The Biggest Loser Competition Comes to New Hampshire! No, it’s not the actual TV show -  but just as good. These competitors are real guys living in the real world having full time jobs, without cooks or personal trainers. They work at a company in Merrimack, New Hamshire. Apparently, this is an annual competition that has been going on for the past 8 years. For the past few years, my brother Dustin,  (amazing athlete and crazy biker - check out his 750 mile bike race with only 4 hours of sleep) has been telling me about this competition they hold at his company every January. Last year, 2 of the guys lost 60 pounds in 3 months!  No, the guys in the photo were not the participants. Dustin is second from the right in the picture.

Check out this chart for the results of the competition last year.

A little more about the competition:
- 3 month competition starts January 2 and ends March 31.
- This year, 7 guys will be competing for the Biggest Loser title
- Weekly mandatory weigh-ins every Friday (in their boxers)
- The winner will be determined by who loses the greatest percentage their body weight
- Dustin (not a competitor as his body fat looks like it might be 2%) will be moderating the competition to make sure no cheating is going on. He will also attempt to get some pics of the guys.
- The prize: the Biggest Loser will get a free lunch of his choice from the other competitors (so that equals 5 free lunches). Hmmm … hope this doesn’t put the “winner”  back on track to regaining weight. Maybe you guys should change the prize to money!

I will be giving weekly updates on their progress as well as introducing the participants.

Just for the record, I don’t usually don’t promote rapid weight loss. As many of you know from experience, the quicker the weight comes off, the quicker it usually goes back on. Hopefully the Big Losers in this competition will be able to keep the weight off. I’ll try to do follow-ups every few months after the competition to see who has been able to do this.

Stay tuned and good luck to all the competitors!

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The past month has been a diet disaster… holiday parties with too much cheer, overindulging on tempting goodies in the office, getting together with your family and eating, eating, eating! Now the countdown is here to fit into your little black party dress for New Years Eve -  5 days left! Yes, you can do it (assuming you haven’t done major damage over the holidays).

While I usually don’t promote rapid weight loss, if you follow these tips, you should be able to lose 2- 3  pounds in the next 5 days. The heavier you are, the quicker you will lose. Keep in mind that any weight you lose over 1-2 pounds in a week will be mainly from water. But whether the loss is from water or fat, your dress will definitely fit your better!

Tips to fit into your little black dress:

1. Write down what you eat. Studies have shown that those people who keep food records have more success with losing weight. Who wants to write down that they ate chocolates from their co-workers desk or had 2 slices of pizza for dinner?

2. Don’t skip meals. This will only slow your metabolism down and lead to overeating at your next meal.

3. Try to eat more meals from home.  This way you can control what you are eating. If possible, bring lunch to work. The best lunch choices would be leftover protein (~ 4-5 ounces and a big portion of veggies) or a salad with lean protein and low fat dressing. Curtail your restaurant dining for the next 5 days. Restaurants generally mean more calories (larger portions, more temptations such as bread, alcohol and dessert)

4. Limit carbs, especially processed carbs. While I generally don’t advocate a low carb diet (unless it is indicated medically), cutting back on carbs can help you release water weight. You will feel less bloated.

5. Limit your sodium intake. Sodium holds onto water. Cutting back on sodium can help you lose at least a pound or two of water weight.

6. Avoid alcohol for the next 5 days. Not only does alcohol contain empty calories, it can decrease your willpower to watch what you eat.

7. Don’t eat after 8 pm. When it comes to weight control, it really doesn’t matter what time you eat. So theoretically, it shouldn’t matter if you eat a late dinner as long as you are on track with your calories. However, in my experience, people have an easier time losing weight if they eat most of their calories earlier in the day.

8. On the day of New Years Eve, avoid gassy vegetables and carbonated beverages. Both of these can distend your stomach and intestines. Distended abdomens don’t look good in party dresses!

9. Remember your party tips prior to heading out to your New Years Eve party. Eat something before heading out so the champagne doesn’t immediately go to your head! You want to remember the entire evening…

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Has anyone ever had dined at one of NYC’s top restaurants -  Le Bernardin? If so, I bet it was one of the best meals you ever had. Chef Eric Ripert  is the chef at Le Bernardin. I had the pleasure of working with Chef Eric at the “Recipes for Hypertension” program sponsored by  Norvartis in NYC at the W Union Square  on November 13.

Check out the invitation.

The program was similar the the one we did in Chicago at the Swiss hotel. See my previous post for details. This time we had Dr. David Gomolin from Boston presenting the medical lecture. I presented the nutrition lecture to approximately 80 physicians. See some of my sodium shockers I presented in the lecture.

Chef Eric Ripert  did the cooking demonstration. He prepared 3 delicious dishes. It’s always so interesting to watch chefs at work. He asked me if I would like to assist him in preparing the meal. While I would have been honored to slice and dice with Chef Eric Ripert, I declined as I value my fingers. Cooking is not my forte. At least there would have been a room full of doctors to assist if I had an accident. I decided to stick to lecturing. Overall it was a great program once again!

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Two weeks ago, I gave a lecture on Holiday Eating Tips to my fellow Toastmasters (a  public speaking group). Tonight we had our annual Holiday Party at the Galleria Building in NYC. (Yes, that is me having a cocktail second from the right). I was curious to know how people were handling the holiday season from a food and beverage standpoint … and of course to hear if they had been following the eating tips I gave them in my lecture!

 I took a little poll (some names have been changed) to see how the partygoers were handling the holiday season:

Andrea : “I have a really hard time during the holiday season. I am out at least 5 nights a week having 3-5 drinks per night. Also, I often eat ”finger foods” or richer foods than usual as that is what tends to be served at many parties”.(Example: the pizza we were eating tonight and free flowing wine). “I feel really tired during the month of December due to going out so much. I also tend to gain a few pounds. In January, this has to stop!”

Angela: “I’m not really tempted during the holiday season. I have a lot of discipline. For example, tonight I had just a small piece of chicken. I’m also not tempted by sweets. I may eat one small piece of a dessert tonight - but it will be small and something I really like .”(My recommendation to her was the pecan pie!) “Overall, the holidays really aren’t that hard for me. Plus, I want to look good for my man! I also love to cook. For me, I get more enjoyment from cooking for other people than I get from actually eating the food”. For example, Angela brought several huge trays of homemade chicken cutlets, pasta and sauce to the party (and she carried it on the subway!!)

Karen ( who works for Elite Modeling Agency): “We get tons of food sent to the office during the holiday season  - mainly candy and sweets. It is everywhere in the office”.  I was rather amazed when she said she was able to resist it. It was not a problem for her at all! So for Karen, with the exception of Christmas eve and Christmas day, the holidays do not present any unusual problems.

James:  “ I followed your holiday eating tips tonight. I made sure I ate something before coming here so I wouldn’t be starving and eat too much or get drunk too quickly”. If you watch my video, you will see I was kidding around with James telling the audience he was going to starve himself day so he could fit into his tight pants. It was a joke…   (These pics are of the boys inhaling pizza)

 Tom: “I let myself go and eat what I want on the weekends  - or during a weekday or two if there is a party - (as evidenced tonight by his several slices of pizza, chicken and pasta and multiple glasses of wine!) but the key for me is to be really strict with my eating 3 days a week. Generally on Monday, Tues and Wed, I will eat 3 light meals and then stop eating after dinner. No alcohol, no snacks. This helps to undo any damage I’ve done over the weekend or at a party”

Mary: “The tempting goodies in the office are a major problem for me. I try to avoid them, but once I start, it is hard to stop. Each day I’ll tell myself that I won’t have any today…but my willpower doesn’t hold out for long. I also haven’t been exercising much at all …too many things to do. I can’t wait for January to get back on track!”

 Maria: Maria gave a speech on exercising in the cold weather. “No matter what, I find time to exercise…even when it is 0 degrees outside.” Maria gave great advice on the right kind of clothing to wear and even brought in outdoor running clothes to use as a prop.  She seemed to really inspire the group to start exercising in the cold - although it is easy to feel inspired when you are in front of a fireplace with a glass of wine in your hand. She even inspired me to walk home instead of getting a cab - of course the fact there were no available cabs might have had something to do with that decision!  (That is Maria on the right and Angela second from the left)   

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How many vegetables do you eat each day? I bet it isn’t the daily recommended amount of 2 1/2 cups.  And no - your giant bowl of iceberg lettuce for your salad doesn’t count! City girls often have busy schedules and eat on the run. With the exception of an occasional salad or the 3 asparagus spears that might accompany your grilled tuna entree in a restaurant, our diets are lacking in vegetables. Even if you cook dinner or “assemble”  dinner as many of us do in NYC (assemble = picking up roast chicken, rice and vegetable at Zabars or Citarellas!), it is still unlikely that we’ll meet the recommendation for vegetable intake.

Try roasting vegetables to increase your vegetable intake
I’ve had many clients ask me how to cook vegetables in a way other than steaming and adding a little olive oil or butter spray. Since I am not the most creative cook in the world, I often recommend roasted vegetables. Roasting vegetables is an easy way to prepare vegetables. They taste good, provide variety and increase your nutritional intake.  You can keep them for several days and have leftovers.  In the colder weather, roasted vegetables can help you satisfy the urge for something filling and hot (as opposed to salads which are not as appealing to many people in the colder weather). Roasting your own veggies versus buying prepared roasted or grilled vegetables is a better idea as you can control the amount of oil that is used in preparation. I’ve had frequently ordered grilled veggies at a restaurant or gourmet store that have been dripping with oil.

The following tips were taken from an article on roasted vegetables from Web MD 

How to Cook Roasted Vegetables
Here are the four basic vegetable roasting steps:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a jellyroll pan with foil, and coat the foil with canola or olive oil cooking spray. Cut your vegetables into small chunks or hearty bite-sized pieces.

2. Add vegetables in a single layer to the foil-lined pan and spray the top with cooking spray or drizzle with a bit of canola or olive oil (use no more than a teaspoon of oil for every cup of vegetables). If you use oil, toss the veggies about on the pan to coat as much of them with oil as possible.

3. Sprinkle on any desired seasonings, such as rosemary or basil, parsley, marjoram, salt and pepper. Coat the tops of your veggies again with canola or olive oil cooking spray, if desired, especially if you didn’t drizzle with oil in Step 2.

4. Bake until veggies are lightly browned in areas, and tender. If your vegetables look like they are starting to dry out during the roasting period, drizzle some broth, apple juice, or low-fat Italian dressing or vinaigrette over the top. Different vegetables require different cooking times. Check your roasted vegetables after 25-30 minutes (this is probably the halfway point), turn them over with a spatula, then cook until they’re tender and nicely browned around some of the edges (about 25-30 minutes more.)
 

How Long Should I Cook Roasted Vegetables?
Keep in mind that these lighter density vegetables have the fastest cooking times:
Tomatoes
Summer squash
Eggplant
These can take as little as 20 minutes to roast at 350-375 degrees. But if you’re baking them in a 400-degree oven along with medium and high density vegetables, just cut them in larger, thicker pieces and they will handle the higher temp and longer cooking time just fine.

These medium-density vegetables take a bit longer to cook:
Onions
Peppers
Winter squash

These higher density vegetables, meanwhile, have the longest cooking times:
Potatoes
Carrots
Beets
Pumpkins
Medium- and high-density vegetables tend to roast better at 400 degrees and can take up to 60 minutes to cook.

Other veggies that taste great roasted include mushrooms, fennel and asparagus. Enjoy!

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Well, it’s the time of year when the chocolates and holiday gift baskets of food have started to appear in offices. Last week it began for me … a Harry and David Chocolate Tower was sent to the doctors office where I have my nutrition practice. Has anyone ever seen this tower? It is unbelievable - contains Moose Munch, Chocolate Truffles, Chocolate Covered Cherries, etc. For those of you who have been reading my blog for a while, you know I am a chocoholic. And the same thing is happening at the hospital where I work … cookies, chocolates, candy, etc. are at all the nurses stations. You try to control yourself, but everywhere you go, you see some kind of tempting goody. I bet many of you are faced with the same challenge.

 Tips to Handle Tempting Goodies or Gifts of Food:
1. In your office, keep them in another room out of your sight. Try to avoid the room where they are kept as much as possible. The more you see them, the more you will want to eat them!  For example, if I know there is a box of my favorite chocolates at the 5th floor nurses station, I try to avoid this area of the hospital.

2. At home, keep them in a container (not a see through one) and put them out of sight. Studies have shown that we eat significantly more candy/sweets if they are placed in a clear container versus an opaque container.

3. Allow yourself 1-2 of your favorite holiday goodies a day (maybe 150 calories). Choose what you really want, eat it slow and enjoy it. Then stop!

4. If eating these goodies opens the floodgates and leads to uncontrolled eating, then you will really need to avoid them. Check out my interview with Christy the Sugar Addict. Don’t even start with foods that “get you going”. Bring in healthy snacks from home to have when everyone else is munching on fattening cookies.

5.  Think about all the calories your co-workers will be consuming!

6. If you do overindulge, get back on track at the next meal or next day. Don’t beat yourself up or let the overindulgence fuel thoughts of “Well, I blew it, so I might as well keep on eating”.

7. If you get a tempting gift of food , consider giving it away - perhaps to your doorman or let your significant other bring it in to their office. Better to have the calories on someone else’s hips!  I’ve been given holiday gifts of cookies and chocolate and have learned the hard way that I’m not very  good at controlling my intake of these foods, so I now know to give them away before I even open the package.  Check out my previous post called “Can Nutritionists Control Their Intake of Sweets?” to get ideas of how other nutritionists deal with problem foods.

So the next time your neighbor (pictured at the right) shows up at your apartment with a fresh baked batch of cookies or another food basket arrives in your office, plan ahead as to how you will handle it.

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Question from Sharon: In the colder weather, I tend to go to more movies. How bad is the movie theater popcorn?

Answer from Martha: It is true that with the colder weather, city girls often head to the movies as opposed to sitting at outside cafés. And when we think of movies, many of us think of popcorn. So to answer your question - I usually don’t like to use the word “bad” when it comes to food, but I will use it now … movie theater popcorn is bad, bad, bad! Bad for 2 reasons - the portions are jumbo sized and it is popped in oil. 

I think most of us realize that movie theater popcorn is not exactly a health food, but did you realize that a medium size popcorn without added butter contains 11-16 cups (depending on which movie theater you are in), 650 - 900 calories and 43-60 grams of fat?  You probably thought it wasn’t so bad because you didn’t add butter! Now if you add butter,  the calories jump to 910-1220 calories and 71-97 grams of fat. This is more than 6 McDonald cheeseburgers! And even worse, much of that fat might be saturated, depending on what kind of oil it was popped in. Saturated fat is the kind of fat that raises LDL cholesterol (the kind that clogs arteries).

A few years ago, the Center for Science in the Public Interest made headlines with its expose on movie theatre popcorn. This caused many theaters to change from using a saturated oil such as coconut oil to an unsaturated oil such as peanut oil. While this was better for the heart, your waistline doesn’t know the difference between good fat and bad fat. In any case, many theaters have changed back to using the saturated oils - so back to bad for the heart and waistline.

 Check out the calories and fat content of movie theater popcorn:

Tips to improve your movie munchies:
1. Bring in your own snack- discreetly of course! Pop a 100 calorie mini bag of popcorn at home and eat that instead of the movie theater popcorn. Check out my post on crunchy snacks for other ideas.

2. If you really have the urge for real movie popcorn, get a kid size if they have it - no butter of course! A small sans butter would be your next best choice.

3. If you have the real movie theater popcorn, try to make your next meal a little lighter.

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It’s cold and you want to warm up … you see a Starbucks looming on the corner (almost every corner in NYC!). Or perhaps you want to take a break from holiday shopping and Starbucks is calling your name. Often times  in NYC, I see city girls walking down the street drinking from Starbucks coffee cups. I wonder what drink is in those cups. If it’s one of the new holiday drinks, regular consumption may soon lead to muffin tops (no- I’m not talking about the food!). These new holiday drinks are loaded with calories - many over 400 calories. And if you choose a “holiday snack”  to go with your “holiday drink”, you can pack in over 800 calories! This is over half of the calories that the average women needs to maintain her weight.

Ordering nonfat milk and skipping the whipped cream can help save calories and fat … however I still wouldn’t call them “dietetic”.   Bottom line, make these drinks a special treat!

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I gave a talk on Holiday Eating Tips to the public speaking group I belong to -  Toastmasters.   I talked about how to handle tempting food in the office, why strict dieting during the holiday season is not a great idea, how to avoid the “holiday pig-out syndrome,  and how to handle holiday parties. Check out the video.

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I often recommend nuts as snacks for my clients, whether they are trying to lower their cholesterol, lose weight, have PCOS ( as nuts a great low carb snack) or just trying to eat healthier. Nuts are nutritious, filling and contain heart healthy fats. Consumption of nuts have been linked to a decreased risk of heart disease and diabetes.

The down side of nuts - they are high in calories. Some people have the discipline to eat one portion of nuts. However other people, such as myself, don’t have this control. Have you ever found yourself sitting with a full can of cashews in front of the television only to find the can suddenly half empty? How many times have you found your hand reaching into the nut bowl at your local bar? I am guilty of that one…

I have a hard time finding mini bags of nuts in local stores. Most small bags are 1.5 - 2 oz. This translates into  approximately 250-320 calories. The little bags of nuts at Starbucks are 550 calories!

Calorie content of nuts

Tips to control your portions of nuts:

1. Portion out nuts into small bags. This can help you to control your portion sizes.

2. Buy a type of nut you don’t love. For example, I don’t love soy nuts - but know they are healthy. I would buy those over almonds (which I would have trouble controlling my portion of)

3. Buy mini bags of nuts so they are already portion controlled. They are hard to find in stores. I find random  deli’s in NYC that sell mini bags (1 oz) of almonds and peanuts. I have also found that you can buy them online sometimes.

Purchase mini bags of nuts online:

1. Thanks to my client Viviam S. for telling me about real mini bags of nuts (1/2 oz portion for 80 calories). Great for a snack! She brought me in a sample that she got on an airplane. They are called King Nuts. Check out mini bags of Fancy Nuts and Peanuts. You can purchase these online.

2. Check out Planter’s on the Go nut packs. They contain 1 oz portions and are 160 calories. Unfortunately, I have only found them in a few random stores and you can’t purchase them on the Planters website. However, I did find that you can purchase them on Amazon.com at this link (only the peanut variety though). Make sure the nut pack you purchase is one ounce as many of the nut packs are 3 oz or more. Do an online search and you may be able to find where you can purchase them.

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