Volume 5 - Avon Walk for Breast Cancer Training Tips

Welcome to Volume 5 of my training tips!



Recap of Last Training Tips Blog Post:



1. Compliment yourself!



2. Cut back or cut out soda, coffee and other caffeinated drinks.



3. Stretch, especially in the morning.



4. Add cinnamon to your food.



Tips to Consider:



I found a great article online http://darrenhardy.typepad.com/blog/2006/09/weight_loss_tip.html on how to cut 100, 300 or 500 calories from your daily diet:



1. Dodge dining-out disasters: Even your seemingly healthy grilled swordfish and vegetables can pack more calories and fat than a stick of butter. Pasta dishes are notorious: Oil is used throughout the cooking process and added to sauces and cooked noodles. Stick with steamed veggies and grilled, poached or broiled lean protein (like poultry and fish), and ask the chef to prepare your dishes without oil. Or just cook meals at home instead of eating out!

2. Careful With That Cappuccino: A large white-chocolate mocha with whipped cream from Starbucks logs in at 630 calories (the whip alone has 100!). Get your sweet fix with two shots of sugar-free vanilla syrup in a medium cappuccino with soy or fat-free milk and kick 500 empty calories to the curb.

3. Dress Down: Order salad dressing on the side and dip into it sparingly with your fork between bites — you'll cut back to about 2 tablespoons (roughly 175 calories).


4. Lighten Up At Happy Hour: If it tastes sweet or has a salty rim, it's usually bad news (cosmos, lemon drops, and appletinis). Most cocktails have 2 to 5 ounces of liquor. Add in 5 ounces of sugary syrups or mixers like cola, grenadine, and Midori and you can down more than 700 calories in just one drink. Stay away from Margaritaville (and below 100 calories) by pairing your liquor with diet or club soda. Or go for a bottle of light beer or a 5-ounce glass of chardonnay, which contain around 125 calories each.

5. Be Tricky In The Kitchen: For leaner cuisine — and to save 115 calories — swap out that tablespoon of olive oil for canola or olive oil cooking spray. Sauté vegetables and fish with 1/4 cup of broth rather than 1 tablespoon of butter and trim 100 more. Replace the quarter cup of heavy cream in Alfredo and cheese sauces with the same amount of skim milk mixed with 2 tablespoons of flour — bam, another 150.

6. Switch Dishes: The larger the serving dish, the more you're likely to consume, according to recent research in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Downsize your ice cream bowl and serve that fettuccine on a 9-inch appetizer plate instead of a standard 11-inch dish — you can save up to 300 calories in a day.

7. Skip The Sweet Beverages: American women get up to 300 more calories a day now than they did 30 years ago. At least half of those come from sweetened beverages like soda and fruit juice. A 20-ounce bottle of Arizona Iced Tea has 240 calories — about as much as a small meal. Ditch the sports drinks, fruit punch,and Slurpees and get your produce nutrients from whole fruit instead of juice — a 1-pint carton of Tropicana Pure Premium orange juice has 220 calories. An orange? About 35.

8. Pare Down Your PMS Picks: Forgo the cup of Ben & Jerry's for the same amount of low-fat ice cream. Slow-Churned Dreyer's Grand Light Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough has only 260 calories per cup. The B&J version? 540 calories. If you just can't live without, mix 2 tablespoons into a cup of the skinnier stuff and you'll still save 250 calories.

9. Buy Skinnier Bread: The calorie content in different brands can vary as wildly as Anna Nicole's "before" and "after" shots. For example, Milton's Healthy Whole Grain packs 90 calories a slice, while Sara Lee Delightful Wheat weighs in at just 45. Switch brands and you cut your sandwich calories by 90. Better yet, wrap your cold cuts in lettuce — a big leaf of romaine has only 10 calories.

10. Trade Up Your Toppings: Swap the half-cup of guacamole on your burrito for an equal amount of salsa and spare yourself 150 calories. Get the same savings by using salsa in place of the sour cream on your baked potato and the mayo on your wrap. Other tricks of the topping trade: Swap Gorgonzola for grated Parmesan, dip vegetables into hummus instead of ranch dressing, and sprinkle salads with lightly toasted pecans rather than oil-soaked croutons.

11. Turn Off The Tube: We know Laguna Beach reruns can be just as tempting as tiramisu, but too many hours in front of your plasma screen can wreak havoc on your waistline. Researchers from Georgia State University found that people took in up to 130 more calories on days when they ate in front of the TV than on days when they left the remote alone. Move away from the T.V.

12. Spritz Up Your Vino: Mix 3 ounces of club soda with 3 ounces of wine and your drink will have about 60 calories. If you usually have two glasses of Shiraz, substituting the bubbly stuff will save you about 120 calories. An added bonus: Research shows that moderate drinking (one drink daily for women) may increase levels of leptin, a natural hormone that curbs the appetite for sweets.

13. Camouflage Your Candy: A study published in the International Journal of Obesity found that office workers who kept candy within reach in a clear dish ate three times as much as those who kept it farther away in an opaque container. That's a 150-calorie difference. If you've gotta have a Godiva stash, make sure it's out of sight and that you have to work (at least a little) to get to it.

14. Bulk Up: Eating low-cal, fiber-rich foods before a meal — think fruits, vegetables, and broth-based soups — can help reduce your total calorie intake. A study in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association found that women who ate a 100-calorie salad before their meal consumed 12 percent less — 107 fewer calories — overall (salad included) than those who skipped the leafy appetizer. Make your first course a cup of veggie soup or 2 cups of mixed salad with reduced-fat cheese and fat-free dressing.

Until my next posting,
Jen