Spring has sprung. Now’s the time to get out and take advantage of it. This weekend get out and pick a spot for a garden. Clear the space, turn the soil, get down on your hands and knees and plant some veggies. Salad greens, radishes, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, carrots, eggplant, whatever you feel like or have room for. Taking care of the garden will give you exercise, and eating the veggies will be good for you and your food budget too.
They were once called “victory gardens”. It can be your “diet victory”.
TODAY: START YOUR GARDEN.
Now that you’ve got the grill fired up you don’t want to keep doing burgers. I know it tasted good, but there is a reason that chicken is the mainstay of diets. Grilled, skinless, chicken cooked quickly on a grill so it doesn’t dry out can be as flavorful as the fat filled burger. (even without the bun) It saves you a lot of calories too.
3 oz chicken breast = 140 calories, and 26.38g protein
3 oz extra lean ground beef = 224 calories, and 23g protein.
TODAY: SKIP THE BEEF.
Since we’re avoiding fried food this week, you probably are thinking of some grilled burgers. They’re great even without the bun. Unless it’s a great whole grain it actually doesn’t add a whole lot of taste anyway. So the calories and starch don’t get you much. Actually a knife and fork burger with the lettuce, tomato and pickle with ketchup and hot sauce is easier to eat than the same thing on a bun. On the bun a big sandwich like that tends to make us eat faster too. You’re trying not to end up wearing it all. As I’ve told you before you need to slow down to eat less.
TODAY: SKIP THE BURGER BUN.
The grilled offering at KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) may lead you to believe that it’s the diet choice you might make on their menu. Well the nutrition handout available at the stores tells the story differently. Surprisingly ORIGINAL RECIPE is the low cal / low fat winner. But there is a catch. The KFC Original Recipe breast has half the fat and 40 fewer calories than the new grilled version. IF you take the skin off. It seems that the skin absorbs most of the oil and the “secret herbs and spices” has a LOT of salt. As a matter of fact it reduces the salt and cholesterol by half! (Grilled had TWICE the cholesterol!) In addition taking off the skin and it’s minimal breading reduces transfat from 21 grams to just 2, carbs from 7 grams to 1 while eliminating ALL of the saturated fat.
The down side is that the skin may reduce the amount of actual food you get… but then again that’s sort of what I’ve been nagging you about.
TODAY: GO SKINLESS TO GET SKINNY.
On day 2 of NO FRY WEEK you may be tempted by a quick meal at your local fast food franchise. After all the phrase “Do you want fries with that?” was imprinted on our minds with the order of our first burger. That led to the infamous “Do you want to supersize that?” The problem is that are loaded with partially hydrogenated fats, starch that turns to sugar, and calories without protein.
So in addition to no fried food skip the fries. Save them for a treat in a few days.
TODAY: NO FRIED FOOD.
This week there will be no FRYday. Skip all fried food this week. I know it’s the most tempting and often the easiest thing to find on a menu but it really is not a good diet choice. It’s not just the calories it’s the high heat that maked deep fried foods bad. The coatings are mostly starch; so are potatoes (French fries). When the starches and sugars are browned in oil, they form Advanced Glycation End Products (AGE’s), that are carcinogens. So by skipping fried food this week you will do yourself good in more ways than one.
TODAY: EAT NO FRIED FOOD.
By now, if there’s any left, the Halloween candy at the stores is marked down to about 75% off. I know the temptation is hard to resist and the savings are fantastic, but walk on by the display and congratulate yourself for your control. Besides, all the good stuff is gone now anyway. (How much candy corn does anybody really eat?) The temptation is the real trick of the season that will not treat your waistline well.
TODAY: DON’T BUY BARGAIN CANDY… OR ANY OTHER CANDY!
Daily Nag, Exercise, Food Choices | Diet Nag | 
May 14, 2010 6:18 am | 
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