Lora Smith
Don’t be Fooled by “Diet” Foods!
Think you’re making good food choices, working out, but STILL not losing weight? “Diet” foods may be sabotaging your efforts. Here’s the scoop on some of the worst offenders…
1. “Healthy” Salads — Any salad listed in the “lite” section of a menu must be a good choice right? On the T.G.I. Friday’s® menu, the pecan-crusted chicken salad which contains mandarin oranges, dried cranberries, and celery, has 1,360 calories. Wow.
2. Wraps — Some tortillas can contain as many calories as 4 pieces of bread, more carbs, and twice as much fat. And that’s before you add any filling. And a wrap has more room to spread things like mayo, cheese and dressing.
3. Granola – Have you ever read the label of your favorite granola? Most varieties are high in sugar, and the serving size is usually only ¼ to ½ cup. If you’re filling your cereal bowl with this stuff every morning, no wonder you are not losing. Instead look for low-sugar, minimal- ingredient granolas like Bare Naked, and limit your portions to 1 serving at a time.
4. Dried Fruit – Dried versions of your favorite fruits are as much as four times the calories of their fresh counterparts. (Keep this in mind when shopping for granola too as some varieties contain dried fruits!)
5. Bran Muffins — the average bakery muffin can contain as many as 630 calories. It might be better than a banana or blueberry muffin because of the extra fiber, but most of them are still packed with sugar and butter. Eat one bran muffin from Dunkin’ Donuts® for example and you’ll be consuming 480 calories, 13 grams of fat, and 46 grams of sugar.
6. Pumpkin-Flavored Baked Goods – Like bran, pumpkin has lots of stuff that’s good for you. But pumpkin doesn’t mean diet food. The pumpkin muffin at Dunkin’ donuts has 630 calories and 28 grams of fat. A pumpkin muffin from Panera Bread® has 530 calories and 20 grams of fat, and the pumpkin scone at Starbucks® has 470 calories and 22 grams of fat!
7. Sushi (Fish wrapped in rice and seaweed) — Some sushi has calorie levels so high it might just shock you. Spicy tuna and other similar rolls can contain as many as 450 calories and 11 grams of fat (the bad kind) per serving.
8. Olive Oil –: It’s a good fat and helps you burn fat. But don’t overdo it. You only need two tablespoons per day to get the benefits. (Good “note to self” when dunking bread in it at a restaurant!)
9. Anything marketed as “skinny” — “Skinny” varieties of drinks, ice cream, and other favorite indulgences might be better choices BUT pay attention to small serving sizes and read your labels! A Skinnygirl Margarita, for example, at 100 calories per 4 oz, is not so “skinny” if consuming much more than 1 cup.
10. Diet Soda – if you read my article last month you know I’m passionate about helping people “kick the can” for good!! Zero-calorie diet soda may actually cause weight GAIN by preventing your body from properly absorbing the nutrients in other foods that you eat.
So how do you make the right choices in a world filled with “diet” traps? Ask about nutrition and read food labels. You won’t even have to give up the foods you like because you’ll know how to work them into your food plan the right way. After a while, you’ll be a pro at it and enjoy the weight loss that comes with it.
For weekly nutrition and fitness tips like these, go to www.turbolora.com, click Join and sign up for the free Team Beachbody membership.
Lora L. Smith
Independent Team Beachbody® Coach
Certified TurboKick™ Instructor
www.10DayNutritionChallenge.com
