Nutrition Trick: Measure Everything

Thursday, October 30, 2008

With the exception of an occasional holiday – I stuffed myself (almost) shamelessly a couple of weekends ago due to it being the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend – I tend to be very conscious of portion sizes and nutritional intake. Caloric estimations are not too terribly difficult for me, as I often check calorie content and portion sizes. Every now and then I will use measuring cups to monitor all my servings so that I can refresh my memory as to what one cup of cooked pasta or tomato sauce looks like. Having a stash of scoop style measuring cups and spoons on hand is an extremely valuable tool. After all, do you actually know what one tablespoon of smooth peanut butter actually looks like well enough to estimate it when digging in the jar with your knife? Measure it each time for a few weeks and you’ll figure it out.

There are a number of foods that are very easy to overdo if you don’t know what a single serving consists of and what that serving looks like when you plate it. Topping my personal list of things-that-are-easy-to-eat-too-much-of are:

1) Juice. Good, healthy, high-in-calorie 100% juice. I love orange juice, but a single serving. Bolthouse Farms 100% orange juice is 110 calories per 8 ounce serving. Many people will down two cups of OJ in a single sitting, bringing in their energy consumption in at around 200 cals. Adding to the problem is that because juice lacks all of the meaty bits of the original fruit, we don’t feel nearly as full when we consume it. So we would drink more calories in fruit juice than we would consume eating the whole fruit in order to feel the same level of ‘fullness’. And of course, with juice you don’t benefit from the fibre content in the whole fruit nor from the huge amount of nutrition you get from many fruit peels (such as apple, grape, orange pith, etc).

2) Pasta. A serving of pasta is approximately on cup cooked. Restaurant portions are usually closer to two cups. Most people will pile on far more than one cup on their plate. Many will squawk that one cup would be way too little, without knowing what one cup of spaghetti looks like. I know that I used to think that before I started measuring anything. Yesterday, I measured out one cup of cooked spaghetti just to be sure that my portioning is still within guidelines, and I happily discovered that the measured cup of cooked spaghetti was actually more than I’ll often allow.

3) Cereal. This is a big one. When was the last time you actually read the nutritional content on the side of the box and looked at what is considered to be one serving? Do you know how much a serving of Cheerios is, compared to a serving of Raisin Bran, muesli, or granola cereal? Do you know the caloric differences between them? One serving of Honey Nut Cheerios is 3/4 cup and contains 110 calories, versus a serving of granola cereal like Harvest Crunch, which is 2/3 cup and contains 220 calories. Now how much cereal do you normally dump into your bowl? Many people will pour in as much as it would take to nearly fill the bowl, way overshooting the actual portion size as labelled on the box. Crack out those measuring cups and scoop your cereal out that way instead - you might find that you normally eat a bit more or a bit less than the recommended serving size, but with the measuring cups you can at least track what you are eating with some degree of accuracy.



As an extra note, yes I am fallible when it comes to eating. Earlier this week, I went out for lunch with a former professor of mine and made the mistake of not only scarfing down a considerable amount of food at the buffet, but also a full piece of pumpkin pie and slice of cheesecake. This is not normal for me, and my gut informed me of its ire via a bout of indigestion that lasted until the following morning.

Basically eating

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

The following food-oriented posts come courtesy of Canadian Thanksgiving, which was this past weekend. Viva the full turkey dinner! Viva mashed spuds and gravey! Viva the indigestion coming from my gut, which is unaccustomed to so much fat and starch at once and has been punishing me for the past few days!

I firmly believe that healthy eating is easy, quick, enjoyable, and creative. This isn’t to say that I don’t enjoy my junk food – I love baking and never blush at the caffeine or sugar content in my morning coffee. Overall I maintain a healthy, balanced diet; perhaps it is a little too low in calories and protein from time to time, but that is something I’ll be working on. In general, though, my diet is pretty darn clean. Healthy eating habits are easy, once you’ve got some basic guidelines and nutrition ideas to work with. Everyone knows that picking up an apple is a heck of a lot healthier than picking up a store-bought muffin, but having a more utilitarian understanding of basic nutrition does help us keep a more steady eye on our healthy eating targets. Happily, there are plenty of resources out there that can help people understand basic food and nutrition facts.

While not everyone likes government-issue food guides, the Canada Food Guide does a damn good job of hitting the basics. The website has information on what constitutes a portion size, general estimates for how many calories a day you should be aiming for (very general estimates, but still useful), tips on eating well and building good habits, and so on.

Recently, I’ve also become a fan of the Dietitians of Canada website as a source for solid, consumer-friendly nutrition info. Much of the information provided is very basic and sometimes even a little juvenile, but I believe that is a good thing. Considering the average person’s distorted ideas of the complexities of healthy eating, having a solid and reliable resource such as this one helps show how very, very easy it is to make healthy eating a normal and habitual event.

The UK's Food Standards Agency has a good healthy eating website called Eat Well. The site features an interesting Food For Sport section that has a fair selection of reasonable, clear-cut, non-complicated info about how to eat for an active lifestyle. I'd recommend plowing through the whole website, though, as there's plenty of info to be had here.

If you've come across some particularly good and straightforward resources on basic and healthy diets, please pass them on to me.

Physiology of a chest lift

Thursday, October 9, 2008

A big thanks to Lauren (not me, a different Lauren!) from the Bhuz forums for the great discussion about this very topic, which was what prompted this post to begin with!

Chest lifts involve a series of muscular engagements that seem entirely too tricky for the simple movements they create. I’ve seen a number of posts on a number of belly dance forums requesting advice on how to master chest lifts without relying excessively on actively inflating and deflating the lungs to achieve the move. Not only does inflating/deflating the lungs not give the most desirable effect, it can also result in the dainty dancer hyperventilating and passing out. That, needless to say, is NOT what we want!

One of the more common descriptions of the chest lift movement is to "push" the chest up using the upper abdominals. As discussed in the last post, this is impossible; muscles do not push. While we certainly want to maintain an engaged core in order to keep correct posture, attempting to push with the abdominals could actually result in a more strained chest lift What will happen when you engage your abs to "push" the chest is that the abs will contract, thereby making the muscles that are actually involved have to work harder to overcome the resistance of the rectus abdominis (the sheet of muscle that everyone wants to be a six-pack, a.k.a. "abs"). Let those abs relax, staying nice and supple to allow freedom of movement. The muscles at the front and bottom of your rib cage are similarly not going to be doing any of the work, so try to relax them as well.

So what muscles are we using to lift the chest? Here’s the best list of major muscle players that I can compile, along with sources. I’ll try to keep the list running from the most involved to the least involved muscles. Again, don’t quote me on this! This is what I can figure out from the resources available, and I could very well be wrong on one or more counts!

Serratus Posterior (superior and inferior): these muscles attach from the back end of the rib (near the spine) to the vertebrae above it. The contract upwards towards the vertebrae, causing the rib cage to lift and thus aiding in inspiration, and of course, chest lifts.

Levatores Costarum: assists in raising/elevating the rib cage. They join the spine-end of each rib to the vertebrae above it and contract upwards.

External Intercostal Muscles: elevate the ribs, expands the rib cage outwards. These muscles help with normal and forced inhalation.

Sternocleidomastoid: flexes the neck, raises the sternum and assists in forced inspiration. It was also my favourite muscle when I was studying anatomy, purely because I like how its name sounds when said aloud. While these muscles do help lift the sternum, try to keep them as relaxed as possible, otherwise they flare like crazy at the front of your neck. The effect less "bellydancer" and more "bodybuilder hefting a loaded bar for a biceps curl."*


If you've got more info on specific muscles engaged in chest lifts, please drop me a line. But please also send me a resource verifying the info, otherwise I'll have to dig that info myself!

More resources

List of Muscles of the Human Body. Yes, I know that it’s a Wikipedia entry and as an academic librarian type I should be cautious about referencing it, but the editor of their anatomy articles has very solid credentials and the info provided here is consistent with my print resources. Plus, that list of muscles is a fantastic resource.

Get Body Smart: Muscular system. This is a good interactive website with clickable muscle layers. Play around a bit on this site, it’s well worth the time.



* I've got a problem keeping the sternocleidomastoids relaxed. Mine are well developed and unusually agile for such a well-fastened muscle. Keeping them relaxed takes a lot of concentration.

Fitness Facts: Muscles can't push

Monday, October 6, 2008

This is a basic physiology lesson for all of you out there who are wondering what muscles to use for which moves. The principles outlined here will is useful for weightlifting, running, walking, yoga, cycling, martial arts…any kind of fitness pursuit, any kind of movement. Of course, the info here will be extremely useful for belly dancers.

Here is the lesson, summed up in three words: muscles cannot push.

Muscles are comprised of a large number of fibres whose job it is to contract. Contraction = pulling. Muscles pull. This contracting/pulling action has more than one purpose; in terms of muscular physiology, the term 'contraction' refers to the creation of tension in the muscle fibres, and that tension can be used to achieve different ends. When you are lifting something heavy, the muscles doing the work are shortening (contracting) to generate power. When you are lowering something slowly, your muscles are contracting in order to resist lengthening, thereby controlling how quickly they stretch. When your muscles are generating force to keep something in place, they contract and then hold that contraction to keep it constant.

There are three different kinds of muscle contractions, where the muscle is actually working:

Concentric contraction – muscle actively shortening - this is the muscle contraction that is usually occurring when people are thinking about muscles working. The fibres of the muscle are actively contracting so that they shorten, generating the sort of power required to lift a weight, or to flex your bicep (ooh la la).

Eccentric contraction – muscle actively lengthening - this muscle contraction isn’t used to lift or hoist, but instead to control movement and resist lengthening. The muscle fibres are engaged in order to control the speed and rate at which they are lengthening, resisting the outside force (it could be as gentle as gravity or as violent as gravity plus 40 pounds of groceries) acting on it. Grab something heavy and lower it in the most controlled manner possible – that’s an eccentric contraction. The muscle fibres are still contracting, in order to control the rate at which they release and relax.

Isometric contraction – muscle actively held at a fixed length - the purpose of this contraction is to maintain a constant force in the muscle to hold something in place. If you are holding a dumbbell straight out in front of you, your muscles have contracted with tension that allows neither lengthening (eccentric contraction) nor shortening (concentric contraction). Spending some time holding the plank position gives a great lesson on the strength and importance of isometric contractions.

The above information came primarily from this website, which has great info on the workings of muscles:

Muscle Physiology Home Page: Types of Contractions

Another fun site with interactive, animated info about how muscles work on a cellular level is Thomson Brooks/Cole study resources: Muscle Contraction

I was hesitant to post the following article because of the taint of unreliability that Wikipedia has acquired, but it is a good, solid explanation of muscle contraction and is consistent with the information in my print resources:
Muscle Contraction.

This sort of info is extremely useful to have on hand. I find that having a basic understanding of how muscles function, and which ones would be contracting and relaxing during a given move make moves easier to understand and execute. It doesn’t mean that I execute them correctly, of course, just that I get what they are in theory and hope that eventually my limbs will agree with my brain.

Good idea: Freeweights and tubing

While perusing my usual morning watered-down-news-and-trashy-info website (also known as msn.ca), I came across a very interesting article about freeweight use. The article suggests using exercise tubing – also known as medical tubing – to enhance strength workouts that use dumbbells. How so? Simply by tying one end of the tubing to the dumbbell and the other end to something heavy and sturdy near the floor, like a couch leg.

What the tubing does is not only create additional resistance, but also create a line of tension and imbalance which you need to work against. In order to keep the dumbbell moving in a straight and smooth line, you need to engage a whole lot of muscles including deep stabilizers that you otherwise would not be working (or not working as hard). The end result is a harder workout that will tone more muscles. The full article and instructions is here:
Twice the Workout, Half the Time

I will definitely be giving this a try. It sounds like a sensible sort of twist on my usual strength training, and certainly will not require any extra time or effort on my part. What I also like about it is that it’s cheap, both in terms of money and time. As I’ve said many times, I dislike spending money on equipment and membership fees, and will rarely drop a dime on exercise outside of dance classes and the occasional practice DVD. I also dislike the cost in time that it takes to commute to gyms to use their equipment. But I do believe that a good pair or set of dumbbells is an excellent and cost-effective addition to any fitness budget. I use mine all the time, and they need not be fancy or expensive. And the tubing is incredibly inexpensive! The article suggests purchasing tubing from j/Fit fitness product supplier. Their tubes (with or without handles) are certainly inexpensive, but for even cheaper tubing without shipping cost, just trot down to a medical supply store and get a length of stretchy surgical or rehab tubing. I got some a few years ago when I was in physio for wonky shoulders, and it cost me something like $2 for a good two meters. I just tied loops on either end for handles, and it works exactly the same as those pricier fitness tubes and handles.

Body composition tests - measuring the fat

Friday, October 3, 2008

The results are in! I took my urine-filled jugs and 12-hour fasted self to the nutrition lab, laid under the DEXA x-ray machine for five minutes, and got to see a shiny print-out of my body composition.

The verdict is that I am 23% fat. If I recall correctly, the chart I looked at after my scan stated that the average Canadian woman is about 32% (don’t quote me on that – I don’t have the print out in front of me, and I won’t get my copies until they give me the results package in a week or so, which will include the analysis by a qualified nutritionist). According to the Body Composition Clinic, who also uses DEXA scans to measure body composition, this puts me in the “fitness” category of body types. Their classification table is:

Classification
Athletes - Women: 14-20%, Men: 5-13%
Fitness - Women: 21-24%, Men: 14-17%
Acceptable - Women: 25-31%, Men: 18-25%
Obese - Women: 32%+, Men: 26%+

The Body Composition Clinic also gives a good description of necessary and storage body fat, DEXA scans, and why body fat is important. Browsing their information is highly recommended.
The body composition study folks also weighed and measured me, and at just under 5’9” and exactly 134 pounds, I think that I could stand to put on a few pounds of lean muscle. As I work out quite a bit and include strength training along with my dance and cardio, I believe the next steps to take are to add a few more calories of protein to my diet. 134 is a bit on the skinny side, but I don’t want to gain weight in fat and after doing a double take at my diet diary, I realized that it was pretty damn meager. It could be that by averaging 1,800 calories a day and going through my various workouts and generally active lifestyle, I’m not feeding my muscles enough to allow them to build up more lean tissue.

But that is a topic for another day. Namely, that is a topic that will be addressed when I get my results back and receive the promised info from the body composition study’s nutritionist! When I get the results back, I’ll also go deeper into reporting the actual results chart. It should be quite interesting!

Body composition tests - collecting data

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Today is an interesting day in my quest for healthy living!

As several of my cronies know, I am a sucker for participating in medical studies. I’ve been a healthy control subject for a PMS study, I’ve had my brain photographed with MRI scanners for a variety of reasons, I’ve given blood samples, and I’ve carried out psychological tests. I find these studies quite fun and interesting. It is a way to donate some of my time and capabilities (being a relatively healthy person) to good scientific and educational causes. As a very welcome bonus, I often receive procedures or information that would otherwise be very expensive to obtain, and I often get paid for my troubles!*

The study I’m participating in right now is of particular interest because it is to improve ways to measure body composition. The oncologists at our local cancer institute are hoping that they can find a way to use body fluids to determine muscle/fat ratios. The standard they are measuring their study against is the Dual Energy X-ray Absorbtiometry (DEXA) scan, which is a low-radiation scan that measures regional body fat and also lean tissue mass with ridiculous accuracy. Skin fold calipers be gone! Electric pulse scales move aside! Water displacement shove over! The DEXA scan is the most accurate measure of your percent of lean muscle tissue and percent fat available. It’s painless and non-invasive. It is also very expensive, which is why they’d like to find a different way of achieving the same accurate measurements.

I’m not getting paid for this study, but I am getting a full DEXA scan, will be told my body composition, and get a short consultation for a nutritionist based on my test results and my diet diary.

So aside from sitting on an x-ray slab for five minutes, what else do I have go do?

-Record my diet for one day (and it has to be a truthful record of my normal diet, no cheating about measurements or fibbing about treats, but I’ve done this before and have no problems being truthful).

-Get a fasting blood sample, which means that I can’t eat for 12 hours before my 9:40 am blood test. THAT is going to be the tricky bit – I’ll do the fast, but I won’t like it. I usually have some tea before bed or a small snack after my evening dance classes, and I’m a monster without my breakfast. Unless I eat within about fifteen minutes of actually getting out of bed, I’m a wreck. This is why I take my thyroid meds so early in the morning, a full hour before I actually get out of bed.

-Do a 24 hour urine collection. That means that I’ve had the privilege of peeing into one of these:



all day (no that is not the actual jug. My jug was opaque orange with a white cap, had a wide opening, and can hold 2 litres of fluid).

I’m thoroughly keen on seeing what the results of my test are. A couple other girls from the dance studio are also participating. How often do you get the chance of finding out your exact body fat/lean muscle composition with an incredibly accurate and expensive test FOR FREE?

Once the results of the tests come in, I’ll let you know what the verdict is. Too fat? Too thin? Just right? It will all be revealed!

Seeing as we are on the subject of body composition and food and whatnot, I would like to share the link that Stacey sent my way:
Drop 10 Pounds by Snacking

The article certainly reinforces why it is a bad idea to habitually chug back calorically dense drinks (juice, pop, wine, etc) without being mindful of how much we are actually drinking. Personally, I tend to stick with drinking water at meals and only drink water or herbal teas that don’t require milk or sugar while at work. My downfall is chocolate milk. Honestly, I can slam back a jug of chocolate milk in the blink of an eye. We rarely have it in the house, though, and when we do get it as the odd treat I usually pour it into either very small glasses or into wine glasses that are filled with ice.

*Trust me, the pay isn’t much and not all of the studies have the budget to fork over for their research subjects. But I do get a little bit of pocket money every now and then, which is always fun.

**Peeing into the jug is much easier than I initially thought it would be. Actually, peeing into a cup is more difficult than voiding into that sucker. But it definitely is not pleasant. Besides, I’ve had to tote around a big soft-sided beer cooler filled with ice packs and pee jugs around my office all day. I’m certain that people are wondering what the heck is going on, but happily they are too polite to inquire. I’ve never been so grateful for single toilet bathrooms with lockable doors.

 
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