3 ways to lose weight when you've plateaud on a plant-based diet

Ever feel like you're doing everything right, by the book, but you're still not losing weight?

You're eating plant-based, feeling better (which is awesome), but the scale hasn't budged and you need it to.  You know you're on the right path but wonder "what am I doing wrong?"  

My friend Kathy feels this way and maybe you do too.  She had this to say commenting on Dr. Brie's interview from last week...

“I’ve been eating plant-based for almost 7 months. A friend and I began together and it’s been a lot of fun sharing recipes and texting pics of what we ate that day. I feel great on this eating plan. I’m post menopausal and even though I’ve been following this diet for 7 months I can’t seem to lose weight. Help!”

— Kathy, Take Control Tuesday friend

Even if you're not post menopausal it can be really frustrating knowing you're on the right path, but not getting the health results you want or expected.  And I've been there.  Multiple times and I know how to get through it.  

To help Kathy, today I'm sharing 3 ways to lose weight when you've plateaued on a plant-based diet whether you're post menopausal or not.

3 ways to lose weight when you've plateaued on a plant-based diet

1.  Make sure you're doing the diet right.  

There's many ways to do plant-based wrong or half-right.  Wrong or half-right won't get you the best results.  Here's an example of doing a plant-based diet wrong:  

Eating a junk-food vegan diet.  Tortilla chips (50%-ish fat), fries, vegan cookies etc. don't contain animal products, but that doesn't mean they're good for you.  Especially on a regular basis. At best, they're treats to be saved for special occasions.

Just because a diet is called plant-based or vegan doesn't mean it's good for you.

You must eat whole plant foods 90-100% of the time.  This includes fruits, veggies, whole-grains, legumes (beans, peas, lentils) and the optional nuts and seeds.  Refined foods (vegetable oils, white flour products and sugar) and animal products are not whole plant foods and should be avoided.  

Another example is eating high-fat plant food such as avocados, coconut, olives, nuts and seeds at every meal or as snacks.  Eating peanut butter out of the jar or peanut butter toast every morning instead of something more filling with less calories like oatmeal and fresh fruit can also prevent weight-loss (see point number two).  

Bottom line:  Learn how to do the diet right.  

Good news is, you're in the perfect place for that.  Sign-up for email updates above and you'll be the first to know when my free 'doing the diet right' crash course comes out in the next 2 weeks.  Or, learn from John McDougall, MD or Pam Popper, PhD, ND.  These are my top two teachers for doing the diet right.

2.  Eat high-fat plant foods as condiments or don't eat them at all.

People love avocados.  I do.  And that's partly because of the high amount of fat that's in them.

By design, fat tastes good so we'd eat it when we were hunter and gatherers.  At that time we needed the extra calories that fat provides because we never knew when we'd get more calories and needed any calories we could get to survive.  

The reason we need to be cautious of high-fat food is because fat has 5 extra calories per gram compared to a gram of carbohydrate or protein.  Carbohydrate and protein both have 4 calories per gram, while fat has 9 calories per gram.  Same quantity, but more calories in fat.  

For example, nuts can be great for your health.  But, if you casually snack through just one cup of almonds throughout the day, that's 838 calories (1).  They're very calorie dense which means their small volume of food is packed with more calories.  Compare that to one cup of a baked sweet potato (same amount) which is only 184 calories (2).  Plus it's really filling so you're more likely to stop eating instead of continually snacking.    

Bottom line:  nuts and seeds should be used as condiments, not snacks to enjoy to their health benefits and flavor, without overdosing on calories.  Or, simply omit high-fat plant foods completely.  

 

3.  Increase the intensity, duration and frequency of your exercise and stick to it!

Most people I've worked with have more trouble sticking to a long-term and challenging exercise regiment than changing their diet.  Once you've hit a weight-loss plateau, it's time to ramp up your exercise.  

You need to continuously increase...

• the intensity (how hard you're working),
• the duration (how long you're exercising for) and or
• the frequency (often you're working out)

for fitness to improve and weight loss to be encouraged.

The optimal goal is 5-6 days a week of exercising in your target heart rate for 45-60 minutes a day.

For post-menopausal women especially, hot yoga is a great way to reach that goal.  If you're in Columbia, SC, try Bikram Yoga or Yoga Masala.  I've been to them both.  Contact me if you want my opinion.

Now I'd love to hear from you.  Share your thoughts by clicking 'comment' below and answer...

Take Control Now Question

Which of these 3 tips do you need to implement the most and why?  

What's going to be the hardest part about getting started?

I can't wait to hear from you in the comments.

Love and Leafy Greens,

Trish

How to Safely Gain Weight

Do you know anyone who wants to gain weight?  (Lol yes those people do exist).

Before you close this article because you don't think it applies to you, stop, because it does.

One of the most important things you can do to take control of your diet and your weight to get the long-term health results you want, is to have a complete and whole understanding of nutrition and what causes weight loss and weight gain.  The more you understand and learn about the big picture no matter what weight you're trying to move towards, the easier it will be for you to achieve your health goals.  

So listen up because today I give you 3 things you need to do to gain weight (or not do if you want to lose weight).

How to (Safely) Gain Weight

1.  The first thing you need to know before you start the weight gain venture is… do you really need to gain weight!?

In the land of the USA where 69% of Americans are overweight and 35% are obese (1) skinny people look abnormal!  Lean people now look like misfits compared to 30 to 50 years ago. 

This promotes comments such as "that boy needs some meat on his bones" when ideally, being as lean as possible without being underweight is optimal -- the best weight to be at.   

Before you start implementing my below weight-gaining tips, make sure you really need to gain weight.  How do you do this?

Check your BMI here.  If you're at a normal weight, great!  Know you're where you're supposed to be.  If not...

2.  Eat more food

I've noticed this frequently, especially with hard-working men.  When they're highly focused and working they just don't eat!  If you want to gain weight you have to eat food and you're going to have to eat more of it.

If you traditionally eat a meat and cheese sandwich for lunch and are now substituting that for an avocado veggie sandwich, you're going to be eating less calories for the same quantity of food.  

So, you're going to have to either eat 2 sandwiches and or eat it with a baked sweet potato or a box of black bean soup.  Additionally, you should eat snacks or mini-meals between your meals.

Starting to eat more food and interrupting your work to eat it, is nothing but a big ol' HABIT.  You need to start doing it everyday and after a 1-3 months, this habit will stick and will become second nature.  Set an alarm on your watch for the same break and lunch times each day.  When it goes off, eat! (no matte what!)

3.  Eat more high calorie dense foods

Calorie density is a measurement of the amount of calories per volume of any given food.  This means some foods will have more calories even though they're in a small amount of food and these are great for someone trying to gain weight.

Why?  Because they're an easy way for you to get more calories in your diet without having to eat food that will contribute to you getting chronic disease (or erectile dysfunction) later in life (skinny people die of heart attacks too).

Healthy, calorie-dense foods include...

- Processed 100% whole grains such as whole-grain breads, crackers, pitas, tortillas, english muffins etc (I love Ezekiel whole-grain flour products)

- Juice and drinks.  Calories consumed in liquid form don't prevent people from eating less in food form.  Great news for weight-gaining wanna-bees.  Choose 100% fruit juice or add plant-milk to your oatmeal or smoothies instead of water.

- Dried fruit.  Because the water has been removed from the fruit, dried fruit isn't as filling as fresh fruit.  You can easily eat 2 TB of raisins and still be hungry versus the same amount of calories in grapes.  Add dried fruit to your meals or eat as snacks.

- High-fat plant foods such as olives, nuts, seeds, coconut, avocado and whole soy products can be added more generously to your meals to increase the caloric-density of your food.  Add an extra TB of ground flax seed to your oatmeal (along with dried fruit and plant-milk) and you'll easily add more calories to this important meal.

Take Control Now

What's the greatest insight you gained from this article?

Share your comments by clicking 'comment' below.

References

1.  CDC, Overweight and Obesity FastStats. Accessed online Oct. 2014 at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/obesity-overweight.htm

Why Plants are Better for Your Bones Than Dairy

Since we were children we’ve always heard -- "drink milk, it’s good for your bones."

We’re told this because milk has calcium and our bones need calcium.

And it’s true that our bones need calcium.  But milk and dairy products aren’t the only foods with calcium.  

In fact, there are healthier foods that have calcium (as well as a host of the other vitamins and minerals).

For example,

• 1 cup of garbanzo beans = 80 mg of calcium (1)
• 1 cup of kale = 24 mg of calcium (2)
• 1 cup of broccoli = 43 mg of calcium (3)
• 1 cup of raw carrots = 42mg of calcium (4)
• 1 cup of brown rice = 20 mg of calcium (5)

Even a banana has calcium!

• 1 medium banana = 6 mg of calcium (6)

Well how much calcium is in 1 cup of milk?

• 1 cup of non-fat milk = 299 mg (7)
• 1 cup of almond milk = 451 mg of calcium (8)

You get more calcium from drinking almond milk than from low-fat milk!

As well as having calcium, whole plant foods are smarter and safer choices for these 3 reasons...

1.  Whole plant foods contain fiber; they’re naturally low in calories and fat; contain zero cholesterol and they’re abundant antioxidants and all of the different vitamins and minerals our bones need. 

So with plants, you’ll get more bang for your buck compared to dairy.  You won’t only get calcium, but you’ll get a wealth of regenerative nutrients that are good for your whole body, not just your bones.

2.  Dairy products, on the other hand, don’t have fiber, contain cholesterol are naturally higher in fat, and they’re high in animal protein which negatively affects bones, despite containing calcium.

3.  You don’t need as much calcium as think you think. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) has written extensively on what they the calcium paradox (9).  That is, countries in the world where calcium intake is low, osteoporosis (appropriately defined as hip fracture rate rates) are the lowest in the world and in affluent countries where calcium intake is highest, the rate of hip fractures is highest (9). Countries with the highest calcium intakes have the most osteoporosis and fractures. 

In fact, a study published in the British Medical Journal looking at over 61,000 Swedish women for 19 years, found that people who consumed more than 1,137 mg of calcium per day had higher rates of hip fractures compared to people consuming less calcium (10).

Another study published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, found adolescent girls consuming the most dairy products and calcium had more than double the risk of stress fractures versus the girls consuming less calcium and dairy (11).

In light of this evidence, the WHO states that only 400-500 mg of of calcium are needed to prevent osteoporosis .

---

There’s one thing I want you to remember from today’s Take Control Tuesday article and it's this...

Whole plants foods have calcium and you don’t need dairy to fulfill your calcium needs.     

Now it’s time for you to put this information into action because it’s useless if you don’t do anything with it.  

To help you do that, I want you to answer this Take Control Now question and share your comment on my website (below), on YouTube or Facebook.

Take Control Now Question

How can you substitute 1 serving of dairy products with 1 serving of whole plant foods in your diet?  What are your ideas?  

And if you liked this video, which I hope that you did, please 'like' it by clicking the like or thumbs up button and show me some love!

References

1.  USDA Agricultural Research Service, National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Garbanzo beans. Accessed online, Sept. 2014 at http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/4771?fg=&man=&lfacet=&format=&count=&max=25&offset=&sort=&qlookup=garbanzo+beans

2. USDA Agricultural Research Service, National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Kale. Accessed online, Sept. 2014 at http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/3018?fg=&man=&lfacet=&count=&max=25&sort=&qlookup=kale&offset=&format=Full&new=&measureby=

3. USDA Agricultural Research Service, National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Broccoli. Accessed online, Sept. 2014 at http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/2908?fg=&man=&lfacet=&format=&count=&max=25&offset=&sort=&qlookup=broccoli

4.  USDA Agricultural Research Service, National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, carrot. Accessed online, Sept. 2014 at http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/2937?fg=&man=&lfacet=&format=&count=&max=25&offset=&sort=&qlookup=carrot

5. USDA Agricultural Research Service, National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Brown rice. Accessed online, Sept. 2014 at: http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/6456?fg=&man=&lfacet=&format=&count=&max=25&offset=&sort=&qlookup=brown+rice

6.  USDA Agricultural Research Service, National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Banana, Accessed online, Sept. 2014 at: http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/2208?fg=&man=&lfacet=&format=&count=&max=25&offset=&sort=&qlookup=banana

7. USDA Agricultural Research Service, National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, non-fat milk. Accessed online, Sept. 2014 at: http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/134

8.  USDA Agricultural Research Service, National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, almond milk. Accessed online, Sept. 2014 at: http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/4161?fg=&man=&lfacet=&format=&count=&max=25&offset=&sort=&qlookup=almond+milk

9.  World Health Organization, Diet and Physical Activity Recommendations, accessed online September, 2014 at: http://www.who.int/dietphysicalactivity/publications/trs916/en/gsfao_osteo.pdf

10.  Warensjo E, Byberg L, Melhus H, et al. Dietary calcium intake and risk of fracture and osteoporosis: prospective longitudinal cohort study. BMJ. 2011;342:d1473.

11.  Sonneville KR, Gordon CM, Kocher MS, Pierce LM, Ramappa A, Field AE. Vitamin D, Calcium, and Dairy Intakes and Stress Fractures Among Female Adolescents. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. Published ahead of print March 5, 2012.

3 Reasons Why Potatoes are Amazing for Your Health

My boyfriend's mother use to ask me "Trisha, what could possibly be in a potato?" (she saw me eat A LOT of potatoes).  I would reminise about Kathi asking me this question while I constantly ate potatoes while living in Finland... (they eat A LOT of potatoes in Finland and they easily became my number 1 (and favorite) source of sustenance here). She wondered, as many others do, are there any beneficial nutritional properties in potatoes?    

So to answer your question Kathi, today I share with you '3 Reasons Why Potatoes are Amazing for Your Health.'

1.  Potatoes contain over 20 different vitamins and minerals.

What!?  Really!?  Yes, according to the USDA's nutrient database system, potatoes contain (1) ...

• calcium
• magnesium
• phosphorous
• potassium
• sodium
• vitamin C
• folate
• choline

and trace amounts of...

• iron
• zinc
• copper
• manganese
• selenium
• thiamin
• riboflavin
• pantothenic acid
• vitamin B-6
• vitamin E
• vitamin K

And this list doesn't include the antioxidants (2) or phytonutrients in potatoes that have additional health effects.  Potatoes are much more than just starch as many people assume.  Potatoes also contain all of the essential amino acids (protein) our bodies need and also contain fiber.

2.  What potatoes don't contain also makes them amazing

Potatoes are naturally very low in fat.  Less than 1% of a potato's calories comes from fat.  This is great news as Dr. McDougall commonly says, "the fat you eat is the fat you wear."

Likewise, potatoes don't contain dietary cholesterol or trans fat.  Yee-ha!

3.  Potatoes can help you lose weight  

This is true depending on the rest of your dietary pattern as well as what you're eating on-top of your potato.

Potatoes are very filling foods in part because of their starch and fiber content, as well as being naturally low in calories.  This makes is possible to lose weight while eating to satisfaction on potatoes.  Your stomach will feel full, and tell your brain "hey, it's time to stop eating" even though you didn't eat a lot of calories.   

Additionally, when you avoid putting butter, sour cream or other traditional animal-based toppings on your potato, you spare your waist-line and arteries additional added fat and cholesterol.  Instead of these unhealthy toppings, choose black bean or veggie soup, hummus, salsa or mustard as a baked potato topping instead.  

Hopefully this is great news for you hear... potatoes are good for you!  Not to mention they're delicious and highly satisfying.  

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this article by answering the below Take Control Now question or commenting on any other thoughts you have.  Thanks for reading and please share this article with your friends and family.  

Take Control Now

What's your favorite plant-based way to eat potatoes?  

If you traditionally eat potatoes with butter or sour cream, what's 1 plant-based topping you'd still enjoy on a baked potato?

References

1.  USDA Nutrient Database System. Potato, baked, flesh, without salt.  Accessed online June 24, 2014 at: http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/3138?fg=&man=&lfacet=&count=&max=&qlookup=&offset=&sort=&format=Full&reportfmt=other&rptfrm=&ndbno=&nutrient1=&nutrient2=&nutrient3=&subset=&totCount=&measureby=&_action_show=Apply+Changes&Qv=1&Q6006=1&Q6007=1.0

2. Bontempo P, Carafa V, Grassi R, Basile A, Tenore GC, Formisano C, Rigano D, Altucci L. Antioxidant, antimicrobial and anti-proliferative activities of Solanum tuberosum L. var. Vitelotte. Food Chem Toxicol. 2013 May;55:304-12. 

5 Reasons Why Oil is NOT a Health Food

Oil is commonly marketed and advocated as a health food.  However, oil -- even olive oil, can really impede on your health goals.  I always avoid it as do leading health experts.  Here's five reasons why...

1. Oil is very low in nutritional value.

It has no minerals, no fiber, no protein, no carbohydrate and minimal vitamins.  However, it does have a heck of of a lot of calories and fat.

One tablespoon of olive oil is a hefty 120 calories.  Not only is it incredibly calorie dense, it also has 14g of fat in one tablespoon!  And 2g of that fat is saturated which we should avoid.  Olive oil does have trace amounts of vitamin E, vitamin K and phytosterols.  But so what!?  So do other whole foods, like the olives themselves!

For 120 calories of oil, I could eat 1.25 baked sweet potatoes.  I'd also get 0.2g of fat, 5g of fiber, actually feel like I ate something, get calcium, magnesium, Iron, phosphorous, potassium, vitamin C, B vitamins, folate, carotenoids, lycopene, vitamin A, vitamin E, vitamin K, all of the amino acids or protein and much more!

Looking at oil's nutritional profile, it really is nothing but pure liquid fat.

2.  Oil makes you fat.

It’s difficult for most people to lose weight or maintain a healthy weight when oil is a regular part of the diet.  Again, one tablespoon of oil is 120 calories.  I could eat 1.25 medium sweet potatoes for that may calories. 

But which of these foods is going to fill me up more?  The sweet potato of course. 

It has more bulk -- I’ll actually feel it sitting in my stomach; it has more fiber, which also helps us to feel full; and it’s full of nutrition that tells our nutrient receptors in our stomachs that we’ve gotten enough nutrition and it's time to stop eating.

Oil doesn’t do that.  It doesn’t make us feel full.  It just adds 100s of extra calories to your diet.  You’ll eat the same amount or quantity of food in a day whether there’s oil on it or not.  Or, you'll actually eat more because the fat makes it taste better.   

Oil is the most calorie dense food in the planet.  

3.  Oil damages your endothelial cells.

Our endothelial cells are a single layer of cells that line our blood vessels.  Our endothelial cells produce nitric oxide which helps our blood flow throughout our bodies. Oil damages those endothelial cells.  Thankfully, according to Dr. Esselstyn, the endothelial cells begin to heal themselves once you take the damaging foods out of the diet and start to eat a low-fat plant-based diet (1, 2).  Especially with lots of greens!

So start to get the meats, dairy, oils and refined foods out of your body!  Work on getting whole-grains, fruits, vegetables and legumes in your belly to start healing your artery walls ASAP!

4.  Heart disease has been reversed without oil. 

Dr. Esselstyn has successfully reversed severe heart disease with a low-fat, oil-free, plant-based diet.  Dr. Esselstyn eliminated all oils, meat, dairy, high-fat plant foods and refined foods in his patients.  In their place, he prescribed a diet of fruits, vegetables, whole-grains and legumes (3).

5.  Oils don't lower cholesterol.

This is only true if you replace saturated fats like butter and lard with unsaturated fats -- most vegetable oils.

However, if someone like me who doesn’t eat any oils, starts to do so, my cholesterol levels will increase.  

Likewise, if you were to stop eating saturated fats and vegetable oils, your cholesterol would decrease even quicker!  (especially if you're eating a whole foods, plant-based diet).

Take Control Now

How many times each day do you consume oil?  What is one way you can begin to cut oil out of your diet?

Sources: 1, 2, 3.