I still felt exhausted Tuesday, Dec. 29, when I woke up to the sound of the alarm. I managed to crawl out of bed, get dressed and wander down to the dining hall knowing I would have a day full of temptations and irritations.
You see, I had to return to work Tuesday and Wednesday of that week. That meant I would be bombarded with food and drinks that didn't exactly fit the meal plan I was sticking to at Movara Fitness Resort. Just the thought of it made me cringe. After finishing my granola with almond milk, I drank the rest of my chocolate banana and peanut butter smoothie and left for work.
Now, as I've said before, Movara is in Ivins. The Spectrum's office is conveniently located on St. George Boulevard. You could imagine my ire as I passed gas stations, fast food restaurants and grocery stores on every block during my 20 minute ride. Granted, I had brought a hard boiled egg and an apple with me, but that did nothing to ease the frustration of wanting to just have a doughnut or a Perks! coffee filled with sugar.
As I worked at my desk, I found it difficult to function. My brain felt fuzzy, and I was so focused on wanting food that I hadn't thought about what really mattered. It wasn't that I was hungry; I was just bored. It was that boredom that fueled my snacking in the past. Everyone at my office knows I've got coffee, cereal and other goodies hiding in my desk drawer for when that snacking urge would rear its ugly head. Those desk drawers had to endure the stink eye for the entirety of my shift — not to mention a couple of co-workers who talked about recent meals.
In the past, I would snack on relatively healthy foods, including vegetables and fruits. But it wasn't uncommon to see me snacking on potato chips, candy or other salty or sugary foods. Those two days would surely test my skills of self-discipline. It wasn't until Wednesday night that I would learn a crucial bit of information that helped me — and continues to help me — decide on exactly what I would foods I'd be putting into my body.
Here is where Movara's in-house registered dietician Emily Fonnesbeck played a key role when she hosted a class titled "Nutrient Density vs. Calorie Density." The premise is simple: eat foods that are more nutrient dense in order to fill you up instead of eating more calorie dense foods. Those calorie dense foods may not be able to sustain you for any length of time, and if they do, they lack the proper nutrients you need for your metabolism and your body to function properly.
Fonnesbeck started out by saying oftentimes, in our culture, eating foods that are nutritious can be confusing, overwhelming, convoluted and expensive. I have to agree with her. I'm surely not the only one who chokes at the price of fruits, vegetables and restaurant salads.
"So often we reduce nutrition to a set of numbers: calories, carbohydrates, proteins and fats," Fonnesbeck said. "I think what happens then is we start eating numbers instead of eating food. There's a lot of really good nutrition underneath those numbers that I think is forgotten."
Fonnesbeck explained the body's metabolism doesn't care how many calories the body is taking in; rather, it cares about the nutrients — vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and phytochemicals — that keep metabolism functioning properly.
"Let's say you're hungry in the afternoon and you reach for a 100 calorie pack of Oreos," Fonnesbeck said. "How long does that pack of Oreos keep you full? Not very long, until you go back for the other five bags in the box, right? Then you're at 600 calories. But did you do anything to feed your metabolism? Not at all."
According to research, the body is accustomed to eating between 3 to 5 pounds of food by weight everyday both physiologically and psychologically, Fonnesbeck said. The amount changes slightly due to a person's weight, size, level of activity and a variety of other factors.
"We want a good amount of volume, and that volume ideally should be made up of fiber and water content," Fonnesbeck said. "It has to be in foods; it doesn't work to drink water and take fiber supplements. High fiber and high water content in foods make the food high in volume and also makes it high in nutrient density."
Nutrient dense foods and calorie dense foods are inversely related, Foonesbeck added, meaning foods high in nutrient density will be low in calorie density, and visa versa. Vegetables, for example, are high in fiber and water content, and they are also very nutrient dense. Now, you're not likely to be satisfied psychologically if you ate just vegetables, but you could feel full. So if you were to eat 4 pounds of vegetables, you'd only be eating around 400 calories, meaning you can eat as many vegetables as you want without fear of overeating.
"Let's use them to our benefit, so let's make sure we're adding them to our meals," Foonesbeck said. "We know that people who start their meal with a vegetable-based soup, a salad or a piece of fruit eat between 12 to 20 percent fewer calories at that meal than they otherwise would have. We start to feel fuller faster before we get to the more calorie dense foods."
As the night progressed, she showed us a list of food types from most nutrient dense to least nutrient dense and encouraged us to work our way down the list so we would fill up on the better items. It started with vegetables, followed by fruit, whole grains and starchy vegetables, beans, animal products, processed complex carbohydrates, junk food, nuts and seeds, and finally oils and fats. After explaining that people are less likely to go back to nutrient dense foods following a calorie dense meal — let's face it, you're not going for an apple after eating a doughnut — it finally started to click in my mind. That's when I started doing a little research as to what I may be eating that was calorie-dense before eating nutrient-dense options.
Let me preface the following by stating I'm not here to ruin your favorite foods, and I'm certainly not saying you can't eat them at all. However, you can't deny there are options. For example, a large glazed doughnut is approximately 315 to 400 calories. I've always loved doughnuts, obviously a little too much, so I looked for a better option. I found that I could get an 8.5 ounce fruit and yogurt parfait, which is more nutrient dense, at a grocery store for the same amount of calories.
Another favorite of mine is potato chips, but let's face it, Lay's Classic Potato Chips nailed it on the head when they picked the slogan, "Bet you can't eat just one." A serving of potato chips — only about 15 chips by the way — is 160 calories. Compare that to 3 1/2 cups of air-popped popcorn for the same calorie count. Even foods that seemed healthier, like 1/4 cup of raisins (100 calories), still weren't as good as 1 cup of grapes because the water and fiber had been taken out of the grapes to make the raisins.
The differences between these nutrient dense foods and calorie dense foods are far too many to list in this column, so to find out more, visit Fonnesbeck's blog about the topic on the Movara Fitness blog.
This story is part two of an eight-part series following my personal journey through the Movara program that will give you insight into a variety of common weight problems and how to fix them. Pick up a copy of The Spectrum on Monday, February 1, or visit TheSpectrum.com to find out more about more about how and what you eat can effect your goals of weight management.
Resource: http://www.thespectrum.com
