Tips for Switching to Gluten-Free

Summer has been crazy! Sorry for the wait on another post, things have gotten nuts. We’ve had lots of fun trips, and a couple more coming up these next two weeks, and lots of family things. We had a death in the family and though it wasn’t entirely unexpected, that doesn’t do much to lessen the hardship. Fortunately I finally have some new stuff for you guys, woop!

Gluten-free (GF) eating has recently become one of the most popular diet changes. Food companies have noticed – grocery stores have GF sections, and foods that are GF are almost always marketed or labelled as such. Personally, I don’t see the harm in anyone giving it a shot (unless your doctor says otherwise, etc). My roommate used to get daily migraines, but since she made the switch, they’re less frequent and less intense. But many people seem to jump headfirst into it without doing any research, or at the very least figuring out how to make the best of their diet change. Here’s a few tips to help you, both from a financial and a health standpoint.

1. Don’t go out and spend tons of money on your new GF foods

I had a friend who did this. She bought GF bread, chips, cake, cookies, and tons of other treats. She spent loads of money on food that she wasn’t going to eat anyways, and the foods she bought weren’t any healthier than their gluten-filled originals. She didn’t really notice until after she’d bought them, about $200 later (that’s not a typo, about $200 later). Which brings me to my next point:

2. Gluten-free does not necessarily mean better for you

It may sound crazy, but eating GF can completely ruin your diet and weight loss goals if you’re not careful about the choices you make. Let’s look at some examples. A corn and rice blend of GF pasta has just as many calories as regular pasta. A serving of regular Cheetos is 150 calories, and a serving of Lundberg’s sea salt rice chips is only 10 calories less. When it comes down to it, a gluten-free cake is still a cake, meaning a GF label doesn’t equal healthier or lower calorie.

Most gluten-free products are still made from grains, and when it comes down to it, grains tend to be high in calories and low in nutrients. You don’t need to eat grain-free as well as gluten-free, just be smart about the grains you eat!

3. You don’t need to find gluten-free replacements for the foods you eat

To put it simply, you don’t need to start buying GF bread when you make the change. You can simply stop eating bread. And pasta. And tortillas. If you replace these foods with things like zucchini noodles and lettuce wraps, you can still get the satisfaction of the food you love, and get some more nutrient-dense, low-cal veggies into your diet. I made a GF version of chicken noodle soup that has zucchini noodles instead of egg noodles, and it’s delicious! I plan on coming up with more recipes like this that replace the empty calories with something just as fulfilling, but better for you.

With all of this being said, you are obviously still free to make your own food decisions. If you want to buy GF bread and pasta to replace the foods you know and love, there is nothing wrong with that. Just keep in mind that you can also take this as an opportunity to really enhance your diet by incorporating more vegetables where you’d normally be eating empty calories and carbs. Foods like bread and pasta tend to be vehicles for the really good stuff, so try some veggie replacements and see how you like it.

Ground Turkey Larb Gai

This recipe is an adaptation of reddit/Fitocracy user super_luminal’s larb gai recipe, found here. My mom made this a few times when I lived at home, but I never quite took to it then. The above recipe is the first one I tried myself, and it’s fantastic! I love making this because it’s quick, cheap, high in protein, low in calories, super filling, and the flavor is amazing.

Ingredients:

• 1 package 99% fat free ground turkey
• whole butter lettuce leaves (I couldn’t find butter lettuce so I had to use a different kind, but butter lettuce is way better!)
• juice from 1 large lime
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint*
• 10 sprigs chopped fresh cilantro*
• 1 thinly sliced green onion*
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 1/2 packet Stevia in the Raw
• Sriracha

*Do not prep these until after your turkey is cooked! The turkey needs a chance to cool down.

1. In a large frying pan, cook ground turkey with 1/4 cup water on medium heat, and immediately break up with a spatula. Continue to do this until the turkey is crumbly and fully cooked, but be careful not to overcook – the low fat content makes it SUPER dry when overcooked.

2. Put turkey in a container and put into the fridge. Chop the mint, cilantro, and green onions. Wash and dry lettuce leaves.

3. In a small bowl, combine the lime juice, fish sauce, and stevia into a dressing.

4. Once the turkey is room temp or cooler, take it out of the fridge and add the dressing, mixing to coat. Add in the herbs and some Sriracha, and mix to spread evenly. You can either eat now, or let it cool down more until it is completely cold.

5. Spoon larb gai into lettuce leaves. Add more Sriracha to taste, and enjoy!

Healthy Food Substitutions

Oof. It’s been a long time since I’ve posted, I’ve been slacking. Well, not entirely slacking, just in this category. I’ve been trying to improve my social life, go to the gym more often, and cook at home even more. Which basically equals me being way too exhausted to make coherent blog posts. But I’m trying to incorporate posting into the whole improvement thing! Anyways, onto the post!

There are some things that are just really difficult to give up entirely when you’re trying to eat healthier. For some people it’s peanut butter, for others pasta; you can struggle with giving up any type of food. So I thought I’d make a big ol’ list of foods like these that have healthier alternatives.  It’s always nice knowing you can get the satisfaction of the food you want, with the relief of a food that is way better for you.

PB2

PB2 is awesome. It’s a powder that you mix with water to make peanut butter. The only difference (other than the rehydration) between this and regular peanut butter is that the peanuts are pressed to remove the oil/fat, so it has WAY fewer calories than regular peanut butter. It tastes a little different – it’s less smooth and a bit less satisfying, but two tablespoons only has 45 calories.  Two tablespoon of regular peanut butter has about 190. My solution to the taste issue? Don’t eat it on its own. At the very least, dip celery or apples into it. You could also mix it into your oatmeal, blend it into a smoothie, or make a dip with some Greek yogurt, PB2 and sweetener (more on that further down).

Greek yogurt instead of regular yogurt, sour cream, and mayo

I’m sure mos tpeople have tried Greek yogurt at this point. It has more protein and (typically) less sugar than standard American yogurt. And it’s delicious! But it has more uses than you’ve probably realized. You can use plain, unsweetened Greek yogurt as a replacement for sour cream or mayo. The consistency and taste are similar for both. If you really want to go all-out in your efforts, try skyr, a yogurt-like Icelandic dairy product. The brand siggi’s, which I’ve used before, has 17 grams of protein per cup. Way more than most Greek yogurt out there.

As for Greek yogurt on its own, I’m a fan of Liberté, Oikos, Greek Gods, and certain flavors of Zoi. I’ve heard good things about Fage, but have yet to try it. I’ve noticed that Chobani is really popular, but it just tastes too sour for me, and the smell is a bit too reminiscent of vomit

Stevia

My preferred brand!

Oh god, I am so in love with stevia. I have finally found a no-calorie sweetener that doesn’t upset my stomach (no artificial sweeteners for me, ever). It tastes more like an artificial sweetener than it does sugar, but I don’t mind the taste. If you buy stevia, make sure to check the ingredients list on the product you buy, as some products list sugar as their first ingredient (sugar, really!?). My favorite is the bulk brand that I get at my local Town & Country Market – it has the least bitter aftertaste, which is a common complaint about stevia.

Since it’s a relatively new product, not a whole lot of studies have been conducted (relatively speaking, of course). Taking a look at this Wikipedia page suggests that there are very few, if any negative side effects. Most studies have found none, but because no one can say with absolute certainty that it’s 100% safe, I try not to consume it too regularly.

Zucchini noodles, spaghetti squash

Here’s a link to Nom Nom Paleo’s Zoodles and Meatballs recipe.

Oh. My. God. Zucchini noodles are just amazing. You get the nutrients and low calories of a vegetable, but the same pasta feel. I use a julienne peeler and saute them in a little bit of olive oil until they are tender, but still slightly crunchy. I’ve used them as a replacement for spaghetti (spaghetti and tomato/meat sauce), and as the “noodles” in chicken noodle soup (I’ve got the recipe all typed up, I just need to make it again and take pictures along the way!).

I haven’t personally tried spaghetti squash, but I’ve heard great things about it. It also works as a pasta replacement (hence the name), but I’ve also seen it used in a macaroni and cheese recipe. You can just microwave it for several minutes and pull out the flesh using a fork – from there it resembles a spaghetti texture.

Ground turkey instead of ground beef/pork

I recently started using ground turkey in place of ground beef and ground pork. It’s much lower in calories and fats (nothing wrong with fat, but there is such a thing as too much, and it’s high in calories), and if it’s in the right dish, there’s little difference. My personal favorite is making turkey burgers instead of regular burgers. It’s great, because if you just put the right seasonings in it, you won’t even notice.

Avocado instead of mayo

A recipe for “The Queen’s Chicken Salad”, a Venezuelan dish!

Avocado makes a great substitute for mayo, particularly in chicken salad. It has way more nutrients, and the fats in an avocado are much better for you than the store-bought mayo fats. It’s still pretty high in calories, but luckily it can go a long way.

Mashed cauliflower/parsnips

Here’s a lovely picture of/recipe for mashed cauliflower with cheese and dill (but for the love of all that is holy, don’t use margarine. Bad fats, remember?).

Potatoes aren’t particularly nutritious. Tons of simple carbohydrates – which means if you’re keeping track of your macros, one potato will be almost all your carbs for the day – and high in calories. Try making your mashed potatoes with steamed cauliflower or roasted parsnips instead – more nutrients, and fewer calories and carbohydrates.

Soda water instead of tonic water or soda

For the most part, I’ve stopped drinking soda entirely. The only time I have it now is when I’m at a party, a bar, or at a family function. I used to be so jealous of my cousin when we were younger because they would have soda at their house, and my parents would never buy it. I had always wished we’d had something other than milk or water at our house, but now I’m so glad they didn’t buy sugary drinks when I was little.

Sometimes you just want some carbonation, or a flavored drink, but you don’t want to drink your body weight in empty calories.  My solution is to drink flavored soda water. Not the kind that has aspartame or sucralose in it, because I don’t think it’s necessary, and because I just can’t drink them. Some of my favorite flavors right now are the Talking Rain Peach Nectarine and Cascade Raspberry Lemon. I also love the Hint flavored water. It isn’t sparkling, but the flavor is really intense and delicious. [Edit: they do have carbonated flavors! They’re harder to find, but they are wonderful.] I’ve tried watermelon, blackberry, and mango grapefruit and they’ve all been incredible. It’s been somewhat harder to find, so when I do find some, I buy like 10 bottles at a time.

Protein powder recipes to replace sweets

Protein Pumpkin Brownies from Derek Howes Fitness. Instructional video, recipe and nutrition breakdown via the picture. [122 CAL, 9.5G PROTEIN]

Something I’ve recently found is protein powder dessert recipes. The idea is that you can still have your sweets, but with much healthier, nutrient-richer recipes! I’ve seen brownies, cakes (including tiramisu), protein fluff, peanut butter cup sludge (no really, it actually tastes great), souffle and icing, just to name a few. My only warning is that you’ll want to take a look at the nutritional breakdowns, as some of them can be high in calories to help the people who are bulking.  Here’s some resources for recipes:

• Derek Howes Fitness – DHFTNS
• Protein POW
• Muffin Topless
• Here’s my Pinterest board for protein recipes I’ve found that don’t sound too hard, have relatively low calories/high protein, and use ingredients that I either have or can buy easily

As I find new healthy substitutions, I’ll add more to the list. Hopefully these can get you the fixes you want without compromising your diet plan!

Cleans – my new favorite lift

There’s a guy at my gym that I’ve seen a number of times recently. He always does really intense compound lifts at very heavy weights, and has a very friendly demeanor. So I asked him today if he could show me how to clean:

This be a clean. I don’t know what happened to my original gif, but it got all messed up.

 

and he very kindly obliged. I didn’t realize it but he’s one of the trainers there! He spent the next 40 minutes showing me how to clean properly, since it’s a very complex movement that’s easy to screw up. We started out with a 20lb preset barbell, and then moved to a 45-pound Olympic bar (Oly bars are better than the preset ones, because the weights on them will rotate with you – feels much more natural). I still don’t have the hang of it, but I think I love it, and it’s a great total-body move.

I’ll be spending the next couple of weeks working on it and once I get the hang of it, I’ll be increasing the weight! I had to spend 25 minutes foam rolling afterwards, and I have a sneaking suspicion that my legs are going to be KILLING ME tomorrow anyways.

I guess the moral of my gym story is if you have a question, don’t be hesitant to ask for help. My experience is probably on the extreme end of fantastic – I got personalized help for the better part of an hour, from a trainer, and didn’t have to pay – but if there’s a trainer at your gym you particularly like, or someone you’ve seen doing something you’re interested in trying, ask for their help. Make sure they’re at least finished with their set before asking though, the last thing anyone wants is to be talked at while they’re pushing or pulling some heavy weights!

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) – Kick the Cardio Bunny Routine for Better Results

I had been writing a post about Fitocracy, but I’m going to put it on the backburner for now because I think addressing cardio is way more urgent (although I can’t wait to post the Fitocracy one either!).

For as long as I’ve remembered, I’ve hated cardio.  Most of the women at every gym I have ever gone to do a slow-pace workout that lasts for upwards of 20 minutes, sometimes as long as one to two hours and it is just so terribly boring to me. I’ve done the same thing before, and it’s just a long, dull struggle of “when is this going to be over!?” I’ve never understood how someone could be content just swinging their legs along the elliptical for an hour.

Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of people who absolutely adore running a few miles, or cycling for long distances or doing other endurance sports, and that is fantastic. But I’m trying to get through to the women who think long runs and long machine workouts are the best way that cardio can burn fat, and that they’re the only way to get in better cardiovascular shape. I think a lot of women do these workouts because they’re never told otherwise. That’s why you see most women spend over half their time at the gym on a treadmill or elliptical or bicycle, with many of them reading a book or magazine, or watching TV, utterly unengaged.

So what should I be doing instead?

I’d like to introduce a novel, somewhat-new concept: high intensity interval training, or HIIT. The idea is that you do shorter bursts of intense work (say, sprints), followed by longer recovery work such as walking or resting. This can be done with sprinting/walking, bodyweight exercises/rest, most things really, as long as you’re exercising at a really intense level, followed by recovery. Then you repeat it. It typically lasts no more than 20 minutes, and I’ve seen programs as short as 4 minutes.

In my opinion, the best part of this is that it’s done for a much shorter period of time than your usual cardio workout. I’ve never seen an account of anyone going for longer than 20 minutes, mostly because you’re just working so damn hard. You no longer have to set aside an hour to get your cardio in, hell you can get your cardio done in under 10 minutes.

There have been tons of studies done on HIIT vs. long, slow-pace cardio – fat loss between the two, cardiovascular improvements, etc. I’m going to pull a lot of my stats from a bodybuilding.com article on HIIT found here,which quotes a number of these studies. One of the most mind-blowing ones reported that:

females following a 20-minute HIIT program, consisting of 8-second sprints followed by 12 seconds of rest, lost six times more body fat than the group who followed a 40-minute cardio program performed at a constant intensity of 60 percent of their maximum heart rate.

I’d like to let that sink it. By spending half the amount of time working out, women were able to lose six times as much fat as the women doing steady-pace cardio. I haven’t found the exact percentages lost, but even if the women doing the 40 minute sessions only lost 1% of body fat on average, the other group would have lost 6%. That’s the difference between marginal fat loss (sure it happened, but you can’t tell) and noticeable fat loss.

After doing HIIT, you will burn more calories in the 24 hours following your workout than if you did steady-pace cardio – about 10% more calories. There is also less muscle loss with HIIT, and it is a much more efficient means of increasing cardiovascular fitness as well.

Okay, I’m sold. How can I start doing HIIT?

Another one of my favorite things is that there’s tons of ways to do HIIT. If you don’t have access to it, you don’t need equipment, or even proper running shoes, so there’s an option for everyone. (Although if you’re going to be running, you should definitely have good running shoes.) Here’s a list of ways to start out:

• follow the 8-week program outlined in the bodybuilding.com article . You can use an elliptical, a treadmill, stationary bike, or run outside. Their program starts with a 1:4 work-to-recovery ratio, working up to 2:1.
• do 8 seconds of sprinting followed by 12 seconds of walking or resting, and repeat for 20 minutes
• Use the Tabata method – perform bodyweight exercises such as burpees, lunges, squats, pushups, tricep dips, v-sits, etc. for 20 second intervals, followed by 10 seconds of rest. Do this for 4 minutes.
• Crossfit – it’s based on functional fitness and high intensity exercise that incorporates weightlifting, plyometrics, and gymnastics. Be sure to research a reputable Crossfit box – you want to make sure your trainers are focusing on form and not reps or time, because doing Olympic lifts and gymnastics with bad form will hurt you. It can be very expensive, but it is less focused on the work/time ratio, and can be a way to incorporate weightlifting and cardio into the same workout.

Since I started HIIT, I no longer dread cardio, which is damn huge for me. Besides cutting my cardio workouts in half and getting a better result, I feel more accomplished afterwards, similar to how I feel after a hard session of heavy weightlifting. So give it a try, and stick with it for a few months. You’ll probably find you’ll have more free time and faster results, so what’s there to lose?