The Ellwanger Estate

Ah… Win­ter Equinox starts today and now for longer days. I can’t believe autumn is over. I hon­estly feel that I just got out the grill and soon it’s time to put it away-or maybe not. Next thing you know, I’ll be feel­ing the pres­sure of the hol­i­day sea­son… oh too late.

But what a sea­son it has been! As the innkeeper at The Ell­wanger Estate B&B 2009 was an adven­ture in the fine art of cook­ing (not to men­tion a marathon of 1000 other things). Con­ser­va­tion of calo­ries was on everyone’s plate (no pun intended).

SO WE LOVE DIET TIPS…
As long as they don’t require a lot of gear­ing up (on food pur­chas­ing and will power) or elim­i­nat­ing too much of what we enjoy. As reported in 4woman.gov, week­ends wreak havoc on the diet…gee, ya think? On the week­ends, it looks like we eat an extra 225 calo­ries on Sat­ur­day (that doesn’t seem like a lot to me) — and if we watch it or exer­cise more, we can keep our weight sta­ble. That extra 225 of calo­ries could be nine pounds in a year! Geez…being dili­gent on the week­ends mat­ters. Okay, note to self.

On a brighter note, if you keep a food diary, you can dou­ble your weight loss. That’s impres­sive. It turns out that what this does is makes you account­able to your­self. Using what­ever method is eas­i­est for you, you should do it right after you’ve eaten. It truly makes you think more about what you are eat­ing and why. Con­scious­ness is always a positive.

Lastly, it’s good to load up on what’s known as “vol­ume foods”. Vol­ume foods con­tain a lot of water and fiber. When we fill up on these foods, we feel full with not a lot of extra calo­ries. Stud­ies have shown that we eat more with our eyes — in other words we eat the same amount of weight or vol­ume, not nec­es­sar­ily calo­ries. We get dis­cour­aged with super small por­tions. The way to work with this and still lose weight is to load up on these foods, like sal­ads, soups (not cream), beans, fresh fruit and whole grains — you’ll feel full and lose weight. Limit food like pret­zels and crack­ers and chips, as they are dense in calo­ries and easy to get car­ried away.

One more tip and that is to try and eat your pro­tein and larger meals ear­lier in the day — lesser pro­tein in the evenings — more car­bo­hy­drates. Keep­ing that meal to 500 or 700 calo­ries can mean bet­ter sleep pat­terns and bet­ter sleep means a more effi­cient metabolism.

So eat and be well. And please visit the Ell­wanger Estate B&B where a deli­cious volu­mi­nous break­fast is served and improved slept is to be had by all!

NEED A LAST MINUTE GIFT? CERTIFICATES AVAILABLE. Just e-mail the details and I will invoice you via pay­pals and send the cer­tifi­cate by email.

Happy Hol­i­day!
Rose­mary Janof­sky
Innkeeper at the Ell­wanger Estate B&B

http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/sportsnutrition/a/123004a.htm
http://www.healthywomen.org/wellness/alternativemedicine/improvingsleepwithoutmedication
http://www.my-calorie-counter.com/Content/High-Volume-Foods.asp
http://www.4woman.gov/news/english/617386.htm