So you’ve made a commitment to changing your diet and fitness this year and hope to take off some weight.  Well done!  Time to set some short term goals to help you achieve your resolution.

Consult with your medical professional and get to know your health numbers and what they mean. Together you can determine any medical issues that would inform your plan such as diabetes, high blood pressure or high cholesterol.  Then you can set an appropriate health goal to be achieved each day through diet, exercise and a change in your habits.  The CalorieKing Program can help you enact a plan.

In addition, be sure to enlist family and friends for moral support. They can help you through the rough times when you’re ready to give up. If you are a CalorieKing member reach out to others in our supportive community who are eager to give advice and lend a hand.

So now it’s ready, set, GO!  Here is our best practical advice to get you going.  We’ve broken down healthy living and weight loss goals into three main components – mindset, diet and exercise.

Let’s get started: Read More »

Why Breakfast is So Important

When you take the time to literally “break the fast” in the morning it affects your eating for the rest of the day.  As Allan Borushek says, “Starting the day with a well-balanced meal that supplies adequate protein, carbohydrate and fiber helps keep hunger at bay and allows you to make wise choices for the rest of the day.”

We know it can be hard to get motivated in the morning, but consider these facts about breakfast and your health.  We’ll help you understand why it’s important and give you tips on how to work it into your routine.

Help with weight control

In a study published in The American Society of Nutritional Sciences’ Journal of Nutrition, researchers found that calories consumed early-on in the day were more satiating than the same amount of calories eaten later in the day; this led to lower calorie consumption overall. Eating breakfast helps with weight control by setting your metabolism at the beginning of the day with healthy, satiating food.

Research also shows skipping meals in general, especially breakfast, can actually make weight control more difficult. Breakfast skippers tend to eat more food than usual at the next meal or unknowingly nibble on high-calorie snacks to stave off hunger.  Those calories add up. Read More »

Your Eating Style and Your Health

Eating styles contribute to weight and health problems more than most people realize, which is why standardized weight-loss plans often fail. Here are the styles that encompass most people:

• Snackers
• Erratic Eaters
• Emotional Eaters

Eating styles have to do with when, where, and how you eat – and often eating style can really get in the way of your health goals.  We’ve compiled some fix-it tips for each style; many of us might have traits from more than one style so be sure to check out all the tips to see what fits for you.

Snackers

Snackers rarely sit down to a proper meal, and if they do, they usually pick at it! They eat a little bit of this and a little bit of that throughout the day as they are on the move.  Because intake is a little at a time, often these people perceive they aren’t eating much at all.

The big problem with this kind of eating is the small snacks begin to add up and can often be “empty calories.”  Many snacks don’t have sufficient protein to keep hunger at bay, so high-carb snackers are always foraging for something more to eat.

The Snacker Fix-It Plan

• Structure Your Meals.

Eat three meals a day (including breakfast) with enough protein and fiber to give you the feeling of fullness to carry you to the next meal. This will prevent you from mindless snacking and prevent you from thinking you never get a proper meal. Read More »

Many of us find winter to be a challenging time to stay on top of healthy habits. Between holiday festivities and warm, comforting food it is more important than ever to stay focused – especially with your exercise.

Though it’s colder and darker, getting outside can be a really great way to keep things fresh after feeling cooped up inside.  Remember to check with your doctor first as some conditions such as asthma, heart conditions or diabetes where extremities are at risk can prohibit activity in the cold.

A Family Outing

If you are finding it hard to adjust to the season, let’s talk about finding the motivation to get out the door.  Once you are there, let’s remember to stay safe!

Motivation:

Be Creative – If you are bored with the same old grind at the gym try mixing up your routine with an outdoor winter sport.  There are countless of snow sports if you have plenty of white stuff around – skiing, snow-shoeing and more.  If you don’t have the snow, you can still hike or even head to the rink to ice skate.  Or, try mall walking when the weather is bad.

Remember the Season – Be aware of the holiday season; remember you will be surrounded by excess food and alcohol.  Stay conscious of how this might affect your health and well-being.  Make short term exercise goals an outlet for the excess and stress of the holidays.  Think about looking good and feeling good for all your events.

Think Big Picture – Remember warmer weather is just a few months away and all the heavy, bulky clothes will go back in a box. Think about what having to shed excess winter weight would do to your overall health goals – not exercising now could make the hill harder to climb when spring comes around.  Focusing on your long term goal is great motivation! Read More »

The holiday season means good food – often too much of it!  But you can avoid weight gain during the holidays with careful menu planning and sensible eating.  Get a head start with our suggestions below:

Vegetable Snacks: Best Choice!

Appetizers

Appetizers and pre-dinner nibbles can add substantial calories to your holiday calorie intake. Also, be aware that salty foods and snacks can make you thirsty; a problem if you quench your thirst with calorie-laden soda, fruit juice or alcohol.  Be sure to keep water within reach!

CalorieKing Best Choice:

3 oz. vegetable sticks and 1 oz. fat free ranch dip

55 calories, 0g fat and 12 carbs

Instead of:

1 oz. regular potato chips and regular ranch dip

280 calories, 20g fat and 17 carbs

SAVE: 225 calories, 20g of fat and 5g carbs! Read More »

For those of you who may be new to CalorieKing, Allan Borushek a.k.a The Calorie King is a dietitian with over 30 years experience in clinical dietetics and community health education.  He is best

Allan Borushek, The Calorie King

known for his famous Calorie Counter books.

It is his passion for nutrition and health education that brought CalorieKing to life, and he has educated millions of people on smart food and lifestyle choices.

We know there is nothing like getting answers straight from the Calorie King himself – and there is nothing he likes better than hearing directly from all of you!

Please submit your questions for the Calorie King via the comment section on this page.  The Calorie King will choose several questions – or categories of similar questions – to answer each month.

Allan looks forward to hearing from you!

The holidays can be a stressful time for many.  Whether it is the rush to get things done, the change in routines or family pressures, we can all relate to the feeling that things sometimes get out of control.

Stressed During the Holidays?

Managing stress is important, as often it is a key trigger for many of us to overeat.  Whether food is seen as a comfort, a reward, or even as the one thing the family can agree on, it is key to remember that overeating will not solve our problems.  In the long term giving in to that stress trigger can make us lose self-esteem, or feel guilty if we’ve put on the pounds.

And then there is that steep hill to climb to take the holiday weight off.  We can lose motivation once we’ve strayed from our healthy habit routine.

This year, try to focus on what stressors might trigger the urge to overdo with food and make a plan to manage your feelings.  Remember the CalorieKing program can help you stay on track – regularly logging your food, exercise and feelings can provide you with a routine and an outlet to recognize when and why you might stray.

We’ve also put the CalorieKing’s Tips to Managing Holiday Stress list for ideas on how to manage your stress without food!

Social and Creative:  Distract yourself from the pressure.

• Stay in contact with friends; vent to one another about the highs and lows
• Prioritize your social calendar; surround yourself with supportive people and say no to negative environments
• Express yourself in your blog or journal
• Listen to music that relaxes or energizes you
• Take time out for your hobby; share or include lonely neighbors and friends Read More »

For those focusing on a healthy lifestyle, the holidays can seem packed with pitfalls.  The parties, the rushed schedules, the festive food, and cold weather seem to hit us all at once, and the spectre of weight gain looms as an unwanted gift.

Worried About Holiday Weight Gain?

The truth is the holidays don’t have to send you spiraling out of control.  Life is meant for living and you can enjoy the best of what the holidays bring.   To get through the large celebratory meals, just prepare in advance with a special strategy.

Stay on top of things by keeping your CalorieKing Calorie and Fat Counter close at hand, and use these CalorieKing Top 10 tips for Beating Holiday Weight Gain to help you build your plan now:

• Think 90/10: Don’t deprive yourself completely, or your holidays will be miserable.  Aim to eat healthy 90% of the time and then look at your “treat” foods as something to really savor and enjoy in moderation.
• Don’t Go Hungry: Eat regular meals – including a good breakfast!  Eating at regular intervals will keep your blood sugar at even levels so you don’t “crash” and feel sharp cravings.  It’s when we crash we are most vulnerable to making poor choices.  The same goes for parties or special meals – don’t head out the door hungry or you may be tempted to overdo.  Eat a healthy snack before you go. Read More »

Every year as the clock counts down to a new year we look back at the old and ponder what we want to change in the new.  Resolutions seem to be as much a part of the holidays as the celebrations.

So once you’ve decided to make changes how do you make them a part of your every day life and not just a goal you put on paper but end up breaking by mid-year?  You are off to a good start –

Resolution Time

acknowledging there is something you want to change is a big first step.

How do you make sure you make those resolutions stick? The difference between those who persist and those who throw in the towel is that “stickers” are better prepared for what’s in store and don’t expect to simply change overnight. They know a resolution is not some magic incantation that produces automatic behavioral change, but is a process of change that lasts a lifetime.

Resolutions Are a Process – Not Snap Changes

At New Year’s it’s all too easy to ride on the hype of the season and assume once you’ve made the dramatic announcement that you’re going to make it a reality and instantly drop four clothes sizes. It’s not. The declaration of your goal is simply the first (and easiest) stage of a long process. If you think of any resolution in terms of a process, in

stead of a snap change, you will be far more likely to stick with it.

Approaching behavioral change as an ongoing process instead of a decision made in a moment is a successful method used by many psychologists. This transtheoretical model (TTM), as it is referred to, is one of the most important things to keep in mind when making and pursuing your New Year’s resolutions.

With that in mind, we’ve come up with a few CalorieKing tips to help you embrace the process of change: Read More »

I’m not anywhere close to reaching the maintenance stage.  I’ve still got a good 15 lbs. left to go.  But, I think about maintenance all the time.  I know it is a topic many of

our members think about.  It’s that point after you’ve reached that number you’ve set for yourself and you think, “Well.  What now?”

I have been there before.  I lost a lot of weight a few years ago and I remember when I hit my goal.  It felt a lot like after you had opened all your gifts on Christmas – there was a lot of excitement but I didn’t know what to do or where to start.

For me so many questions and issues came to mind when I thought about maintaining my new self.  Perhaps you’ll recognize some of them: Read More »