That's Fit

The gals on The View told yesterday that all this election stuff is making them eat. Watching the news, the debates, all the political commentary swirling around in the air -- it's making them nervous, anxious, downright hungry.

Sherri Shepherd says she was shoveling down Ruffles potato chips the other night while watching election television. Elisabeth Hasselbeck reports she's been eating mindlessly. And Joy Behar is eating her anxiety away. While these women are surely revved up politically -- have you seen their on-air disputes? Poor Hasselback, not one co-host agrees with the girl's conservative perspectives -- yet hearing their take on election-inspired eating was news to me. It makes sense -- I mean, watching TV is a known to promote snacking -- but I don't find myself eating all that much more.

Tell us: Are you eating your way through this election season? Do you fear politics will make you fat? If so, try cutting down on calories with these gallery snacks.

We all know the feeling -- our stomach is rumbling, our energy lags, all we can think about it food. Or do we? Truth be told, many of us don't know real hunger, at least according to this post on Diet Blog by Dr. Joel Fuhrman. Instead of feeling truly hungry, we experience what's called 'Toxic Hunger' -- withdrawl symptoms from the absence of food. What do we do about it? We eat, and we keep eating regularly so we can avoid feeling hungry.

But here's the thing: Hunger is good. It's your body's way of figuring out when you need to eat and how much you need to eat. Don't fear hunger, says Dr. Fuhrman -- allowing it to guide your eating habits can help you maintain a healthy weight. The only flaw that I can see in this idea is overeating when you're hungry -- stopping after you're no longer hungry is ideal.

All in all, though, I agree with this theory. What about you?

Comedian Margaret Cho has been out of the spotlight for a few years now, but she's back, and she's 40 lbs lighter to boot, after years of dieting. So which wonderful diet program finally worked for Cho? None.

Cho admits to People Magazine that she eventually lost weight by eating whatever she wants -- including ice cream, chips, fries and pizza. But she did follow two rules: Eat only when hungry, and stick to small dinners, meaning breakfast and lunch are the big meals of the day. Says Cho: "When I was on crazy diets, I'd gain weight because I would binge on diet food! I learned that any restriction on the kind of food I was eating was going to be problem. By saying I can eat whatever I want, I don't crave it as much."

You know, eating junk food when you're trying to lose weight sounds kind of crazy, but I really think she has a point here. Your thoughts?

The other day I told you how key it is to feed your body after exercise and suggested you eat these three post-workout power foods. As good timing would have it, just after sharing my message, I received an e-mail from my local fitness center. The topic? The importance of post-workout fuel.

It may seen counterproductive to eat after a workout, said the e-mail. I mean, we work so hard to burn all those calories, so why put more back in so quickly? Well, because an after-workout snack provides vital nutrients the body needs for muscle and cell repair. Eating after exercise also keeps us from feeling ravenously hungry a few hours later.

So, here's the deal: Aim to eat 15 to 30 minutes after the end of a workout. This is the period of time in which the body seems to get the most benefit from ingesting carbs and protein. Try yogurt, a fruit smoothie, or a protein shake and you'll feel energized and revived -- not sleepy and sluggish.

Got a favorite premium food you put in your tank? Tell us what it is.

This morning, my kids asked for cinnamon toast. So I made it for them. I used whole wheat bread, light butter with Canola oil, and a few sprinkles of McCormick's cinnamon sugar. My kids gobbled it down, which makes me happy for whole wheat purposes. My husband tends to think the rest of the equation -- the butter and cinnamon sugar -- is crap. I argued with him a bit, not trying to convince him butter and cinnamon sugar are good for our kids, just to let him know that our kids eat pretty darn healthy most days and there are far worse foods they could have ingested, with far more crap packed into them. Then I questioned myself. Then I did some research.

Hungry Girl says in one of her Chew the Right Thing posts that cinnamon sugar is something we ought to fight, not bite. Now she's speaking mostly to us grown-up calorie-counting folks and not to the kids of the world, but here's what she says: "McCormick's Cinnamon Sugar has only 15 calories per teaspoon. So why are we telling you to 'fight it!'? Well, we just don't see why anyone should waste any calories at all on this sweet spice when there is a just-as-good no-cal version available. After all, when you're watching your weight, every single calorie counts. Fifteen calories here, 30 there, another 40 here ... it can all add up." HG doesn't mention sugar in her opinion but clearly, there's sugar in cinnamon sugar.

So what does the Hungry Girl suggest? San Sucre Cinnamon Sugar. It uses Splenda and makes a great sugarless cinnamon sugar blend, she says. No calories in this goodie either. HG's final piece of advice: "Cinnamon helps keep blood sugar levels low, so sprinkle away!"

She's not a nutritionist. She's just hungry. And because she loves food, Lisa Lillien learns about it, reads about it, researches it, and dreams about it. When you have a few free moments, check out this average girl, struggling with food issues like everyone else, on her very own website. In the meantime, here's a little something she's put together for the hungry folks of the world -- a list of her top ATE calorie-saving cooking swaps.

• Nonstick cooking spray instead of oil for stove top cooking
• Canned pumpkin instead of eggs and oil for baking
• Light vanilla soy milk instead of milk or cream
• Fat-free liquid eggs instead of eggs
• No-sugar-added applesauce instead of butter
• Ground beef style soy crumbles instead of ground beef
• Splenda No Calorie Sweetener (granular) instead of sugar
• Butternut squash instead of potatoes
  
  

This hungry girl also has a book -- Hungry Girl: Recipes and Survival Strategies for Guilt-Free Eating in the Real World -- which is available in stores now.

Trying to take off the pounds? I have a trick that's worked well for me and several of my friends: Drink up. I'm not talking about calorie-laden drinks like soda, cocktails or juices. Rather, you should fill up on healthy, low-calorie liquids. We're talking water, tea, vegetable juice, soup, even diet soda and juice from time to time.

You see, sometimes when we think we're hungry, we're mostly just thirsty, and having a tall glass of water can curb your hunger and keep you from binging on junk food. So try this: Next time you feel hungry and find yourself craving something unhealthy, either chug a low-calorie drink or have a small bowl of soup. Wait 20 minutes, and if you're still hungry, have something nutritious to eat.

Fitzness Fiends is a section devoted to you, the reader! We all have learned so much on our path to becoming more fit, and now it's time to learn from and inspire each other! Fitzness Fiends are constantly working to better themselves. Some are perfect, some are not. All have health on the mind. Please send Fitz your answers to these questions with a photo of yourself. Time for you to be the motivator!

Name: Alexandra Harris

Age: 51

Occupation: Life Coach

How often do you exercise? I eat seven days a week, and I exercise seven days a week!

What type of exercise do you do? Power walking, light weight training (for muscle tone), and yoga (for balance, flexibility, and occasionally turning my organs upside down). I think there's something really healthy about moving your organs around!

God created appetites as a way to make sure we wouldn't forget to eat and starve to death, but somehow over the years it's turned into almost the opposite -- instead of helping us live our appetites are contributing to one of the biggest killers of our generation: obesity.

Although many work to retrain appetites and are successful, many people (me included) fight it on a pretty much daily basis -- I'm not so much training myself not to be hungry for certain things as I'm training myself to recognize when that hunger is legitimate and when it's not.

But sometimes it gets the better of me.

Here's something Sarah Jessica Parker recently said at an interview:

"Forgive me for eating potato chips in front of you, but I'm hungry. I'm always hungry. My metabolism just marches through everything."

You know, I can relate. I love food so much that I think sometimes that I could eat all day without taking a breath, but of course, I don't. What I can't relate to is having that kind of metabolism--the kind of metabolism that lets you eat potato chips at will without gaining the dreaded love handles. It kind of makes you want to hate her, huh?

Ok, so we're not all blessed with fabulous metabolisms, but all we can do it make the best f what we've got, right? And, there are things we can do to change how our body burns off calories and fat. Check out these excellent tips:

• Muscle Up, Metabolism Up
• 11 tip to help jumpstart your metabolism
• Eat more to lose more

Hungry all the time? Did you ever stop to think that you might not be getting enough water? I know what you're thinking -- that a glass of water isn't going to fill you up. But you know what? You'd be surprised.

It's a fact that many people don't get enough water in a day, and they mistake their thirst for hunger. So, want an easy way to shed a few pounds? Drink your water. Eight 8-oz glasses a day, to be precise. I bet you won't be as hungry. And the next time you feel a hunger pang, drink a glass of water, wait 10 minutes, and decide if you still feel ravenous.

Do you wake up hungry most mornings? I do -- I'm starving before I even hit the shower. I don't eat much a night and as a result, I need a filling breakfast to keep my energy up throughout the day. But so many people don't wake up hungry and they skip breakfast as a result. We all know this is one of the worst things you can do for your health, so here are some tips on how to regulate your body's hunger to follow a more sensible pattern:

• Eat a light dinner -- maybe some fish and veggies, a salad or even just a bowl of soup.
  
• Stop eating at least 3 hours before you go to bed. If you're craving something, sip on some herbal tea instead of reaching for the cookies.
  
• Get in the habit of eating breakfast. Even if you aren't hungry when you wake up, have something small to kick-start your metabolism.

I'm flipping through the October 1, 2007 issue of Family Circle magazine -- yes, I'm a month behind -- and I keep stumbling upon diet and exercise tips that are really quite interesting. Seems only fair I'd share with you these random tidbits about dogs, sleep, and food cravings. So here goes:

• Walking your dog for 20 minutes five times per week for one year led to an average weight loss of 14 pounds for those who were part of a recent study. If you don't have your own pooch, consider volunteering to walk dogs at a local animal shelter.

• If you skimp on your sleep, you're more likely to eat fast food. Why? Probably because feeling tired makes cooking a healthy dinner seem like a lot of hard work. Swinging through the drive-through or plopping down in that booth at McDonald's is so much easier.

I'm a good eater most of the day ... until about 3pm, that is. That's when a mid-afternoon energy slump leaves me feeling out of sorts and hungry for anything that is remotely bad for me. But here's a trick that I learned from Shape Magazine: If you work out two to three hours after you eat, you can curb your appetite and actually feel full for longer -- perhaps until dinner time?

This isn't always possible if you work in an office, but in lieu of a workout, how about a quick stroll around the block? It will wake you better than a coffee will, and it will keep you refreshed as you finish out the day.

Do you know the difference between overeating and bingeing? I think the line is a bit blurry -- is having 2 or 3 helpings of dinner even though you're not hungry considered bingeing? How about filling your large plate to maximum capacity at the all-you-can-eat Indian buffet? I'm inclined to say that neither of these are cases of bingeing simply because they're not emotionally-driven (at least for me they're not); instead, I think they're instances of our eyes being too big for our stomachs, or of our desire to receive the taste and satisfaction of eating something tasty, ignoring the impending guilt that is sure to come.

The Centre for Emotional Well-being looked into this same question and concluded that binge eating has any three of the following qualities:

1. Eating faster than normal
2. Feeling unable to control your eating
   
3. Eating until feeling uncomfortably full
4. Eating large amounts of food when you are not physically hungry
5. Eating alone or hiding eating to avoid embarrassment
6. Feeling ashamed, disgusted, depressed, distressed or guilty about overeating.

To find out more, or if you think you may be a binge eater, read the full article.