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My friend Shannon is a few weeks into her remodeling project. She is seeing some nice results of her efforts. At the same time, she is finding that the road to success can be bumpy. But she is making some good decisions that will help her succeed in the long run

The good news:  

Shannon says, “I have definitely noticed an improvement in my body.  I lost an inch in my waist and 3/4 of an inch on my hips, yay! My pants are looser and I can actually see a little bit of weight loss in my stomach, which gives me the drive I need to keep going.”

This is exactly what Shannon needs right now. Many people who make big changes to their diet and exercise find that it is relatively easy stay motivated for the first few weeks. But after that, the newness of the project wears off and “real life” creeps back in, so it becomes more difficult to make time for exercise, shop for and prepare healthy meals, and make difficult choices. But the fact that she not only feels better but has evidence that her efforts are paying off is the best motivation!

How strict does your diet need to be? Do you need to take the approach of my colleague and limit your self to a small assortment of foods, making eating out very difficult? Or can you get away with more flexibility? This is the topic of my Health & Fitness column in the Aiken Standard this week.

To be sure, the more carefully you plan and follow your diet, the bigger results you will see. This is true if you are trying to lose weight, lower your cholesterol or blood pressure, or control your blood glucose. Research suggests that the stricter your diet (and exercise—don’t forget about exercise!) the greater benefits you will see.

But do you have to be perfect? Probably not. There really isn’t any evidence to suggest how flexible you can be with your diet and still see the same results, but several people I consider to be experts in this area suggest an 80/20 approach. If you follow your diet and exercise plan faithfully 80% of the time, you can get away with “cheating” 20% of the time.

I think this is true, and people I have seen be successful with lifestyle changes seem to follow this recommendation. You don’t have to be perfect, but you do have to be good most of the time.

If the majority of your diet consists of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat protein sources, you can get away with a burger, fries, and a milkshake every once in a while. You probably have more leeway with your diet if you exercise regularly, too.

In other words, all things in moderation, but some things in more moderation than others!

I saw an ad for Burger King the other day showing their new turkey burger. This is good, since turkey burgers are supposed to be healthy, right?

The ad also featured their new Loaded Tater Tots, which are stuffed with bacon and sweet onions. The impression was that you could get a meal consisting of the turkey burger, loaded tater tots, and a drink.

Since I am skeptical about pretty much everything, I wondered if this meal was any better than ordering a Whopper, fries, and drink. So I checked it out.

Actually, I asked one of my students, Amanda, to do it. She recently made the mistake of telling me that she was interested in learning more about nutrition and might like to do a research project with me next year. So naturally, I gave her this assignment. Here is what she found:

Turkey burger with medium loaded tater tots (10 pieces)

Whopper with medium fries

Looking at total calories, grams of fat and saturated fat, and sugar these two meals are virtually identical. The turkey burger alone is lower in calories (100 fewer), fat (9 g), and saturated fat (5 g) than the Whopper, but the loaded tots make up for the difference. And the turkey burger is higher in sodium than the Whopper (1210 mg vs. 980 mg).

Let’s say you are going to Burger King for lunch and you are hungry for a burger and fries. The turkey burger isn’t really the healthiest choice. But there is an option that isn’t quite so bad…a Whopper Jr. with small fries:

Whopper Jr. with small fries

It’s not the healthiest lunch, but it is about 40% fewer calories and almost half the saturated fat of the other options.

Of course, you could skip the burger and order a salad. But be honest, if you really wanted a salad you wouldn’t be considering Burger King, right?

My friend Shannon is doing a little remodeling. Since she knows that I am involved with weight loss and exercise in my teaching and professional life, she has been sharing her thoughts and progress on her diet and exercise program. Like this recent update she sent to me:

To wrap up  National Nutrition Month,  I finished my series about the major nutrients in my Health & Fitness column in the Aiken Standard. This week I wrote about protein.

In my experience, people tend to worry more about their protein intake than they really need to, especially athletes. The typical adult gets more protein than they actually require. This is true for most athletes, too. You can get general information about protein, including dietary requirements, here.

You can learn more about nutrition for athletic performance from the American College of Sports Medicine here and about protein specifically in this article in Physician and Sportsmedicine. These are both pretty scientific, but you can find good, low-sci information here.

Vegetarian and vegan diets are becoming more popular. The restrictive nature of vegan diets, in particular, is associated with both health benefits and potential health concerns. However, through careful meal planning, both vegetarian and vegan diets are healthy, even for athletes.

My friend Shannon  recently started an ambitious diet and exercise program. She has been talking to me about her progress and I thought that her experience making these behavior changes was worth sharing. In fact, her experience is similar to that of almost everyone who tries to make these changes and she has some helpful thoughts about the progress. She agreed to let me share her thoughts and experiences in this blog (anonymously, since Shannon is not her real name).

Shannon is in her 30s and has two children. Like many women in this situation, she realized that she had not been focusing on her health in recent years. While she doesn’t need to lose a lot of weight, she does want to improve her diet and get fit. Her main goal is to feel better about herself by doing what I call remodeling—not really losing much weight, but shedding fat and building muscle.

She is following the Insanity  exercise and nutrition program. Since this is an intense exercise program, she was smart and started off by not pushing herself too much by doing parts of the workouts and taking a few rest days early on. Over time she has been able to increase the amount she does. This was a big adjustment for Shannon. Before she began, she was active throughout the day but did not dedicate time to exercise. Now she is doing 45–60 minutes most days of the week.

Her diet has changed, too. She is eating more fruits and vegetables, drinking water instead of soda (Dr. Pepper is her favorite), and eating out less, especially fast food. This hasn’t been easy, especially because of how convenient restaurant meals were for her family. But she has learned to make smarter choices when eating out and has found that eating a healthy snack before she goes out can help her avoid overeating at a restaurant. But mostly, she misses the Dr. Pepper since she cut back to one can per day (but sometimes goes without).

So, as Shannon shares stories about her progress with me, I will share them here.