all forms, is just empty calories when compared to veggies, fruit, meat, and nuts. Also, an influx of sugar into the bloodstream upsets the body’s blood sugar balance causing the release of insulin. Insulin regulates blood sugar levels and promotes storage of fat, so if you consume high amounts of sugar you are making way for weight gain.
NATURAL SWEETENERS:
Among the growing list of natural sweeteners in your grocery store are Stevia, Truvia, and Agave Nectar. When these sweeteners are consumed there is no spike in blood sugar levels similar to regular table sugar.
STEVIA
- Pros: 0 Calories. This South American herb is 200-300x sweeter than sugar so only a little is needed.
- Cons: Stevia may have a bitter aftertaste to some.
TRUVIA - (EBF Coach Becky’s pick!)
- Pros: 0 Calories. Truvia, which is made from the leaves of the Stevia plant has a similar texture and sweetness as regular sugar.
- Cons: Some say it has a slight after taste, milder than Stevia, but I personally don’t think it does.
*Truvia is made of rebiana (part of the stevia plant), erythritol (a sugar alcohol), and other natural flavors. Erythritol, which occurs naturally in low levels in grapes, pears, and melons, gives Truvia the sugar-like taste and granular appearance. It is classified as a sugar alcohol but it is neither a sugar nor an alcohol. Its chemical structure only resembles sugar and alcohol but because of its’ natural status, calorie content, and high digestive tolerance, erythritol is unlike other sugar alcohols.
AGAVE NECTAR
- Pros: Agave Nectar (also called Agave Syrup or Agave Sweetener) has a taste and appearance similar to honey. It is Kosher, nearly always organic and raw, and has a low glycemic index. It can be easily used as a substitute for honey or maple syrup in just about any recipe as well. Agave Nectar also has 1 gram of fiber per serving.
- Cons: The higher calorie count, 60 calories/serving of 21g, as well as 15g of sugar per serving.
(Next Artificial Sweeteners)
Quick & Nutritious Breakfast Options
Remember, those who eat similar foods each day successfully manage their weight more than those who do not. Putting that consistency into your breakfast is a great way to begin your day! Check out these ideas and mix and match to fit your taste buds. Focus on the 3 P’s: protein, produce, and portion size. Get a little lean PROTEIN, some PRODUCE, (fruit or vege), and when you eat other things besides lean protein and produce, mind your PORTIONS with each meal. Those who eat breakfast have more success with weight management success as well.Breakfast with starchSteel cut oatmeal w/ fruit and/or nuts (apples, bananas, raisons), skim milk - Instant oatmeal (plain) is a cut above most typical American choices for breakfast, so mixing this with fruit and a light sprinkling of nuts is an excellent choice for breakfast. If you want to take that option up a notch on the Health-o-meter, take a few extra minutes to slow cook the real thing. (Maybe take time to cook enough for 3-4 days at one time and then just microwave a portion for each day if you like it warm. Trader Joe’s carries precooked steel cut oatmeal. The frozen one tastes the best.) Steel cut contains a little extra fiber and protein, so you feel a little fuller, and control your blood sugar a little better than the instant kind.Whole grain toast w/ peanut butter and apple or banana slices - Look for whole grain, not just wheat bread, if it doesn’t say whole grain, it is not whole grain. Think you don’t like whole grain bread? There are so many choices now, you will be able to find something. Be persistent. (Just keep in mind, a 1000 lbs of feathers weighs the same as a 1000 lbs of bricks. Specifically in the context of calorie management for weight loss, 100 calories of 100%, whole wheat, organic, sprouted, all natural, Holy Moses bread has the amount of calories as a 100 calorie piece of regular, Wonder, processed white bread. Always aim for the “healthier” option, but make note of the calories when making your choice. For a lower calorie bread, I use Healthy Life 100% Whole Wheat . . .)Fiber cereal w/ skim milk, piece of fruit- If you have a hard time with fiber cereal, try mixing it with a cereal that you like. No, not Lucky Charms. A 1/4 cup of Fiber One in your bowl of Total, Special K, or Cheerios is an excellent option. Try pretty much any of the Kashi cereals while aiming for 5+ grams of fiber, and 6+ grams of protein.Breakfast with no starchNonfat plain yogurt with fruit (any berries, prunes, a light sprinkling of granola or nuts)- This is also good if you pack your lunch, use frozen fruit. It will keep your yogurt chilled and it will thaw by the time you will eat it. I sweeten mine with a small amount of real maple syrup. *Note that Yoplait non-fat yogurt and many others have Aspartame sweetener. If you are looking for another sweetener, we recommend Truvia, from the Stevia plant. If you do use a real or natural sweetener, mind your amount.Scrambled eggs, 1 egg w/ 1-2 egg whites, w/ tomato salsa, spinach, or any other veges - I like fresh salsa. Trader Joe’s has a great chunky salsa. It is also good on chicken or fish. Cook your eggs in a non-stick pan with either no stick cooking spray or wipe the pan with a paper towel and a tiny amount of olive oil. Scrambled eggs are much faster to prepare than is usually perceived. Literally time yourself some morning preparing a small serving of scrambled eggs or omelet, and make note of how often you could actually have this low starch, excellent breakfast. Add a fruit to it if you like, and you can’t start your day on a better note.
Fruit and yogurt smoothie - Here is a recipe for one - blend together the following ingredients, 1/2 small ripe banana, 3 ounces strawberries, 2 ounces blueberries, 2 ounces raspberries, 3 ounces nonfat plain yogurt. You can sub in any fruit or combination of fruit that you would like. For real ease in preparation, you can use frozen unsweetened fruit. Smoothies are an awesome Nutrient Dense meal, just know your portions and servings of fruit. Try not to use juice, and realize how many servings you are putting in the blender.
Fruit and protein smoothie- You can make your own using protein powder. Or you can buy these at the grocery store in the produce section. Brands are Odawalla, Naked Juice, or Trader Joe’s. They are not inexpensive, but they are convenient. Even Starbucks makes these for about the same price as the grocery store.
*As with all liquid calories, do not make smooothies a regular breakfast or meal. Liquid calories are too easy to overindulge with. We recommend V-8 to be your main source of liquid calories. If you have not tried V-8, please go out and see if you like it. Most of us are not getting our quota of vegies in a day, and it is pretty darned easy to “shoot” a small 6-8 oz glass of ice cold V-8 everyday. The V-8 Fusion is an OK snack every once in a while, but the fruit sugars add up the calories in one bottle.
*This post was originally put together by EBF Trainer / Swim Coach, Kay Lynne Firsching, added to and re-posted by me with a few more ideas annd comments. Thanks, as always KL.)
Recommended Lean Protein Choices
“The key to weight management is muscle preservation.” Stimulating muscle during strength training sessions causes your calorie burning systems to kick into higher gear up to 24 hours after that workout session. To insure you are recovering from and building new, healthy, calorie burning muscle, make sure you are getting enough protein in with each meal. Each meal including snacks should have complex carbohydrates, protein and a little healthy fat. Protein slows down digestion, making blood sugar levels more even and staving off hunger.
Here are some of the best choices based on leanness and tastiness:
Chicken breast-3.5 oz, 30 grams of protein, go with boneless, skinless for the leanest choice (Look for leaner versions of this, some ground chicken, similar to turkey, is ground up with the skin, making it fattier than you would think. You can find 85% or more fat free in your stores.)
Ground beef - look for 85% to 96% fat free in your store. (Great for burgers, or to brown the meat in a skillet and drain the fat, then mix for taco meat, sloppy joes, or other ground meat favorites.)
Turkey-3 oz, 21 grams of protein If using ground turkey, use ground turkey breast. (Ground turkey has the skin included, look for 99% fat free in the store. Ground turkey is great to use for taco meat, burgers, and meat loaf.)
Tuna—6 oz can, 40 grams of protein (Use the water packed variety, and eat plain, or mixed with low fat/fat free Miracle Whip or mayonaise, pickle relish, or mustard.)
Lean deli meat - find low sodium versions of deli meat in your grocery deli. Unless you have high blood pressure, are taking a diuretic, or do not sweat enough during your workouts, a lean deli meat sandwich a few times per week is a great source of protein with a high fiber (>5 g of fiber) 100% whole wheat bread.
Salmon-3.5 oz, 27 grams of protein
Eggs-1 large, 7 grams of protein
Egg Whites - 3 g of protein. (*remember an egg has 6-7 g of protein, 3 in the white, 3 in the yolk, so to mix an omelette with one whole egg and one egg white is a great way to get some protein in for breakfast.)
Vegetarian Choices
Milk-1 cup, 8 grams of protein, go with skim. If it seems that skim tastes like water, work your way down the percentages of fat in milk, start with 1%, then go with ½% and eventually, go with skim.
Cottage Cheese-1/2 cup, 15 grams of protein, go with nonfat
Almonds, Peanuts, Cashews-1/4 cup, 8 grams; 9 grams; 5 grams; 5 grams (A great snack to add to a yogurt, fruit, or crackers during the day to provide some protein and energy to make it to your next meal.)
Peanut Butter-2 tablespoons, 8 grams of protein
Yogurt-8-12 grams of protein (Also containing healthy bacteria which promotes a healthy digestion system, yogurt is a great AM or PM snack to have with a few almonds or small serving of fruit.)
Spinach-1 cup cooked, 5 grams (Look also for leafy salad spinach to have for lunch or dinner. Either mix an entire spinach salad, or mix it into your Romaine or iceberg lettuce salads for extra nutrients.)
Kidney beans- 1 cup cooked, 13 grams
Garbanzo beans- 1 cup cooked, 12 grams
“Protein Bars” - there are a ton of these on the market, you just have to find one you like, and one that is less than 250 calories, containing >12 g of protein, with less than 5 g of saturated fat. Many of these bars can be mistaken for candy bars they taste so good, but the reason is that they often have the sugar and fat of a regular candy bar. Try Balance, Cliff, Luna, Zone, and others as they offer many different flavors.
“Protein Water” - the two most popular on the market are Special K and Biggest Loser Protein (Designer Whey) protein water providing 5-7 g of protein and 5-6 g of fiber per serving. They taste similar to Crystal Light, with a little more grittiness, and are a quick convenient way to get a small dose of hunger preventing protein and fiber.
Take a minute the next time you are in the grocery store or your own kitchen to see how many grams of protein you may be taking in a day, or with each food you eat. Aim for about 1 g per kilogram of your goal body weight (Your body weight in pounds divided by 2.2 = your weight in kilograms.) Remember protein will (1) help moderate your blood sugar level, so you minimize any insulin rush causing a temporary sweet tooth, (2) cause you to feel full, so you do not want to eat until much later, and (3) is key for muscle maintenance and building. Mother Nature is only trying to take our muscle and bone mass away from us, taking in enough protein is one sure fire way to fight back against this.
Cardio before weight training, or vice versa?
January 4, 2009 · Posted in Cardio before weights · CommentI get this question monthly in the fitness centers I work, so here you go, the final word. The simplest answer to this question is “what are you trying to accomplish that particular workout?” Consider your fitness “game plan”: whether attempting to lose weight, training for your wedding or running a marathon, you should have a well rounded approach including improving your cardio endurance, strength training, proper nutrition, and incorporating sufficient rest, recovery and “de-stressing” activity.
*Note that I said your focus may be “improving your cardiovascular endurance”, not burning calories, when bringing up typical cardio exercise.. The days of coming in to do 60 minutes on the elliptical to burn your weekend calories are so yesterday, as research shows time and again the key to weight management is muscle preservation and a healthy, efficient metabolism, both primarily the result of strength training and nutrition.
Consider your goal for that workout, and use the bulk of your energy there. If your focus is strength that day, if you’ve planned to run outside or do the elliptical trainer Mon Wed and Fri, and you walk into the fitness center on Thursday afternoon, go ahead and dominate your workout with weight training. Do no more than 10 minutes of a cardio machine to warm up with, then do your weights.
So there you go, whatever your focus is, if it’s strength that day, begin with weights, when you are freshest. But if your focus is cardio, hit this right away when you are fresh. (Know #5: Always Know YOUR Nutritional and Physical Focus - one of the 8 Know’s of YOUR Success - from the Succeed the S.A.F.E. Way Program.) Read more
5 Keys to Perfect Exercise Form
September 25, 2008 · Posted in Five Keys to Perfect Form · CommentWhile seeing results often requires leaving your physical, and sometime psychological “comfort zone”, we must first work to develop our personal comfort zone, both within our fitness program and more importantly, our body. This may mean becoming comfortable with your new habits, walking into an oft intimidating fitness center each day, and in this case, improving your body awareness when performing exercises.
While EveryBodyFIT strives to create an “environment of success” by providing external motivation, education, and accountability, our ultimate goal is to develop in each of us a body awareness, internal drive, and overall confidence that can enhance any particular aspect of our lives.
This includes having the confidence to safely and effectively perform a wide variety of exercises without always needing a personal trainer. This can be accomplished by following these5 Keys to Perfect Form:
1. Comfortable & Safe - before beginning the exercise, make sure you are comfortably in position, safe from losing your balance, and operating the exercise equipment correctly to avoid injury. If on a machine, check out the picture to make sure you are in the correct position.
2. Posture - train the way we want to live, stand, and sit. If we exercse with bad posture, we’ll walk into a room and stand with bad posture. Whether seated or standing, keep your chest up, neck neutral, and your shoulders back but relaxed. Read more
Five Keys to an Effective Fitness Program
September 25, 2008 · Posted in Five Keys to Fitness Program · CommentWe should all be “working out”, or following some sort of fitness program. So, whether you are new to fitness, your doctor has asked you to increase your activity, but has given you little guidance, or you just want to make sure you have a well balanced plan of attack for maintaining (or improving) your fitness level, here is a check list of 5 factors required for an effective fitness program.Compare your current plan, in the context of a week, to the ideas below, and maybe you will discover why you may not be seeing results. Failing to plan is planning to fail. Using these ideas, we hope you can develop a weekly and daily routine of specific exercises to keep your time and your effort on track.
5 Keys to an Effective Fitness Program:
To remain motivated, we must keep in mind the first key to any program: PURPOSE.
1. Purpose - A key to remaining motivated with exercise is to understand exactly why we are doing this stuff in the first place. “Functional fitness” is the idea that both our fitness plan and the specific exercises within the plan serve a purpose, or a function. Consider each exercise you perform, are they specific to improving your posture, helping you get up off a low chair, improve your golf game, allowing you to pick up your children, or manage your weight?
2. Frequency - this is the number of days per week you are physically active. Whether walking the dog, (at a decent pace), or coming to the fitness center, you want to find activity you enjoy, one that keeps your heart rate elevated for 30 minutes or more, and do this activity more than 3 times per week. Read more
Starting Out in a Fitness Center
September 25, 2008 · Posted in Starting Out in a Fitness Center · CommentGet the Most Bang for you Fitness Buck at Your Local Fitness Center
When you talked to the health club salesperson about the center you have now joined, they probably told you all about their Olympic length swimming pool and locker room amenities. And now, you are standing here in the weight room with an “elliptical cardio trainer” and a weight bench staring right back up at you wondering what in the heck to do next. Well we’re not talking center square footage and brand names of treadmills anymore ladies and gentlemen. Hold on to your water bottles and grab a towel as we break down the simplest, most effective ways to get the most calorie burning, health and fitness improving bang for your fitness buck in your health club or fitness facility.Doing “Cardio”
To walk the walk, it helps to talk the talk, so get familiar with gym lingo. “Cardio” refers to any physical activity that challenges the cardiovascular system, that is, your heart and lungs, along with all the veins and arteries running to and fro. When you hop on a “cardio machine” like the treadmill and walk 4 mph for 30 minutes, you are doing a ½ hour “cardio workout”.
Getting this treadmill workout is as simple as standing on the sides of the treadmill (or carefully on the pedals of an elliptical, or sitting on a stationary bike) and hitting the green START button. All of the pieces have a quick start and an emergency STOP button.
Hold on to the handles first on the treadmill, and don’t worry, it will begin you at 0.5 mph, (very slow), and bump up the speed button one point at a time until you are walking closer to 3.0 mph. Your goal is to walk a sustained 2.6 - 4.2 mph.
Performing 20-40 minutes of cardiovascular exercise at about 60-80% intensity (effort level should be 6-8 out of 10), 3-5 times per week should be enough to keep the rust off and heart pumping good and strong.
Strength / Resistance Training
Mother Nature is only trying to strip us of our muscle mass and bone density, therefore, strength training is A MUST! The best way to get used to the strength training equipment is to put 10 lbs or less on a machine, sit down, and check out the convenient little picture located on the machine. Slowly attempt to do what the picture depicts. Read more
