Ask Shannon: Fitness and Nutrition Q & A

Posted June 28, 2008 at 02:00 PM by Shannon Clark

Section: Her Nutrition, Healthy Eating

With years of training under her belt, resident fitness and nutrition expert Shannon Clark is ready to help you on your way to a healthy, informed lifestyle. Got a question? her your inquiries, and be sure to check back every week for the latest Q&A.

Q: Hi.  I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately on nutrition and how to start eating healthier so I can lose weight and have determined that as it stands, I’m very low on the protein front. I’m not sure how I can really increase my intake though as I really dislike eating animal meat (not a vegetarian, just don’t care for it).

Any suggestions you might have would be fantastic.

A: Thanks for contacting me. This is something that quite a few people struggle with, especially if they’ve never really taken the time to total up how much protein they are eating each day to get a firm grasp on where they stand.

First things first, you definitely do not need to consume a lot of animal meat products in order to reach your protein needs, but it is good you aren’t a strict vegetarian as that does make things slightly easier.

If you are still okay with eating dairy products, there are a lot of low-fat options out there that are terrific sources of protein. Consider adding a low-fat cottage cheese to your diet (nice because it digests very slowly, thus helping to keep you feeling full), some low-fat cheese, skim milk, sugar free yogurt, or ricotta cheese.

Some women also like to incorporate soy-based products into their diet, and this is especially good for those who are lactose intolerant. Do watch when you purchase your soymilk though because some varieties can be quite high in sugar, which is something you obviously don’t want.

Apart from that, if you do eat eggs, these are a great source of inexpensive protein that only take minutes to whip up. While there is nothing wrong with one or two whole eggs a day, provided you don’t have any pre-existing issues with your cholesterol, if you are going to eat more eggs than that, I’d would recommend using just the whites to help both keep your calorie count down and ensure you don’t go overboard with your fat intake.

Finally, the last option to look into which makes getting more protein really easy is a good quality protein powder. There are so many on the market now that taste great and offer different nutritional benefits.

Not to mention that you don’t need to be limited to only drinking your protein powder. You can mix it in with your morning oatmeal, blend it into a smoothie, stir it into yogurt, or even add it to some of your baked products such as cookies or muffins.

So, keep these ideas in mind.  Getting in enough protein is really essential to helping maintain your present muscle mass, keeping hunger levels under control, and help you with the weight loss process.