Nutritional Info Archives - Page 2 of 5 - Gritton's Training System

The Crimes We Commit Against Our Metabolism

Here’s a little story about a man named Jed, the poor mountaineer barely kept his family fed. Then one day he was shooting at some food and up from the ground came a bubbling…

Yes, that’s the intro to the Beverly Hillbillys. One of my favorite shows from the 90’s. Probably because the day my family and I moved from Eastern Kentucky, to Augusta Georgia I swear I heard that song playing as we pulled out.

What I’d really like to tell you is the story of the crimes we commit against our metabolisms on a daily basis. I want to give you the THREE biggest mistakes I see and hear every day, that devastate our bodies ability to burn fat.

Mistake #1 – We don’t eat enough. Yes, that is a major crime and I see it all the time when someone decides they want to lose some weight. They usually always lose weight in the beginning, but then what happens? Their metabolism goes in the tank because the body says, “I’m not getting enough calories so I’m going to slow down my burn rate to protect myself”

Mistake #2 – We don’t do enough strength training and we do too much cardio. I talk about this one all the time and I’ll tell you it’s an easy mistake to make. Heck, when I was training for Ironman 2008 I found myself skipping my strength training for more cardio. I know it’s exciting to see those calories tick away quickly when you do cardio, but remember that once you stop, the calorie burn returns to normal within an hour. When you strength train you turn fat into muscle, you burn calories at a higher rate for up to 24 hours. Best of all, when you turn 1lb of fat into muscle it means you need an extra 50 calories every day. That means 10lbs of lean muscle, that can only come from strength training, will give you an extra 500 calories every day!

Mistake #3 – We don’t have the right nutrients around and during our workout. When you train, you’ve got to have the right stuff in your body. Specifically you need amino acids. Amino acids are the building blocks of protein-protein is the building blocks of muscle-muscle is the building blocks for a higher metabolism.

I want to share with you, what I believe the #1 thing you must have to enable your body to protect muscle and speed up your metabolism. Its something that every time I workout I take this product, have been for over 8 years and I believe in it so much that if I don’t have these three little pills I will actually skip my workout.

The product is called Catalyst and it is 5 of the 8 essential amino acids that your body needs while you train. Without these nutrients in your body you can end up burning lean muscle for energy. Sound good?

It also helps you repair your muscles after your training is over. Which is also vital to keep your metabolism up. The goal of strength training is to do damage to your muscles and then let them repair so they get bigger and stronger and eventually turn your body into a fat burning machine.

To hopefully help you see how important I think this is, if you would like to try Catalyst or get back on Catalyst for a month… If you order a bottle within the next 48 hours, then I will put your name into a drawing for a second bottle for free. Visit my website for your orders: www.advocare.com/08034059

If you have concerns, I understand, but know that Advocare is above reproach when it comes to testing products. That is part of the reason I can confidently put it in my body and then share it with you to help you speed up your metabolism.

Here’s to a faster metabolism and a leaner stronger you!

Your Coach

Jeremy

What To Eat: Due South, Peachtree City

Found myself at dinner with my family at Due South in Peachtree City, GA and quickly realized that a) there are lots of tempting menu items and b) I was smack in the middle of a “What Would You Eat” situation. I was so hungry that I almost forgot to take a photo of the dish I ordered so you get the half eaten version but it illustrates a good point.

One strategy, when eating out somewhere with a tricky menu is to split a dish with someone or ask the waiter to split it for you and take half home. You’ll cut your calorie intake in half and limit the damage. Trust me you’ll still be full because the portion sizes are big here. But if you really want to stick to your plan here is what I had for dinner and was happy and full:Restaurants like these are great fun and if you’re going to splurge, this is the place to do it. BUT, splurges, in the grand scheme should be infrequent if you are working hard at obtaining a weight loss goal. But that doesn’t mean you can’t leave the house for meals, it just means you have to be selective and know what to look for. Creamy sauces, bacon, fried and butter are your worst enemy here. But you can do it!

I ordered the Due South Spring Mixed Salad, and I added Salmon (mineral and vitamin rich, lots of protein) and opted for the Cabernet-Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing (creamy dressings are killer – you could up your dishes fat and calorie content buy double). I don’t know the calorie count but the idea is to look for something evenly balanced. So the salad, loaded with healthy greens, and protein in the form of nutrient rich Salmon made this the best choice if you’re really buckling down on your nutrition. If you aren’t a fan of salmon you can go for grilled shrimp or chicken for the added protein.

I promise you I left full and happy. 🙂 Have a healthy weekend!

What To Eat: Moe’s Southwest Grill

We’ve had lots of requests for restaurant choices since we posted the Panera pick a few weeks ago. Eating out from time to time is part of life. Learning how to do those outings in a sensible manner is something we learn over time. We aren’t suggesting you go out to eat all the time but we do find ourselves in situations that warrant a meal out of the house. I want to equip you with the knowledge you need to make good decisions in these cases.

First pick of the week is Moe’s Southwest Grill. I picked this place first because it’s a go to up at The Avenue, plus, it’s a chain you find all over the country and we have lots of travelers in our GTS family!

Moe’s can be misleading with their “fresh ingredients” and “whole grain tortillas” but the calories, fat and carbs can really sneak up on you here. Right off the bat, all the tortillas are at least 47g of carbs! And the whole grain option is 52g! Moe’s has a really handy nutrition calculator tool on their website that allows you to actually see the nutritional value of what you’re eating and you can choose options to build your meal and see what’s what. Here is where your planning skills will come into play.

They have a “Streaker” option for their salad bowls and burritos that are much more reasonable. Play around with the options and you can really see where one false move like adding their Chipoltle Ranch dressing to your meal can up the fat content to 45g of fat and doubles the total calories of your meal. DOUBLES. With just the dressing alone.

Kathy’s Pick would be a Streaker Burrito with chicken and loaded with lettuce, tomatoes, jalepenos, pico de gallo and grilled peppers: 232 calories, 9g of fat, 11g carbs and 26g of protein.

Healthy Choice For Lunch at Panera

Eating out always poses a challenge for us when we are trying to either lose some unwanted weight or just maintain where we are. Work obligations and lunch with friends shouldn’t end up being a source of stress over what we are going to eat. Planning is essential for all parts of your nutrition. When you plan ahead, when possible, you up your chances of making a healthy choice that won’t set you back. I was recently at our local Panera for lunch with my mom and the kids. Luckily Panera is excellent about nutrition transparency and offering healthy options. But even though they put the calorie count on the menu board doesn’t always give us the full picture.

Panera has come out with a slew of new healthy options and some are better than others as far as balance goes. One of my favorite choices is the new Power Chicken Hummus Bowl. Loaded with protein and fresh greens, this lunch is a great option and pretty delicious too. According to Panera’s information this salad yields only 330 calories, 33g of protein and 20g of carbohydrates. Not to mention it’s loaded with Vitamin A and C. Some of the other “Power” menu item’s are good choices too (which are listed as “Secret Menu Items”) that are all high in protein and low in calories and fat. Now eating lunch with a friend won’t derail your day and you can enjoy yourself!

If you wanted to create this yourself at home it would be very easy to do. Just combine this list of ingredients and use the lemon as your dressing… sounds too simple but it really refreshing and provides enough to coat your ingredients.

Ingredients:

2 cups Baby Spinach
3oz of grilled or prepared chicken
1/4 red onion sliced
1/4 cucumber sliced
1 plum tomato sliced
3 Tbsp Hummus
1/2 Lemon to dress

Panera lists all the nutrition information on their website called PaneraNutrition.com.

Weekly Nutrition: Plan Ahead for Better Weight Management Results

We all have busy lives. All of us. So part of being successful at losing weight, changing your body and staying healthy requires a bit of a juggling act to stay on track. Making time to plan out a successful week is key for us. Even as you reach your goals, staying there is going to be a lifestyle change for life. One of the best changes you can make a habit is menu planning. I know, I know. That sounds like a daunting task but it doesn’t have to be. A hour or two of prepping and planning can mean the difference between a week where you struggle, and a week where you succeed.

As a mother of two active boys, I am rarely home long enough to even sit down to eat, so if I don’t have healthy food available that is easy to make, I make less healthy choices and end up eating the wrong things out of desperation or lack of time. Planning is essential to maintaining my weight. Here are some of my Sunday Prep secrets that keep me on track. Not all of you will love everything I eat but adapt the rules to food you like and you’ll be on your way to a better planned week:

1. Wash, Slice and Dice: Wash produce and do preparatory slicing and dicing early in the week. This allows me to throw together snacks and salads in record time. The weeks I don’t do this I am less likely to eat those types of foods. I wash and slice up all three colors of peppers, broccoli, carrots, rinse grape tomatoes and anything else in season that I can easily toss on a baking sheet for roasting. This saves me loads of time and I have found that I’ll eat out of a bag of red peppers rather than a salty snack due to the convenience. Convenience is Key!

2. Boil and Bake: Once a week I hard boil eggs, bake protein and have easy proteins like canned tuna and frozen fish handy. One of my favorite things to do is bake chicken on Sunday and use it all week on top of salad or along side roasted veggies. Here’s a simple way to make “ready to go” chicken that is great for any dish or salad:

Ready Ahead Lemon Chicken

Ingredients:

2-3 Cleaned and trimmed large chicken breasts
1 Lemon
2 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt & Fresh Ground Pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Season chicken on both sides with a bit of sea salt and fresh ground pepper. In a glass baking dish place chicken side by side, drizzling olive oil over top of chicken. Cut lemon in half and squeeze lemon juice over chicken breasts. Slice the rest of the lemon in rounds and lay on top. Place uncovered in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes. Cooking time will vary depending on thickness of your chicken. You don’t want to over cook, remove once chicken is starting to turn brown. I like to just cook enough to be safe so that when I re-heat it later on and it’s not dry.

Store in an air tight container un-sliced and use as needed during the week.

Self Organization

Your Intentions were Good, right?

You had every intention of keeping that food journal, you set a goal to write down everything you eat but before you know it you get behind and you stop.

Perhaps you were ashamed of what was being eaten so you stopped. So you kept making new resolutions to try again, but for whatever reason you just couldn’t get organized.

If you’ve been experiencing this struggle, I want to offer a solution to help you not only with your food journal but to stay on track with your nutrition in general.

I want you to set aside a day that I call “self-organization” day. It is one day each week when you prepare foods, and get a plan together for the coming week.

I think Sunday’s are the best day, but you need to find a day where you have a couple of hours to cook and prepare some foods like chicken, vegetables, sweet potatoes, etc…

Not only will this save you time each morning, but it will give you a much better chance of sticking to your plan. Rather than just saying, I’m going to eat better today…have a plan and then prepare for it.

I know you might be thinking, how in the heck will I ever find the time to do this? Honestly, if you don’t make the time you will never feel like you have the time. No matter what stage of life your in; small kids, teenage kids, no kids but lots of work and or responsibilities, without taking a moment to step back prepare and plan you will always be struggling to eat right and not fall off the wagon. Once you get into the routine of doing this, you will be amazed at how much easier the rest of your week goes.

As an added bonus, I think it will give you a little bit of enthusiasm. Something powerful about having a plan then being prepared to execute. It’s just like making a big decision, it might be tough, but once you do it don’t you typically feel a little relief and even excitement?

Don’t settle for mediocre anymore, get yourself organized and you won’t regret it.