A new poll found that dads-to-be on average gain about 14 pounds during their partner’s pregnancy. The men indicated that having more snacks in the house and indulging in larger meals during the 9 months was the culprit. Only about 1/3 of the men then joined in to take off the post-pregnancy weight through diet.  This means lots of daddies carrying around spare tires for good. 

While my husband didn’t gain 14 pounds during my recent pregnancy, I know that my eating habits tend to influence him as well. When I was going through a serious Doritos craving several months back, I noticed the telltale orange color on his fingers also. Now that my pregnancy is over and I’m on track to taking off the weight, we’ve both been eating more salads and snacking on fruit and frozen yogurt. I’m guessing his belt is moving down a notch as well.  

So, if your hubby put on a few pounds while you were pregnant and hasn’t taken it off, now’s the time to team up. In the Baby Fat Diet, we talk about how important it is to get the whole family on board with better eating habits by talking about the changes you want to make and perhaps even signing a contract of commitment.  Get started by cleaning the junk out of your pantry and loading up on summer fresh produce – for the health of all your loved ones.

Tags: daddy weight gain, family, husband, pregnancy weight, snacking, weight loss

So, did I have the perfect Mother’s Day? I have to say it was pretty great — the day was beautiful and sunny, my in-laws did the cooking and the kids had a blast playing soccer and baseball in the yard, while I got some much needed down time to relax and swing with the baby on one of those old fashioned double-porch swings.  And I got to take a walk in the evening by myself as I thought about our day and how appreciative I am for my family.  It was just what I needed to decompress – part of being truly healthy is listening to the body and giving it what it needs.  For me, down time was just the thing. Shrimp kabobs will have to wait til Father’s Day.

Meanwhile, a new study came out showing that eating low fat versions of foods may be less satisfying than just having the real thing, particularly if you know that the food is low fat.  A group of women were all given a chocolate milk shake, while researchers watched a brain scanner.  Half the women were told it was a chocolate milk shake and the other half were told it was low fat, though it actually was the exact same milk shake. The researchers compared the lighting up of the reward centers of the brain between the two groups as they drank the shake. When people were told it was low fat, they had much less activation in the brain, implying less satisfaction than when they thought it was the real deal.  It pretty much explains that whole SnackWells phenomenon, where people compensated for eating fat free by just eating the entire box of cookies, saving no calories and in fact, eating hundreds of excess calories – meaning extra pounds on the hips. 

Having a small portion of what you really want is often a more effective weight control measure than trying to eat something that is less satisfying but lower in fat or calories.  This holds true with many of the people I counsel and for myself.  Fooling the brain is not so easy to do and the brain plays an integral part in choosing what we eat and how much.  So, bottomline — have real chocolate if that’s what you want, just make it a small square.  (Rich, dark chocolate tasting squares are ideal for built in portion control.)

Tags: brain, low fat, Mother's Day, satisfying, study

There are a lot of choices for sweetening your foods and drinks, but which ones are best for your health?  It is not easy to choose, given all of the contradictory news concerning high fructose corn syrup as well as new sweeteners, i.e. stevia.  To start, there are two main simple sugars in our diet - glucose and fructose. There are metabolic differences in how your body handles fructose versus glucose, however, we do not eat or drink fructose or glucose alone.  Most sweeteners (refined and unrefined) are a combination of both, for example high fructose corn syrup, honey, maple syrup, molasses as well as sucrose (white table sugar) contain both fructose and glucose. There are also non-nutritive (zero calorie) sweeteners, such as stevia, aspartame, saccharin and sucralose.  Of these, stevia has just recently been given the okay by the FDA.  Since stevia is derived from the leaf of a plant it is considered a “natural” sweetener.  It is also 200-300 times sweeter than sugar and so not much is needed.  The other three non-nutritive sweeteners are considered artificial and research shows that including drinks and foods with these zero calorie sweeteners may actually result in people taking in more calories — more research is needed to understand this better.  Okay, back to which sweetener is the best for health.  Your best bet is to choose sweeteners that also have other nutrients, such as the unrefined sweeteners like honey, brown sugar, molasses.  These not only sweeten but they also have antioxidants that may be good for your health.  The trick is too not use too much and to limit foods with added sugars.  So, a fruit with naturally occurring fructose and glucose is okay because of all the additional health benefits you get from the fruit. But watch out for sweetened beverages, like the new iced green teas that have an overload of refined sugars added with not much else (aka empty calories).

Tags: artificial sweeteners, baby fat diet, health, healthy eating, sugars, sweeteners, weight loss

Since I had my third child on April 13th and have been feeling quite sleep deprived and extra busy feeding, changing, getting the other two off to school, I’ve been thinking that I deserve a really great Mother’s Day this year.  In fact, we all deserve our perfect Mother’s Day. So, what is a perfect Mother’s Day? Obviously that differs based on the person, however, my perfect day involves lots of family time, a beautiful day, some activity outside and a good meal.  For the first few years when we had just one or two kids we went out for brunch or dinner with our parents - our kids’ grandparents - to celebrate the occasion, but we’ve learned that eating out can be pretty stressful with young kids.  I can’t even imagine how we’d do it with a newborn, too.  My favorite Mother’s Day was one year when we took the kids on a long walk to a playground and then barbecued salmon at our house and had the grandparents bring the sides.  It had all the elements of my perfect day. So this year, given that we’re all trying to save some money and lose some weight, why not try an outdoor activity with your family followed by a healthy, homecooked meal that everyone pitches in on?  I’ll let you know how my perfect day plays out this year and what we have in store for the menu.  I’m thinking shrimp kabobs.

Enjoy your perfect day - happy Mother’s Day!

Tags: healthy meal, Mother's Day, outdoor activity