Fibre – Fuelling a Functional, Healthier Body

Dietary fibre is the indigestible part of cereals, legumes, fruits and vegetables. It passes relatively unchanged through your stomach and intestines, keeping your digestive system healthy.

There are three main types of fibre:
 
Water insoluble fibre
Found in fruits, vegetables and wholegrain breads and cereals; this type of fibre adds bulk to your stools. Bulk allows your bowel to push stools through your intestinal tract more easily; reducing constipation and associated problems such as haemorrhoids.
 
Water soluble fibre
Found in oats, barley, legumes and fruits; this type of fibre slows the emptying of food from the stomach, thereby decreasing hunger. It also helps to reduce blood cholesterol levels (in conjunction with a low fat diet) by inhibiting the production of LDL (bad) cholesterol in your liver.

Resistant starch
Resistant starch can deliver some of the benefits of insoluble and soluble fibre above. It resists digestion and passes through to the large intestine where it acts in a similar manner to dietary fibre. Natural resistant starch is insoluble, fermented in the large intestine and a prebiotic fibre (prebiotic fibres boost beneficial probiotic bacteria in the gut and can decrease the effects of other types of fibre such as gas and bloating). Other types of resistant starch may be soluble or insoluble, and may or may not have prebiotic properties. Sources include cooked navy beans, uncooked banana, cold cooked potato, lentils, cold cooked pasta, pearl barley, cereal and wholegrain bread.

Fibre and Your Diet – so how much should I be having?

For adults, the recommended daily intake of fibre is 30–35 grams; significantly more than the current average intake of 15–20 grams per day. (Please note that children and adolescents’ recommended daily fibre intake is lower than adults’ recommended daily fibre intake). Disorders that can arise from a low fibre diet include constipation, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Diverticulitis, heart disease and some cancers.

Fibre needs to absorb fluid in your bowel; so if you are consuming the recommended 30 grams of fibre each day, you should drink 2–3 litres of non caffeinated fluids per day. If your fibre intake is greater than 30 grams, your fluid intake will probably need to be greater as well. Without enough water, your stools may be solid and difficult to pass.

If you are currently consuming less than 30-35 grams of fibre each day, we recommend that you increase your fibre intake gradually over the next two weeks. (If you increase your intake too quickly, you are likely to experience abdominal discomfort, bloating and wind as your bowel will not be accustomed to that amount of fibre.) Use the table below (or alternatively your Calorie and Fat Counter) to determine your fibre intake. If necessary, select foods that increase you fibre intake.

* Note that meat, dairy products, eggs, fats and sugars do not contain any dietary fibre.

Who should increase their fibre intake?

Everyone! While everyone should be ensuring adequate quantities of fibre, it is even more important for the elderly as their digestive system tends to slow with age. Fibre is also very important and helpful for diabetics as it slows the glucose absorption from the small intestine into the blood and therefore stabilising blood sugar levels.

Since high fibre foods are typically low in fat, they help to slow the emptying of the stomach and blood sugar levels tend to remain lower. Due to an increase in satiety, a high fibre diet can help people with weight loss, as overall quantity and associated calories tend to be lower.

Top tips for increasing your fibre intake

Below are some simple tips to help with keeping your fibre intake above 30 grams per day:

1. Leave skins on fruit and vegetables wherever possible (e.g. potatoes, carrots, cucumber and apples)
2. Choose wholemeal or wholegrain breads, rices and pastas
3. Choose high fibre breakfast cereals
4. Choose fresh fruit instead of juice (dried fruit and canned fruit also have more fibre than juice)
5. Use unprocessed bran, wholemeal flour and wholemeal bread crumbs in cooking whenever possible (e.g. in scones, biscuits and schnitzels)
6. For snacks, choose high fibre foods (e.g. high fibre cracker biscuits or fruit)
7. Add high fibre vegetables to salads (e.g. corn kernels or sweet potato)
8. Add legumes to soups, casseroles, salads, pasta sauces and dips.

This last tip is important. Legumes are known as ‘nature’s super food’ as they provide fibre, protein and low GI carbohydrate. They are also low in fat and energy. However, very few Australians eat legumes on a regular basis. Legumes include dried peas and beans such as lentils, kidney beans, butter beans, split peas and baked beans. They are a versatile food and can be added to salads, casseroles or stews, curries, pasta sauces, stir fries, rissoles or patties, soups and dips.

Legumes can be purchased dried in packets or pre cooked in cans; however the most economical way to purchase legumes is in packets. Dried legumes need to be soaked for 4-24 hours before cooking. After soaking, the water should be discarded and the legumes should be rinsed to remove the ‘flatus factors’ (wind producing substances). Canned legumes have already gone through this process, but it is still advisable to rinse them well before use.

Is Leaving Food on Your Plate Such a Waste?

When we try to change our eating and exercise behaviours, it is useful to reflect on your personal history and see how it may have shaped your life: your childhood can have a very big impact on current behaviours!

One such area in your personal history is reflecting back on family meal patterns. You may recall that your parents may have conditioned you to believe that wasting food was sinful, either because food was expensive or because there were other people in the world who were starving. This is particularly true for people who grew up during the depression or war years, or even for people whose parents grew up during that time. It is likely that you were not allowed to leave the table unless you “cleaned your plate”: that is, finished every mouthful.

If you can relate to the statements above, trying to ‘practise the habit’ of leaving food on our plate, may help to undo the conditioning to associate leftover food with guilt. To help begin the reconditioning process, you may like to think of it this way: excess food in your stomach is wasted food, just as it is wasted in the rubbish bin. In fact excess food in your stomach is even more of a waste than excess food in the bin, because when it is in your stomach it may lead to weight gain and poor health. Or consider that when you eat the leftover food so as not to waste it, you are in fact treating yourself like a rubbish bin!

Leaving food on your plate is a great habit in situations where you are not in control of your serve size. By practising leaving food on your plate, you will be more likely to leave portions of higher fat foods at occasions such as parties or dining out, and to restrict your intake of highly desired foods to portions you can enjoy in a nutritionally sensible way.

7 steps to help introduce this new behaviour

Many people can find it challenging to leave food on their plate at first, so we have listed seven steps to help you introduce the behaviour gradually:

1. Start with a food that is not a favourite. At dinner time, cook slightly more of this food so you can leave a few mouthfuls of it on your plate
2. Aim to leave one mouthful on the plate at first. While this may be nutritionally negligible it can be psychologically important: you teach yourself that you can begin to leave food on your plate. You can leave more food on your plate later
3. When you serve the food, place the extra mouthfuls to one side. If you are eating with other people, let them know what you intend to do so they can be supportive and remind you of your goal
4. When the only food remaining on your plate is what you intended to leave, scrape it into the bin immediately
5. Try placing your serviette on top of your remaining food to indicate that you have finished eating and to reduce your likelihood of starting again
6. Organise an activity to keep you occupied after dinner (e.g. going for a walk or calling a friend) to help you forget about the food you left behind
7. As you become more confident, you can gradually apply these steps to foods that you find more tempting.

Note that you do not have to leave food on your plate at the end of every meal: it only applies to situations where the portions that you are given are greater than your usual serves. It is better to avoid the issue altogether by serving yourself an appropriate portion size to begin with.

So, portion control can go a long way to help you keep your food intake within reasonable quantities. A quick refresh on healthy proportions of the major food groups are illustrated diagrammatically below:

Another very simple way to work out your serve sizes is to take a look at your hands!! A portion of meat and meat alternatives should be the size and thickness of your palm, a portion of breads, cereals and starchy vegetables should be the size and thickness of your fist and a portion of vegetables should be able to sit in your outstretched hands:

Walking a tight rope (and falling off the rope) / 186.8

For me, a fat woman trying to become a normal, mentally balanced woman and be at a healthy weight, my life is like walking a tight rope, and I keep falling off the damned rope.

My last post on Saturday was about enjoying food. Well guess what? Stupid, stupid, stupid idea! I went crazy, trying new recipes, all Weight Watchers or from weight loss blogs. There are many wonderful recipes out there that are healthy. The trick, though, is to eat just one portion. When the food is delicious and I really enjoy it, I struggle with the portion size.

I made Weight Watcher Chicken Tortilla Soup from the new Weight Watchers cookbook (from Costco). I've had the book for months, since the PointsPlus program came out. I hadn't even cracked it open. The soup is wonderful, but a serving is 1 1/4 cups with 1/5 of an avocado. Not three cups with a whole avocado!

I tried several other recipes since Saturday. I've been a cooking machine. I've also been an eating machine.

Sometimes, I'm my own worst enemy. I get what I think are brilliant ideas that lead to my downfall. It's very frustrating.

Wednesday's weigh-in at my at-work Weight Watchers meeting was 186.8. Tell me, who belongs to TWO Weight Watcher groups and actually GAINS weight?! Oh, right, that would be ME.

Good grief, what is wrong with me?

Okay, so enough with the self-pity? What's next on my agenda? How am I going to turn this around, and quickly?

1. Back to exercising. That's right, in the last four days during my cooking/eating frenzy, I decided I was too tired/lazy/bored/busy to get my butt to the gym. What the hell was that about? As soon as I hit the "publish post" button on this post, I'm out the door and to the gym.

There's a little kink in my plan. I'm officially on vacation starting today and through next week. I'm leaving for Fairbanks tomorrow to visit my sister. My 72-year old sister, the gym rat. The one that goes to the gym five days a week, every week.

Sadly, she's recovering from pneumonia and hasn't been to the gym for seven days. It's unlikely she'll be returning soon since she was really sick. I have to figure out how to get in exercise while I'm visiting. She has a treadmill at home (that she never uses), so as much as I hate the treadmill, I might have to get on the thing. If the weather is good, I could walk outside, but she lives out in the middle of no where (thirty miles from Fairbanks), and walking by myself is a tiny bit scary. I'll just have to figure this out.

2. Food - gosh, what can I say here that hasn't been said a thousand times on this blog about me and food? There's just no way around it, I have to really limit what and how much I eat. This isn't a free-for-all. I can't eat just because I "think" I'm hungry. I can't eat how much I really want to eat. I know what a portion size looks like, I know how to eat healthy. I know what to order when eating out. None of this is new to me.

3. Mindset - Exercise and food are of course the key to losing weight, but more important is having your head in the game. If I don't have that, nothing else matters. I have to be 100% in the game. Period. Doing this halfway, not giving it my all just doesn't work.

My one saving grace here is my sister is a health nut. She's been one for decades, before it was really popular. She's been making her own homemade, whole wheat bread for over twenty years. She eats like a bird and oddly, is never hungry (I sometimes wonder if we're even related!).

The only bad junk in her house is for all the grandkids, yes, she has cookies and candy for the grandkids. She never touches the stuff, but it's there for the kids. This is going to require major willpower. 

I won't be posting until I get back, next week on Thursday. Of course, lately, that's sort of normal posting for me. Once or twice a week. I really need to pick that up a bit. :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Awesome things

I leave you with a few "awesome" things in my life. The guy that wrote 1,000 Awesome Things was on the Today show a couple days ago. It got me to thinking that even though as much as I complain about my life, there are lots of awesome things that happen to me every day. I wrote out some of the earlier this week, intending to post them, but I never got around to it. Speaking of the word "awesome", it sort of annoys me because it's so overused. Regardless, these things were pretty awesome to me.

Diana's short list of awesome things this week:

Written on Tuesday, May 2:

1. Talking to my sister in Fairbanks on my way to work today. Discussing how I'll be in Fairbanks this Friday and staying for a week, and how we can't wait to see each other. I just LOVE her!

2. Arriving at work and a group of my favorite people from another team are in the lunchroom. We chat for about ten minutes. One guy that's hysterically funny and has always had a beard says "well, if I shave all this off I'll look like a hairless cat". Cracked me up because I could totally picture him as a giant, hairless cat (he's 6' 4").

3. Last night, reading this on my niece's Facebook page, posted by a male friend of hers: Nothing like killing a terrorist leader to get people to shut the hell up about the royal wedding. So true!

4. At first, I was a little disturbed by all the celebration over bin Laden's death. Of course I'm glad that he's no longer on this planet, but the dancing in the streets over the death of another human being didn't feel right to me. Then I read how the United States handled bin Laden's burial, and I smiled to myself. Even though bin laden was a dreadful, evil person, the United States handled his remains with dignity. It made me proud to be a citizen of the United States.

From the Chicago Beacon-News article:

Bin Laden’s body was taken to an aircraft carrier, the USS Carl Vinson, and his burial quickly was done in accordance with Islamic custom. His corpse was washed, then wrapped in a white sheet and placed in a weighted bag, according to news reports. As a U.S. military chaplain read religious rites, which were translated into Arabic, the body was placed on a board, tipped up and dropped into the North Arabian Sea.

5. Last Friday, taking my favorite kitty, Mickey, to the vet because he was doing a weird drooling thing and acting odd. He's never drooled and he acted like he didn't feel good. This is the same cat that four years ago had a 106 degree fever in the middle of one of the worst snowstorms ever. I made my husband drive through foot deep snow on the I5 freeway so we could take Mickey to the emergency vet, where after fluids and a $1,200 vet bill, he was fine.

At the vet visit Friday, she told me all the things that could be wrong with Mickey: kidney failure, some weird kitty virus that can cause death (drooling is a sign), and numerous other things I can't even pronounce. All of them with devastating consequences. He's only six years old. He's my baby. After taking his blood, and waiting 24 hours for the results (and I was just sure he was dying), I get the phone call. All results were perfect. He's perfectly healthy, perhaps just a cold. That could cause the drooling.

6. Waking up this morning with my kitty, Mickey, sitting on my chest and staring at me, purring (and not drooling anymore!).

7. Getting this comment from Christine on my post about Marianne Williamson's stupid weight loss book. This made me laugh out loud:

Christine said:
I bought the book and went with a friend to see her speak. She's a self-indulgent, pompous loon who talks down to people. What she says makes no sense and I agree with your assessment of her book. Don't waste your time reading it. 

8. Walking in the sunshine at noon with a work friend. Everything is emerald green from all the rain the past several months (the rain which I've cursed every day for at least six months). All the trees are budding out and our walk down the Des Moines Creek Trail near work was gorgeous. We saw a bald eagle soaring above us with six tiny birds chasing it and acting like they were trying to attack it. The eagle could have cared less, they were like little pesky mosquitoes to him. The eagle's wing span was a least eight feet across. Beautiful.

9. Truly awesome thing for today, May 5:  waking up and knowing I was off work for eleven days. Woohoo!

Breakfast Muesli With Yogurt

(makes 6-8 servings)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup plain, low-fat yogurt
  
  


• 1 cup 1% low-fat milk
  
  


• 2 cups rolled oats
  
  


• ½ cup sliced almonds
  
  


• ⅓ cup wheat bran
  
  


• ⅓ cup honey
  
  


• ¼ cup dried apricots, chopped
  
  


• ¼ cup dates, chopped
  
  


• ¼ cup dried cranberries, chopped
  
  

Preparation:

• Combine oats, almonds, apricots, dates, cranberries and wheat bran in a medium sized bowl.
  
  


• Add yogurt, honey, milk and mix well.
  
  


• Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled about 1 to 2 hours.
  
  

Make 8 Servings:

Weight loss recipes Amount Per Serving(¼ of recipe (122 g)): 243 Calories, 9 g Protein, 40 g carbohydrates, 5 g Dietary Fiber, 7 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 3 mg cholesterol, 60 mg sodium

The Gym

I am struggling with the gym at the moment... not because it's hard work, or I hate it, or anything negative like that, but because I have hurt my foot really bad. I even went to A&E on Friday - during the Royal Wedding - to get it x-rayed.

My gym instructor says it's some kind of muscle thing and I didn't quite catch the name of it, but it was something like bla-bla-itis. It's the worst thing to happen to me right now.

Not only was I enjoying the gym, but we had been going regularly since 28th January 3 times a week and I had really improved my fitness levels. TB and I both started out lightly and didn't even break a sweat, but after a few sessions we really started to get going and I was doing 30 minutes on the treadmill at 5.3kph on random hills level 7!!! I was well pleased with myself. That was followed by 20 minutes cycling at level 9 and 75rpm and then 10 minutes rowing or mixed leg weights.

I was well chuffed with myself.

My foot had been playing up a lot, and it would be really really sore the next morning, but once I got going it would ease the knots out and would be ok. Any time I sat still for a bit, I would hobble for a while, but nothing really major. It was livable.

We went away on the 15th April for DS's Internet school residential weekend thing in Wales. It was awesome but meant that there was no gym on the Friday or the Monday. Wednesday went by as TB wasn't feeling great, and I had loads to do having been away for 4 days. Friday it was shit because of Good Friday, then Monday was shut too. The following Wednesday - 27th April by now - we went.

I typed in the usual 5.3 at level 7 on the teadmill and it nearly killed me. Those short 2 weeks had buggered my fitness level and I needed to slow it right down and we actually come home early as we were both knackered! I was shocked actually at how quickly you lose fitness!

I was hobbling a bit afterwards, but no more than normal, but Thursday morning WOW! What a pain. It was so excruciating, I just stayed in bed and on the sofa. It KILLED!

On Friday, I managed to get through the wedding ceremony but googled foot problems during the hour wait for the balcony scene and came across the words "Stress Fracture" and got the shits! So we hot footed it (hee hee) to A&E with DH rightly thinking that most people would not be harming themselves currently as they would be watching the wedding. We got seen to really quickly and stuff and it wasn't broken, just sprained some of the muscles.

That didn't really help.. especially the usual "Take some ibuprofen..." which followed with me once again saying to a doctor who has ALL my notes... I CANT TAKE IBUPROFEN I HAVE A BAND YOU MORON.

*sigh*

So I popped some of my dads stash of codeine tabs he gave me now that he doesn't have pain from cancer and they knocked the pain on the head good and proper!

But today, I have been to the gym and my foot hurts now. Right now. Tomorrow its going to be criminal.

I was even really good at the gym and did 30 minutes walking at 4.3kph and no hills :-( and then 10 minutes rowing and 20 minutes bike at level 5. It seems it is still not low enough not to cause me pain.

This sucks.

On the other hand, I think to myself... it hurts anyway, so why not just suck it up. So shall be continuing until the tendon snaps or whatever and I cant do it any more!!!

I shall keep taking it easy and see how things go. Rubbish cos I only burnt off 300 cals today instead of 450.

I also have the squits today - think it was the tuna I had last night. Was a bit manky tasting.

Mostaccioli With Beans

(makes 6 servings)

Ingredients:

• 3 cups uncooked mostaccioli pasta (or similar pasta shape like penne)
  
  


• 2 red bell peppers, seeded and chopped
  
  


• ½ lb. fresh asparagus, trimmed and cut into small sized pieces
  
  


• 1 onion, chopped (½ cup)
  
  


• 2 cloves garlic, minced
  
  


• 1 (14.5oz.) can diced tomatoes, undrained
  
  


• ½ cup low sodium vegetable or chicken broth
  
  


• 1 tbsp chopped fresh or ½ tsp dried rosemary leaves, crumbled
  
  


• 2 cups lightly packed fresh spinach leaves
  
  


• 1 (15oz.) can cannellini beans, drained
  
  


• ⅓ cup low-fat Parmesan cheese
  
  


• Low-fat cooking spray
  
  

Preparation:

• Cook and drain pasta according to package instructions.
  
  


• While pasta is cooking, spray a 4-quart Dutch oven with low-fat cooking spray and heat over medium-high heat.
  
  


• Cook asparagus, red bell pepper, onion and garlic until vegetables are crisp-tender (about 6 minutes).
  
  


• Add tomatoes, broth, and rosemary to vegetable mixture and stir until blended.
  
  


• Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered for 3 minutes.
  
  


• Stir in cannellini beans and spinach and simmer until spinach is wilted.
  
  


• Toss vegetable mixture with the cooked pasta and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese as desired.
  
  

Make 6 Servings:

Weight loss recipes Amount Per Serving(1/6 of recipe (324 g)): 313 Calories, 14 g Protein, 62 g carbohydrates, 7 g Dietary Fiber, 2 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 467 mg sodium

Understanding Weight Gain After Weight Loss Surgery

I am hearing from many WLS Neighbors who are struggling to get to goal weight or fighting back against a weight gain. If you are struggling - as we all do at times - please take a look at my article below that reveals 4 truths about regain and empowers you to understand why it happens to even those most resolved to beat obesity once and for all:

From 5 Day Pouch Test Featured Articles:



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