The Dash Diet Weight Loss Solution: 2 Weeks to Drop Pounds, Boost Metabolism, and Get Healthy (A DASH Diet Book) (9 page)
Authors: Marla Heller
Tags: #Health & Fitness / Diets
Before-Dinner Snack (Optional)
Raw veggies
¼–½ cup hummus
Dinner
Blackened Chicken with Avocado-Papaya Salsa*
1 cup petite sweet peas
Side salad with dressing
4–6 ounces strawberries on ½–1 cup frozen yogurt, nonfat, artificially sweetened
Day 13
Breakfast
1 cup Cheerios
½ sliced medium banana
8 ounces skim milk
4–6 ounces orange juice
Midmorning Snack (Optional)
6 ounces strawberry light yogurt, nonfat, artificially sweetened
10 walnuts
Lunch
1–2 Turkey Roll-ups with Blueberry Salsa*
Side salad with dressing
1 clementine orange
Midafternoon Snack
1–2 light string cheese sticks
Baby carrots
Before-Dinner Snack (Optional)
10 peanuts in the shell (20 individual peanuts)
Dinner
Baked halibut. On a baking sheet covered with olive oil cooking spray, place the
halibut steaks. Sprinkle with herbs (your choice, or lemon-pepper seasoning mix)
and top with a lemon slice. Drizzle with olive oil (or spray again). Bake in a
preheated 450°F oven for 14 minutes or until fish is no longer translucent and flakes with a fork.
Roasted Broccoli, Cauliflower, and Carrots*
Romaine and Blood Orange Salad*
Healthy Choice Premium Fudge Bar, or other bar with similar nutritional properties
Day 14
Breakfast
1–2 hard-boiled eggs
½ whole grain English muffin, topped with butter or margarine
8–12 ounces latte
4–6 ounces strawberries
4–6 ounces tomato juice, low-sodium
Midmorning Snack (Optional)
1–2 light string cheese sticks
Grape tomatoes
Lunch
Grilled chicken sandwich on light whole wheat bread
Tomato slices
Cucumber slices
Italian coleslaw
Small plum
Midafternoon Snack
6 ounces raspberry light yogurt, nonfat, artificially sweetened
10 walnuts
Before-Dinner Snack (Optional)
Pepper strips
Black bean salsa
Dinner
Mexican Meatloaf*
Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Maple and Orange*
Green Beans and Peppers*
4–6 ounces mixed fresh berries
The second most obvious component of any weight loss plan is exercise. Many of you
may be groaning and saying that you hate to exercise, but a little physical activity can go a long way toward helping you feel younger and look better. I’m not talking about
spending hours on the treadmill every day of the week or training for a marathon. You can be more active, burn more calories, and get fit by making small changes in your
lifestyle—and doing things you enjoy.
Consider this: In addition to improving health, activity also makes you feel younger. It is one of the ways that you actually can turn back the clock. When you start to exercise, within the first month, you will have a much higher energy level. You will have more
bounce in your step. Exercise has long been known to be associated with lower rates of depression and can relieve stress. And now research shows that exercise is associated with increased brain volume and slower age-related deterioration of cognitive abilities.
What is it going to take to find the motivation to start exercising? Perhaps you can
change from the “e-word” to an “a-word,” and look for ways to increase your
activity
level. Too many of us are very sedentary at work, stuck behind a computer screen all
day. Then we drive home, pick up some food on the way, and eat in front of the TV
screen. If you think about how to be more physically active, you could increase your
calorie burning very easily several times during any given day. What if you park a little farther from your office? Then walk around the office or workplace a few times before you go to your desk. If there are some stairs, use them. Instead of sending an e-mail to your colleague, get up and go talk to her face-to-face. Walk for five minutes before and after lunch. Take an afternoon walk break before you have your snack. At the end of the day, go to the grocery store to buy food that you will make for dinner. You will be more active simply by standing up while making dinner. After dinner, stand up, and walk in place or on a treadmill for a few minutes. Or better yet, go outside for a walk.
That was all so easy. It’s so simple to add little bits of activity to your day. It is especially important to find things that are fun for you. If you are very social, then exercising or walking with a friend will be something you are more likely to continue.
Team and competitive sports appeal to many people. If your schedule is very hectic, you may want an exercise that you can do at home, to minimize changing and transit time. If you really hate to exercise, having a personal trainer with scheduled appointments may be what is needed to stay on track. If you are already physically active, trying something new may be the ticket to boosting your metabolism.
When you think about the kinds of activities you should be doing, consider cardio or
aerobic activity as the first line of defense against weight creep, heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, and all those other bad things. You want to do some kind of aerobic
activity most days of the week. Next should be some kind of strength exercise. I cannot emphasize enough how much benefit you will get from that type of exercise. By toning
and firming your muscles, you will literally make your body feel and look much
younger. Once or twice a week should be enough. You may also find benefit from
balance and flexibility exercises such as yoga or tai chi, which you can do several times per week, or even daily.
Your goal should be to do something most days of the week. If you try to exercise
every day, you are likely to hit at least five days a week. However, if you plan to exercise five days a week, you are likely to hit only three days, and pretty soon, you are maybe exercising one day a week. Once you have started to exercise on a regular basis, think about how much time you are devoting to activity. If you are trying to lose weight, most people need 60 minutes of activity each day. Once you get to the maintenance phase, 30
minutes daily should be good. Unless you want to do more. (Yay!)
Walking, jogging, or running require very little equipment and are very low-cost. You can even walk in place in front of your TV if it isn’t safe outside or the weather isn’t good enough. Get a pedometer to track your steps. To be healthy, it is recommended that most people take 10,000 steps per day. You may be shocked at how low your number is.
But everyone starts somewhere, and you can slowly increase your numbers to bring them closer to the 10,000 steps goal. Walking around the office, the neighborhood, or even at home is an easy way to get started. Remember that sitting all day really slows down your metabolism, making it more of a challenge to get any benefit out of small amounts of
exercise. So start to make your entire day more active, to get more of a payoff.
For strength exercises, you can go to a gym or use small weights or bands at home. I
have used and often recommend the strength exercises that you will find in the Strong Women series of books by Miriam Nelson, PhD. Pilates can also improve strength and
can be done at home with videos or in classes at your local park district or gym.
If you have mobility problems, try chair exercising. Put on some music, and move and
groove in your seat. There was a recent news article about a woman with knee problems who went to a Zumba class and did all the movements while seated. She lost 70 pounds
in a year. By that time, her joints didn’t hurt as much, and she was able to do more
activity, which further propelled her weight loss. But you don’t have to go to a class.
You could watch a video or do Zumba with a DVD or video game. Water exercise can
also be great for people with mobility problems. Many hospitals have health centers with
“arthritis pools,” which are much warmer and make movement much easier.
Video games now can actually help you become more active while at home and fit into
your own schedule. Of course, videos or walking or running podcasts can also be great ways to add some focus to your workout routines. If you love music, make your own
playlist or listen to your favorite station while you walk, run, and move. Dancing feels more like fun, and can help you really get physically active either in the privacy of your own home, at a class, or out at a club.
Do you already have home exercise equipment? Treadmills, ellipticals, or stationary
bikes are wonderful for aerobic activity. Make the experience less boring by listening to your favorite music, watching TV or a movie, listening to talk radio, or listening to an audiobook. Exercise that you can do at home is more likely to get done.
Lots of people like to engage in physical activity with friends. They think of it as play.
They play golf, basketball, soccer, football, volleyball, tennis, or go bowling. Get your best friend to join you for classes at the gym, go for a walk, go Rollerblading, go hiking, or train for a 5K. If you have a supportive significant other, go out dancing or take dancing lessons. The point is, if you do something that is fun or feels like play, you will be more likely to continue the activity.
Need to grease the skids? Get the right exercise shoes, clothes, and equipment if
needed. Try to remove any barriers to exercise. If you don’t have the right gear, then go out and buy it (within your budget). Then lay out the clothes and gear the night before.
You know the obstacles that are going to get in the way of exercising more. You are the only one who can set the stage for success.
The timing of your exercise matters, too. No, you don’t increase the fat burning by
choosing the right time of day. But you are less likely to skip exercise that is scheduled in the morning as compared to later in the day, when life tends to intervene. If you have to be a chauffeur most afternoons, that is not going to work for a regular exercise time (unless your exercise is walking back and forth on the soccer sidelines—which works on all counts). Or if you often have errands that you need to do after work or you have to work late, you will be tempted to skip “just this once.” The flip side of this advice would be to schedule your home exercise time for something that you do every evening. If you always watch TV at 8:00 p.m., get on your treadmill or walk in place while you watch.
Being realistic about your schedule will make the exercise component more likely to
happen.
And to have positive reinforcement for developing your exercise habit, use our
tracking form to keep a record of your activities. If you can see how your actions are building up, you will start to think of yourself a little differently. You are the one who is being successful at planning and reaching your goals.
So decide that you
will
exercise.
1. Plan which types of exercise, activity, and play you will do.
2. Decide what time will work best for your schedule.
3. If you need others, identify the people and ensure that your schedules all align.
4. Get the gear, buy the game, or make the playlist.
5. Plan for more routine activity during your day.
My Actions to Add More Activity to My Days
Buy gym shoes _____ ____ ____ Buy gear _____ _____ ___ ___
Identify the times _____ ______ and days _____ _____ ___ ___
Identify barriers to activity _____ _____ _____ _____ ____ ___ ___
Plans to remove the barriers _____ _____ _____ _____ ____ ____
The Secrets of the DASH Diet Foods
High-Carb, Low-Carb, What Should We Do?
Back in the late 1980s and the 1990s, high-grain diets were encouraged. People really went overboard with this philosophy; remember the huge plates of pasta and bottomless bread baskets? And Americans became fatter. Who could burn off all those calories if
you weren’t training for marathons all the time?
All those carb-loaded meals really wreaked havoc with people’s health as well. We are currently in an epidemic of diabetes and insulin resistance (an inability to respond well to insulin), which can have many bad health consequences. And for people with insulin
resistance, the high intake of starch from the grains eventually wears out the ability of the body to produce enough insulin to keep blood sugar under control, which can lead to
diabetes. The bottom line: If you are struggling with your weight, and especially if you carry your extra weight around your waist, it is very important to avoid excess starch and sugar.
Regardless of weight or health issues, when you choose carbs, you would like them to
be great sources of fiber, vitamins, minerals, and other important plant nutrients, while being relatively low in calories. Preferably, you will go easy on the carbs that are mostly refined, empty-calorie foods and/or are high in saturated and trans fats.
Fruits and Vegetables
Fruits and vegetables fit the bill for highly desirable carbs. They are two of the key food groups for the DASH Diet Weight Loss Solution. They are rich in vitamins, minerals,
fiber, and antioxidants. By weight, they are mostly water, so the calories are low, but they are very filling. Fruits and vegetables are rich in the plant compounds known as
phytochemicals (
phyto-
means “plant”). These chemicals include antioxidants and the compounds that produce color, scents, and flavor. Most of the “superfoods” are fruits and vegetables. However, it is more important to have a healthy diet than to just focus on trying to include a few of the healthiest fruits and vegetables into your regular diet. “Eat the rainbow” is an easy way to think about healthy eating. The more color on your plate, the more healthful it is likely to be. And the more variety in your diet, the better.