The Strategy of Going Halfsies

When I was planning my pre-gym snack today, at first I just thought to grab a protein energy bar, but then I realized I didn't have to stick to the calories on the package: I could cut them in half!

Parmesan-Crusted Trout with salad & vegetables

I'm trying to keep my snacks to 80-100 calories each so I can eat many small meals, and not get to the end of the day and be stuck skimping on my dinner, my favorite meal of the day.

It sounds like a no-brainer: Cut it in half. But how often do you do it? Isn't it just as satisfying to eat half a bar as it is to eat a whole one? Because after the first two bites, the main enjoyment has been had, right? On the other side, it's really hard to just eat half if the whole thing's in your palm or staring up at you from the plate.

So much harder to eat half, so much easier to cut in half and only take half.

For lunch I invented a fantastically-rich tasting but calorically-poor entrée I call "Parmesan-Crusted Rainbow Trout." Please check it out. Unbelievably delicious, takes only 10 minutes to make. Here's the link (on the Weight Watchers website):  Parmesan-Crusted Rainbow Trout
(Makes two portions, 140 calories, 10g protein per serving.)

What I discovered is that while light mayonnaise tastes the same as regular mayo in a recipe, light cheese does not.  No, no, no!

I also found that mixing the light mayo with a little dijon mustard makes the sauce go farther. Real Parmesan cheese, instead of some wannabe "light" cheese, makes a huge difference in taste. But only a small amount still gives you the rich flavor. Halfsies, again: Use only half the amount of real, flavorful cheese as you would the full amount of "lite" cheez-product and you get all the flavor for the same number of calories.

This fish is so moist and tender! I cut the finished entrée in half and saved the other half for dinner.

Voila: 3 strategies in one:

• Streamlining by making two meals at once
• Going halfsies
• Shaving the cals by using light mayo instead of "Real"
  

The meal pictured is only 225 calories, using a light dressing on the salad and tossing the veggies with a few flavorful drops of toasted walnut oil.

What about you? Do you find yourself cutting things in half? When and why?

The Challenge: Many Tiny Meals

A friend of mine, who has trouble losing weight even when he tried a low-calorie, raw food diet, told me how one time he did lose weight consistently: at a boot-camp-style retreat where the organizers worked the participants hard 2x a day and fed them a high-protein meal every 2 hours.

Eating every 2 hours and working out supposedly "speeds up your metabolism." There is a lot of hoo-ha out there both confirming and denying this assertion, so I wanted to try it.

I set an alarm on my phone to ring every two hours with the annoying message: "Time to eat another 200 calories!"

The challenge: Each meal had to take no more than 15 minutes to prepare; 200-260 calories; high protein (at least 30%-40%); and contain fiber-rich carbs from fruits and vegetables instead of bread, pasta or other refined grain products. Steaming instead of sauteing kept the calories low, and employing measuring spoons kept the oil and dressings under control.

Here's a pictoral record of my assembled tiny meals.
(You'll notice there are only four, not five. In the morning I had coffee and a fruit smoothie before my workout, not pictured.)

This works for the Weight Watchers PointsPlus program, too! Each meal was between 4 and 7 PointsPlus, and added up to a 29-point day. Right on target for my plan.

Morning Snack

Broiled tuna steak with steamed yam: 220 cals, 29% fat, 37% carbs, 34% pro

 Lunch

Two thin cheese & salsa omelets with an Asian pear: 230 cals, 24% fat, 44% carbs, 32% pro

"Mediterranean Tuna Fillet over Eggplant Marinara:" 260 cals, 38% fat, 31% carbs, 31% pro

Dinner (above) and Evening Snack (below)

Salad with broiled tuna and a nectarine: 230 cals, 37% fat, 21% carbs, 42% pro

As you can probably guess, there was a big piece of albacore tuna steak that got carved up in creative ways! 

Result: I had a lot of fun today inventing these tiny meals. Eating a tiny meal every 2 or 2 1/2 hours meant I was never hungry, except once: I felt a little hungry after my morning workout, but I could easily wait until my next alarm. Each tiny meal felt satisfying, and I never felt full -- just not hungry anymore.

Best of all, I didn't get bored because I was documenting it all for you guys! 

Felt so proud of my "Mediterranean Tuna over Eggplant Marinara" recipe that I posted it on Weight Watchers.com. I encourage you to try it.

Next time I'd double the portions and refrigerate or freeze them to always have a healthy meal close at hand.

Find Restaurants with Low-Calorie Entrees Besides Just Salad!

What if there were a way to know which restaurants make healthy dishes under 600 calories? I'm not talking about just salad or the same old sandwiches at Subway. I'm talking real restaurant food, the kind you risk overeating for, because it tastes so good.

Well, now there's a new startup company in Los Angeles that aims to do just that for us Calorie Rebels. ThinDish partners with local restaurants to show you what entrees on their menu are under 600 calories. And not only that, but they'll have icons on the menu to indicate what is low-carb, or gluten-free, or diabetic-friendly -- and many other special considerations. They've even partnered with a lab to do the calorie analysis, so it's gotta be more reliable than the restaurants themselves -- who've been caught advertising fewer calories and fat than their food actually contains!

ThinDish is an idea whose time has come! Check out ThinDish.com to sign up before their official launch.

The ThinDish landing page is mysterious because they haven't officially launched yet, but go to their ThinDish partner website to find out about what their service will do for the diner, as well as the restaurant.  All they need to do now is get Yelp! and Weight Watchers and LA restaurant reviewer Jonathan Gold on board and we'll have the whole spectrum of diners covered.

Woo-hoo! It's safe to enter a restaurant again!

Assembling a balanced, quick, healthy meal that's high in flavor and low in calories

A tasty quick lunch of balanced macronutrient ratios: weight-loss meal, high protein, low calorie.
50% carbs, 30% fat, 20% protein

Forget cooking. Sometimes we're just too busy.
That's when we need the art of food assembly. 
The picture above shows a food assembly: a balanced, easy-to-throw-together meal that hits 100% on all targets: it's simple, quick, flavorful, and balanced in terms of macronutrient ratios. Plus the whole plate clocks in at about 330 calories: a lot of food for the caloric price.

I first heard of macronutrient ratios from my personal trainer at Myogenics Fitness, and online you'll find many different opinions about what ratio is best. But for me, at least, 50-30-20 ratio is ideal for weight loss or weight maintenance.  The 50-30-20 ratio means: 50% carbohydrate (low-glycemic, unrefined, or "good") carbs, 30% fat and 20% protein.

(If you're not doing moderate to intense cardio exercise every day, you might want to bump the carbs down to 40% and the protein up to 30%, and that's the same ratio popularized in The Zone Diet. But experiment and see what works for you.)

Fat Myth: A lot of people think a healthy diet means: avoid fat like the plague. If you think 30% fat seems like a lot for weight loss, the undisputed truth is that most Americans eat too much refined carbs and that's why we're a fat nation. So keeping refined carbs in check using ratios is a good strategy.
But! It's actually hard to get 20% protein without some fat, so you'll probably have to pay attention to your assembly's added fat sources. Watch out for added cheese, nuts and dressings.


More about this picture:
20% Protein: one whole egg + one egg white scrambled and seasoned with citrusy Asian ponzu sauce.
Plus 3/4 cup of low-fat cottage cheese.
There is also protein in the steamed organic purple potato and the steamed broccoli jazzed up with some low-fat, high-flavor Galeo's Miso dressing.  Love that stuff!
50% Carbohydrate: The potato and broccoli, and there's also carbs in the low-fat cottage cheese.
30% Fat: Half a pat of butter for scrambling the egg; and the yolk in the whole egg, which is a good source of amino acids like tyrosine.

Did you know that broccoli and potatoes contain a lot of protein per gram?
This pile of broccoli -- (5.75 oz or about one whole stalk) -- has more protein than one large egg white.

Risotto Recipe Makeover

My Mushroom-Gorgonzola Risotto - 40% lighter in calories than Food Network's

The challenge: Make over Giada De Laurentiis' Gorgonzola and Porcini Risotto (as seen on Food Network and The Rockin' Foodie blog) to be 40% lighter in calories.  But still full of rich creaminess and intense flavor.

Voila! A low-calorie mushroom and gorgonzola risotto to die for!

(Why 40% less calories? Because if you're a typical American trying to lose weight but eating a typical American diet, you can aim to eat 40% less calories a day – that brings you from 2000 calories to 1200 calories.)  I lost a pound a week easily by eating 1200 calories a day.

My version only has 231 calories per serving instead of 372.

Alternatives to gorgeous, creamy risotto...

My longtime friend and fellow calorie-conscious foodie, Z, over at The Rockin' Foodie blog just created a brilliant post about Radiohead and risotto. She melts them together along the themes of commitment and dedication, with generous knobs of butter and gorgonzola.

Risotto is one of my all-time favorite comfort foods.

However...another thing takes commitment and dedication, too. Keeping the weight off in a hyper-caloric world!

Seduced by the irresistible creaminess and complex umami flavors of this dish, I am yet wary of risotto's ultra-high calorie quotient. After all, we're not Italian peasants laboring in the fields all day burning off tons of calories which we need to quickly replace.

No, we're ladies of luxury with cals to spare. And bikinis to fit into, it's almost June for God's sake. I am inspired to create a low-calorie alternative to their gorgeous mushroom-gorgonzola risotto that is as tasty and comforting but costs you only...wait for it...40% of the calories.

Why 40%?

Because if you subtract 40% of the calories of a typical diet (2,000 calories) you get 1200 calories, which is the recommended number for weight loss of a pound a week for moderately-exercising, healthy adult women.

I am inspired!

To be continued.....

The challenger: Mushroom-Gorgonzola Risotto

Prove to Yourself that You Can Stop Overeating

Psychologist Dr. Judith Beck has a series of great "food experiments" everyone can do to learn essential healthy-lifestyle skills. They are in her book, "The Complete Beck Diet Solution."

In this world of "caloric superabundance" as I call it, we really do need skills to cope with all the tempting food we want to eat, but must pass up in order to maintain a healthy weight.

The truth is, there are enough calories in the food supply for every man, woman and child to become obese in America: 3900 calories per person, per day -- no matter how old, young or physically active they are. That's up from 3200 in the early 1980's.*

Not only that, but we are biologically hardwired to continue to eat if tempting food is available. The deck is stacked against us.

So what are we foodies supposed to do? We have to learn to stop eating, even when something is incredibly delicious.

The Experiment to Prove to Yourself that You Can Stop Eating

Step 1. Write this on an index card: "Extra food will always go to waste, either in the trash or on my body." Read it a few times. Read it out loud in funny and convincing voices.

Step 2.  Serve yourself an extra portion of whatever you're going to eat. In this picture, it's a piece of incredibly moist, warm, fresh cake with chocolate sauce and ripe peaches from the Whole Foods Dessert Bar. Just look at the moist crumb, the crispy top, the plump fruit. You are my arch-nemesis, you Whole Foods Dessert Bar!

Warm, moist cake with fresh peaches and chocolate sauce from Whole Foods' Dessert Bar

Step 3. Immediately portion off the extra amount.
Here I have divided the cake into two portions, although notice that all the fresh peaches are in one portion, ha! Keep in mind the portions do not have to be equal, the point is to only eat the amount you decide you will eat.

Fresh, moist warm cake divided into two portions, one for me...

 Step 4. Enjoy your portion slowly, savoring every bite. Guilt-free!
This picture shows the remainder of the cake, the portion that I have decided NOT to eat.

Extremely tempting leftover portion of warm, moist cake!

Step 5. Immediately get up and throw away the extra portion. Yes, you have to waste it. That's why you wrote the index card in the beginning that says, "Extra food will always go to waste, either in the trash or on my body." No, you cannot take it home and eat it later. The point of the experiment is to prove to yourself you can enjoy a certain amount of food, and you don't have to eat or save the rest. (This is really hard for some people to wrap their heads around. I'm not against taking home leftovers. But for the purpose of learning this SKILL, you have to learn how to leave it...forever.)

"Extra food will always go to waste, either in the trash or on my body."

(Yes, I asked the owner if doggie could have the cake instead of throwing it away. She said no, he is not allowed sweets either. Poor guy.)

Step 6. Yay! You did it! Give yourself lots of credit for completing this experiment and beginning to learn this very important skill. Note how long your desire to keep eating lasts after you throw away the food. My guess is you won't be tempted by the food once it is completely gone from your sight AND unobtainable.

That's another reason you throw it away. If you only just saved it, you might be tempted over and over again, to unwrap it and have it. It's a struggle you don't need!

Dr. Beck says it's worth doing this experiment over and over again until it's easy for you to only eat half of a typical portion of restaurant food, dessert, or anything else you would normally overeat. If you master this skill, no foods will be off-limits because you'll be able to taste as much or as little as you want without overconsuming calories. (Full disclosure: I have not yet mastered this skill, but am working on it!)

So, go ahead and try this experiment with your favorite food! And please report back in the comments section.

*(For more about the overabundance of calories in the American food supply, check out professor and food activist Dr. Marion Nestle being interviewed at Yale University in this fascinating podcast. "It's the elephant in the room," she says about calories and the obesity epidemic.)