Second leg of our Triple Crown...#49 of our weekly Healthy Lifestyle Challenges

June 29, 2015 | Category: Bariatric Surgery, News

Welcome to our healthy lifestyle challenge lead by program dietitian Vicki Bovee and her husband, Bill. Last July Bill and I committed to do a weekly challenge for a year to improve our health and lifestyle. We decided to tackle a variety of challenges to eat better, eat more mindfully, and improve physical health and emotional well-being because there is always room for improvement. We are at the top of the stretch heading for home. So join us as we do our own Triple Crown to close out our year of healthy living.

Challenge #49 Second leg of our Triple Crown

Our challenges were divided into three categories: diet, exercise, and behavior. Our second leg focused on diet. The word diet doesn’t refer only to weight loss. Although if you’ve ever been on a low calorie diet you may have thought the word “diet” comes from the words “to die”. Diet means the food and drink normally consumed or prescribed for a special reason, like hypertension or diabetes.

We tried diets to help improve our heart health, diets for weight loss, diets to help our aches and pains, and some of the diets were the popular diets out there with large followings. We didn’t do any diet I would necessarily consider bad for our health but Paleo came the closest. Bill didn’t do it because he doesn’t eat red meat and he refused to give up his yogurt and soy milk. I didn’t like it because it eliminated whole groups of foods: grains, beans, and dairy, and it was a lot more meat than I normally eat. The 100 Bite Diet was the only challenge I didn’t complete. There was no way I could keep track of my bites and I kept losing count. After about 4 days I gave up.

Eliminating the popular diets, gluten-free and Paleo (which were also the most expensive), we found common denominators in six of the diets.
• Eat a lot of fruits and veggies
• Eat a high fiber diet including whole grains and beans
• Get rid of processed food
• Spend time meal planning
• Do your own cooking and eat at home
• Watch out for saturated fat

There were other challenges included in this category that weren’t a “diet” but fit in the definition of food and drink normally consumed. Since “Eliminate cheese as an ingredient” my cheese consumption has gone down (and with it saturated fat) and stayed there. Bill never was a big cheese eater. “Use a fresh herb daily” had me cooking more which meant more fruits and veggies and little processed foods. “Have a super week” also jacked up our intake of fruits and veggies. We did “Drink your water” in the winter when it was more difficult for us to do it. One of my favorite challenges was “Try one new healthy food a day”. It was fun from the shopping adventure to the food tasting and we did find some foods that have become a part of our diet. Challenge 35/350 really works and has become our “go to” breakfast.

Bill and I picked our favorite dietary challenges for this week. And it was a challenge since we had three planned meals out. We normally eat out one to two times a month so this was an unusual week for us. Chalk it up to summer.

Vicki’s pick:
Back in September when we followed the anti-inflammatory diet I felt good so this was an easy pick for me. When we did this, we cut out pretty much all refined and processed foods. We ate fruits, veggies, lean protein, whole grains, and walnuts. I also did a lot of cooking which was good for leftovers. I can tell you it was harder to follow this diet this week with meals out, especially since one was at La Strada in the El Dorado, and the other was at the rodeo. Nope, there were no mushroom raviolis or deep fried pickles, potatoes, onions, mushrooms, zucchini, or peaches (yes, deep fried peaches at the rodeo) on my menu. At La Strada I got scallops (cooked perfectly) but that garlic bread nailed me with its white flour. That garlic bread is big trouble for me.The rodeo was tough. Rodeos and fairs are not known for healthy food choices and true to form, there weren’t any. It was choosing the lesser of the evils. I ended up with a pulled pork sandwich with coleslaw on top and didn’t eat the bun.

Bill’s pick:

I like my protein drink in the morning so I chose to revisit challenge #35, eat a 35 gram protein and 350 calorie breakfast. This was easy for me as I already had my recipe for my morning protein drink. I found the best way to obtain the 35/350 goal was by just making my shake in the morning opposed to trying to make a breakfast of other types of foods.

The 35/350 shake fills me up, tastes great and keeps me from being hungry longer than if I just make any old protein shake. I really find myself nibbling a lot sooner after breakfast if I don’t make my shake correctly or if I just have cereal in the morning. I am hooked on this protein drink combination and it is good for my body and my eating habits.

The evidence is overwhelming. We need to be eating plenty of fresh fruits veggies along with lean proteins and whole grains. Dump the refined, processed foods…..fast foods…..coffee drinks. You get the idea. Eat clean. I have highlighted our dietary challenges below.

Next week, it’s the third leg of our Triple Crown.

Eat Smarter…
Vicki Bovee, MS, RDN, LD

Want to catch up on what you’ve missed?

Vicki Bovee is the Registered Dietitian for Western Bariatric Institute and leads the non-surgical weight loss program, “Health and Lifestyle Program.” Contact Vicki at vbovee@westernsurgical.

Second leg of our Triple Crown…#49 of our weekly Healthy Lifestyle Challenges

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Online Seminar

Second leg of our Triple Crown…#49 of our weekly Healthy Lifestyle Challenges