I see many of my health conscious clients that know how high-quality whole foods are key to successful weight loss. But they often don’t realize that how much they are eating is even more important and often will contribute to lack of weight loss success. They overdo it on the healthy foods that they think almost don’t count.
I help my clients to understand what are the actual portion sizes of foods and how they have been kidding themselves.
Here are some of the foods that people always overdo it with in their meals.
AVOCADO
Yes, avocado toast is popular and often I see people going to Sunrise Bistro in Walnut Creek, CA or Main Street Café in Danville, CA where they serve an entire avocado with 2 slices of toast. They are heart healthy and have monounsaturated fats but are 250 calories each for a medium one. Please slice an avocado in quarters and add to your meal.
FROZEN YOGURT
When looking at a container you will see that a portion size is ½ cup and easily we scoop ourselves 1 cup or double the calories. Frozen yogurt can have as much sugar and fat as ice cream.
When my clients go to Yogurtland in Walnut Creek, CA or The Pressed Juicery in Danville,CA there are no food labels to tell you the calories. The servings are over the top large and people
do not realize how many calories they are consuming. The medium is about 500 calories and the large is about 800 calories on the average.
SMOOTHIES
Smoothies are filled with calories when you add up all the ingredients whether it be yogurt, almond milk, honey, berries, nut butters, chia seeds, and protein powders. I find they do not fill you up enough and soon you are hungry again.
GRANOLA
I see people somehow thinking a serving of granola is like cereal ½ cup to 1 cup serving size. The serving is 1/4- 1/3 cup. They will take a bowl of granola and mix with yogurt when it should be yogurt with sprinkling of granola. Granola is very concentrated in calories particularly sugar from honey added and dried fruits.
OLIVE OIL
I see people use olive oil or other oils liberally on their salads and have no idea that a Tablespoon is 100 calories. Yes, we could be adding to our salads an extra 300 calories without realizing it. Also, when you are sautéing in oil also we need to take into account how much oil that food absorbs. Please use measuring spoons to keep in check how much oil you are using.
I hope that my bringing to light some of the areas I find that clients in my daily encounter miss will be helpful to you on your weight loss journey.
Please feel free to call me at (925) 855-0150 or email me at Lifeweight1@yahoo.com about your nutrition concerns. Look at my website Linda-rd.com for a listing of insurance companies I am contracted with such as Aetna, Sutter, Blue Cross, ABMG, Hill, Health Net and others.