Weekends tend to wreak havoc on even the most dedicated dieter’s plans. If it’s not your son’s soccer tournament, then it’s the dinner party, or the fast food you grabbed while our running errands on Saturday. But, it’s just one day, right?

Well, unfortunately, no.

Yes, it’s just one day on the calendar, but you can undo a week’s worth of work with one day of indulgences.

Let’s look at a few healthy food items that you might grab on the go, and see where they could fit in:

• McDonald’s Grilled Chicken Sandwich. 420 calories. With the small fries, you are now up to 650 calories.
• McDonald’s Premium Southwest Salad with Grilled Chicken. 320 cals.  (swap out for crispy chicken and bump up to 430 cals)
• Starbucks blueberry scone. 460 cals. With your grande nonfat vanilla latte, and you are up to 660 calories for that “snack.”
• Almonds. A couple dozen is 169 calories. Almonds (and all nuts) are a great snack, but the portion sizes are the killer — it’s about what you can fit in the palm of your hand.

From that list you can make some really great and some really bad choices. The day I looked up the Starbuck’s scone calories was the last day I ate a Starbucks scone.

Now, what about the dinner party:

• Vodka cranberry. It depends upon the size of the pour, but for a cocktail drink, you are probably looking at 200-225 calories each.
• Margarita. It’s almost 400 calories for an 8oz margarita. But, I venture to guess that most margaritas are well over 8 ounces, so let’s say 600 calories per margarita.
• Red wine. 5 ounces is around 140 calories. 5 ounces is pretty close to what you’d get out at a restaurant, so if your friend’s are heavy pourers, you are drinking more than that.
• Beer. It depends upon what you drink, but a non-light beer is going to be about 200 calories per pint.

What to do?

There are really two options:

1. Plan life out perfectly, so you know exactly what you are going to eat when and where. I believe that that level of planning is unrealistic and unsustainable. Not to mention not a whole lot of fun!
2. Go with the flow and adopt a caloric averaging technique. Rather than trying to shoot for a fixed number every day, shoot for a weekly and monthly caloric average so you can just let life happen. By averaging your days together, you are going to learn to better listen to your body, and make it OK to eat more or less based upon your mood, hormones, activity levels and life events. I talk more about this in my Jen’s Gem’s for the Healthy Writer column.

So, this week, stop and re-assess how you did last weekend, and make plans to get next weekend better.

Need some help with that? My clients will tell you that I’m a great accountability buddy and we can work together to figure out how to keep the weekends from derailing you progress. Drop me a note so we can figure out how to get started!

It can.

For many people, the word Sustenance means food. But, the definition is actually MUCH more broad, and is defined by terms such as: support from below; maintain; encourage.

Read my 5 healthy eating tips specifically designed to make you tremendously creative, ridiculously productive, insanely rich, and absolutely irresistible over at Jen’s Gems … for the Healthy Writer.

(OK, I made up the rich and sexy part, but with the new tools I’ve given you there is no reason why you can’t use those power for good, and work on rich and sexy!)

February is American Heart Month, and the American Heart Association is looking for help with their amazing and ambitious goal:

“Today, our near-term goal is nothing less than a 25% reduction in coronary heart disease and stroke risk by the year 2010.”

Heart disease is the #1 killer in women, something that surprises many people. Unfortunately, it’s not a surprise to me. 18 years ago, my Mom died unexpectedly of a massive heart attack at the age of 47. She had all of the numbers working against her, but the heart disease in women wasn’t a public health issue in the early 1990s. Heart disease was still a “male disease.”

My Move it Monday request for this week, regardless of age or gender, is that you make an appointment with your health care provider to get your vital stats checked. In particular, according to the AHA, you should look for:

• Total Cholesterol: Less than 200 mg/dL
• LDL Cholesterol:
  • Less than 100 mb/dL: Optimal
  • 100 to 129 mg/dL: Near/Above Optimal
  • 130 to 159 mg/dL: Borderline High
  • 160 to 189 mg/dL: High
  • 190 mg/dL and above: Very High
• HDL: 50 mg/dL or higher
• Triglycerides: <150 mg/dL
• Blood pressure: <120/80 mmHg
• Fasting Glucose: <100 mg/dL
• Body Mass Index: <25 Kg/m2
• Waist Circumference: <35 inches

If the numbers above look confusing, don’t worry about it. Your doctor knows what they mean and can tell you if your numbers are within the proper ranges or not. Many insurance plans now cover basic bloodwork and preventative care, which the tests above definitely are.

Once you’ve made your appointment, drop me a note in the comments below and let me know. But, don’t do it for me. Do it for yourself, your friends, and your family.

In this case, according to Oxford researchers working with colleagues in Norway, chocolate, wine, coffee, and tea enhance cognitive performance.

The researchers believe it has something to do with the high amounts of polyphenols in these foods. The largest subclass of dietary polyphenols is flavonoids, which seem to result in a lower incidence of dementia.

Researchers do, of course, recommend moderation.

Happy Holidays!

Link

The January issue of Wired magazine has a fantastic infographic that outlines the cost per calorie, calorie per weight, and sugar per weight. You know what, that old advice turns out to be the best. To get the most volume for the least sugar and the least calories you do need to avoid the aisles and stay around the perimeter.

These healthy eating habits will cost you more in the short-term, but the long-term reward is reduced likelihood of a chronic condition such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Oh, and you’ll live longer, too!

InfoGraphic