Simple tips for how to eat right and shed those holiday pounds

After the gluttony of the holidayss, many folks, athletes and non-athletes alike, are looking  for ways to improve their eating habits. But there can be a lot of contradicting information out there about what is best and how you really should eat. 

Avoid caffeine! Caffeine is good for you! 

Carbs are bad! Carbs are good!

Protein is good! Avoid high levels of protein! 

It's a wonder we can make choices day in and day out and stay healthy! But what's the real deal here with regard to nutrition? Let's go over a few key points that apply to everyone - whether they exercise or not.

First of all, this is the key -- the bottom line and the most important thing. The quality of the food you eat dictates your body's ability to find stasis in both health and weight. In other words, how healthy that food is creates the health and weight you have. 

The more processed something is, the more there is question as to its nutritional value. The bulk of your diet should be purchased from the periphery of the grocery store - fruit, vegetables, meat/poultry/fish, dairy, grains. The internal aisles should be the smaller portion of what is in your cart as these are usually the processed foods. Each and every meal and snack should shoot to include a lean protein at the center and should be accompanied by non-processed carbohydrate, or minimally processed carbohydrate. 

Lean proteins include lean meats, white poultry, legumes, nuts, low fat dairy, and yes, whole grains are included here. Non-processed carbs include fruit, vegetables and whole grains.  

Create meals and snacks that follow these guidelines and your body will thank you. It recognizes and properly digests natural foods. Processed foods are a bit of a mystery. They often don't contain the proper balance of nutrients, so the body passes them or stores them in fat, especially if they are high in saturated fat, sugar or white flour.

What are examples of this model for each meal? For breakfast, oatmeal with a bit of brown or "raw" sugar, cinnamon and a splash of low fat milk is great. It provides you protein and fiber - both which are longer burning fuels and allow you to stay fuller longer. Couple this with a piece of fruit and a multivitamin and you are good to go. 

And yes, a cup or two of coffee for the average person is just fine. Don't add a large amount of processed creamer and a ton of sugar, or you have moved this morning beverage into the dessert category. A touch of milk or half and half (yes, that is ok as long as you keep the portion reasonable) and a bit of raw sugar is fine.

Eggs are another option. They get a bad rap for being high in cholesterol, but in truth if you eat them as a part of a balanced diet and don't overdo it, with 4.5 grams of cholesterol and a good deal of protein per egg, they make a fine early day option. Add some fruit and a piece of whole grain toast and you are good to go. Put the eggs on the whole grain bread with a slice of low fat cheese. Satisfying and tasty.

Breakfast cereal is often a culprit in a poor diet. Listed serving sizes are small, usually half of what the normal sized person eats, and therefore you should double the amounts listed on the nutritional label. They can be high in sugar and simple carbohydrate and low in protein and fiber. Find a cereal that has between 7 grams and 10 grams of protein and 4 or more grams of fiber per serving. There should also be 35 grams of carbohydrate or less and 8 grams of sugar or less per serving.

If there is a cereal you like that is a bit borderline and other you don't like as much but follow the guidelines more closely, mix them, so you get the nutritional benefit of one and the treat of the taste of the other. Become a label reader. It is very important to know what a serving size of a product is and how much fat (saturated and trans fats), fiber, carbohydrates, sugar, vitamins and minerals something has. Educate yourself about what you eat by becoming a voracious label reader. It will often change your habits when you see what is really in the food you are eating.

Lunch. Salads are fine but watch dressings and high fat add-ins. Many dressings are 15+ grams of fat per 2 tablespoons. Find a good, light dressing. The entire "Light" line of Newman's Salad Dressings is dynamite. Tastes great and is much lower in fat. Don't wreck your salad's virtue by adding gobs of things like blue cheese, high fat meats and tortilla chips. Keep salads to lean meats, low fat cheeses, colorful vegetables and dark, leafy greens. Top it off with a light dressing and don't drown the salad.

Sandwiches are a fave of mine. Lean meats, low fat cheese, any type of mustard, and whole grain bread or rolls are great. I also add a serving of veggies to my sandwiches by cutting up thin slices of cucumber, tomato and avocado and using spinach instead of lettuce. I will also add some hummus as a "dressing" to the bread. It tastes great and gives you a solid balance of protein and carbohydrates. Have some baked chips if you need to, a piece of fruit and flavored seltzer and you have a great lunch.

Dinner has a lot of flexibility. Just follow the lean protein, non-processed carb rule here, and there are tons of things you make for dinner. A piece of chicken, fish or beef prepared in a health way, with a side of a nice vegetable of your choice and some kind of grain or starch, like a sweet potato or brown rice, couscous, or a whole grain bread. Clients keep asking me to put together a cookbook and I may try to do that. Also, pasta can stay in as long as you find a pasta that follows our guidelines. Barilla makes something called Barilla Plus. It comes in a yellow box. It tastes very close to semolina pasta but is made with lentil flour so it has higher protein and fiber and less carbs than a conventional semolina. My nonna would approve. 

Eating well and healthy should not be a prison sentence. You don't need to eat rice cakes and dry salads to get and maintain a healthy weight. You should enjoy the food you eat and frankly, good food tastes good. We'll cover some additional elements that impact our weight and our eating habits next week. Feel free to send me any questions you'd like answered at lmtaxihat@aol.com