Lucy always says she was put on this earth to spread the good news about fruits and vegetables. I feel the same calling. To us, it’s an important mission because many people often forget or downplay the power of produce. If fruits and vegetables had labels they would boast all kinds of health benefits. If you want to prevent disease, protect your body from cancer, and fight off fatigue then fruits and vegetables are your friends. But because no one can make big bucks off nature’s bounty, there isn’t a multimillion-dollar marketing campaign helping us fall in love with them in their natural form.
Even though they don’t get enough publicity, there is no denying that fruits and vegetables can help us THRIVE. And yeah, we know this is not new or sexy advice, and we might even remind you of your mother saying “Eat your vegetables. They’re good for you!” but hear us out. There are 4 things you need to know about fruits and vegetables.
Well Balanced Eating means half your plate should be full of non-starchy vegetables (and sometimes fruit, too). That means nothing else on your plate should take up more room than your veggies. We love this guideline because it’s much easier to fill half your plate than to get out measuring cups and/or count calories. Hooray for simple rules!
Many colors = many micronutrients. The more colors you have on your plate the greater variety of benefits you will reap. Although we all know fruits and vegetables contain fiber, vitamins, and minerals, scientists are also discovering thousands of plant super-powers called phytochemicals (like the ones listed below) that provide even more health-boosting benefits.
Vegetables will volumize your meals. This means you can eat a larger portion of food without consuming excessive calories. By having generous servings of fruits and vegetables in our meals, we can literally fill our bellies to the brim. This is important because when our stomach reaches its compacity, stretch receptors send signals to the brain telling us we feel full. To give you an example, a measly handful of potato chips provides 100 calories, whereas you can eat a bowlful of blueberries for the same amount. It would cost a lot of extra calories to fill our bellies with potato chips than it would if we were to fill up on blueberries.
4. Fruits and veggies can add variety to your diet. If you find yourself eating the same thing over and over, tap into the world of produce to expand your palate. There are countless varieties and types of produce to choose from, so eat “outside the box” and try something new.
I leave you with some color inspiration from one of my favorites, Jamie Oliver.
Want help getting more color on your plate? Click here to start working with Well Balanced Nutrition.
A recent visit back to my hometown in Indiana inspired me to answer this very question. My dad always has his refrigerator stocked with little bottles of Gatorade for him and the grandkids and I was reminded that many people believe Gatorade is the best way to hydrate. He was a little offended and surprised when I told him that it wasn’t the healthiest thing to offer the kids. “What? Why not? Don’t they need electrolytes after playing outside?” he said. I get where he is coming from, I do… Here is the gist of what I told him…
Sports drinks tout themselves as electrolyte replacers and marketers have made us believe that a sports drink is the best way to quench our thirst and replace our electrolytes on a hot summer day. But is it really?
What the sport drink companies don’t tell you is that sports drinks are designed for athletes or those who exercise intensely for more than 60 minutes, not your average person or kid. Most of us can easily get enough electrolytes from food. Plus no one really benefits from the added sugar, artificial flavors, and colorings that are found in many sports drinks.
Did you know: The amount of sodium and potassium in a sports drink is low compared to what you eat in typical meals.
But what if you ARE an athlete or you just sweat a lot in this heat?
For every CUP of sweat, you can expect to lose around 225mg of sodium, 50mg of potassium, 4mg of calcium and 3g of magnesium. Are you sweating that much? If so, you might benefit from a 12 ounce serving of Gatorade which contains 80 calories, 21g carbs, 160mg sodium and 45mg potassium. You could also just drink a cup of chocolate milk.
8 ounces of chocolate milk contains 120 calories, 20g carbs, 150mg sodium, 350mg potassium. It also has calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, protein, riboflavin, niacin and vitamins A, B12 and D.
Marathoners and other endurance athletes who don’t eat much before or during exercise would be wise to choose a sports drink. In contrast, hikers, bicyclists, and people who eat before and during lengthy workouts can do fine with just plain water. That’s because food helps retain fluid in your body. In comparison, plain water consumed on an empty stomach quickly goes in one end, out the other.
If you are planning to sweat for more than four hours in this NC heat, a sports drink is helpful but not your only option. You can eat salty foods beforehand. A salty meal can help your body retain fluid, keep you hydrated longer and will enhance endurance.
Bottom Line
If you are exercising for less than an hour/day and eating 3 balanced meals you are likely getting plenty of electrolytes through your diet. So for most of us, we don’t need to do anything special to replace electrolytes. We do, however, need to stay hydrated and the best way to do that is by simply drinking water.
Endurance athletes need extra electrolytes during longer bouts of exercise and may benefit from a sports drink. Food is usually a better source than sports drinks and athletes can choose salty foods before and after workouts to aid in performance and recovery.
Have questions about your personal electrolyte and nutrition needs?Contact us today to set up your own personal wellness adventure.
It’s Friday night, you made it through another busy week… Time to celebrate.
So often our celebrations include food and maybe an adult beverage or two. Nothing says “happy birthday” like cake, “thank you” like a bottle of wine, or “I love you” like chocolate candy. For many of us, food is our love language and as the saying goes, the quickest way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, right?
We are emotional creatures and we have to eat. Sometimes those feelings – or “all the feels” as Kristen and I say – cause us to eat emotionally.
The birthday cake incident
After a particularly unique week, I found myself in celebration mode last Friday night. It was my nephew’s birthday and naturally, we had cake to celebrate. As my clients will tell you, I practice abstinence when it comes to baked goods with frosting, but my rebel brain decided “it’s an ice cream cake so what’s the harm?!” I had one spoonful from my generous boyfriend, and that’s when the sugar dragon started to roar. I followed that one bite of cake with a large spoonful of marshmallow fluff, potato chips, and hot fudge (a real bedtime snack of champions).Secretly, after everyone was done eating the cake, I went into the freezer and had several more spoonfuls. Looks like I’m human and face the same temptations as everyone else. Luckily, the next morning I was reminded I don’t need to make up because There’s nothing wrong with indulging sometimes and I got right back to practicing the well-balanced way.
In retrospect, I would have used my new handy mindful eating tool, HALT. This acronym – HALT – stands for hungry, angry, lonely, tired and is sometimes used in addiction counseling. The research shows we are more vulnerable to make our worst decisions when we are responding emotionally. Some of us experience more than one at a time (hello, hangry).
What I didn’t mention before, we started the birthday celebrations at 10:45 PM. That is 15 minutes after my bedtime and not surprisingly I was pretty tired. In hindsight, I realized if I had been true to my self-care I would have graciously said goodnight at 10:30 and prevented the whole sugar binge episode.As I often remind my clients, when our brains are tired they tell us to eat sugar because it’s a quick source of energy.
The solution
First, identify vulnerable moments. Many people I speak with identify as emotional eaters. I would argue that we are all emotional eaters. Some of us turn to food when we are happy, others when we are sad, and some eat food for comfort if we’re lonely. It can turn into a problem when you find yourself doing it often and habitually. Are you making less healthy choices when you get too hungry, angry, lonely, or tired?
Food for thought:
Next time you find yourself tempted to grab food outside of a regular meal or a well-balanced snack, consider this handy tool and ask yourself “am I really hungry or am I angry, lonely, or tired?”
Tell us in the comments below, how do you choose to give yourself loving-kindness in place of using food?
The kids are out of school, summer weather is here, and today is the first day of June. Hellllloooo summer!
I was reminded recently that we can let our summer happen to us, or we can be proactive and design the summer we want. I don’t know about you, but one full of adventure, magic, and memories sounds nice.
A summer like that won’t happen all on its own, but with a little bit of thought, we can make it happen. All it takes is a little break from our everyday routines – an adventure or two.
In a recent podcast, Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project, pointed out that when we disrupt our routine a little bit, and embrace the magic of summer, it can make time feel as if it’s slowing down. Having a break in our year, something fun and different to look forward to, can make our life more rich and memorable.
Doesn’t that sound lovely??
Even for busy, full-time professionals, summer can be a chance to break up our routine. Here are some really simple ideas I’ve come across that could make your summer special.
Have a fun lunch date every week with friends, family, and coworkers – switch up your date or your location each time
Try a new group activity each weekend like free yoga in the park, local hiking or swimming.
Have a cook-off competition with your friends and family.
Explore new foods! Try as many summer vegetables (ones that you don’t normally eat) as you can.
Y’all, I just found out my boyfriend used to be a couponer! How awesome is that? I’m frugal too but in a different way. I’ve been joking for years that I’m actually a 90-year-old woman because I frequently wash and reuse Ziploc baggies, I save all the plastic soup containers from the Chinese restaurants, and I have no problem buying the store brand.
Recently, while talking with a client and learning about all the delicious fresh produce she has been throwing away, I decided it’s time to share some of my frugal secrets with the tribe. A major key to saving money is making the most of the food you buy and not letting it go to waste. Make your food bill stretch a little bit further by doing these 5 things.
1. Don’t throw away perfectly good leftovers! Some folks throw away leftovers 2 days after cooking them. According to the Mayo Clinic, we can keep leftovers up to 4 days. Cooking on Sunday? Eat it or freeze it by Thursday.
| In America, we throw away an average of $1,200 in groceries every year! Yikes! |
2. Make friends with your freezer. At one point I found 9 different kinds of cheese in the refrigerator and thought “that’s a little excessive.” I put a couple blocks in the freezer because then I don’t feel obligated to put cheese on everything – not there’s anything wrong with that. :-P. It’s not just cheese that can store well in the freezer until you need it. Here is a great list of all the things you can freeze. Another great freezer tip I love is how some folks buy meat in bulk at the local market, such as Kenyon’s Meat Market, in Mebane and then they pull out what they need for dinner each morning. Brilliant! 3. Buy in season. Have you noticed that asparagus gets to be really affordable in March? That’s because asparagus is an early Spring crop. Seasonal produce is not only more affordable, it tastes better too! And if you buy local produce from the farmer’s market, you will typically find the most nutritional value as those foods are picked when fully ripe. Check out what’s in season now. 4. Chop it up immediately. You know those sad green onions, celery stocks, or bags of lettuce you find wilted and juicy at the bottom of the refrigerator? Instead, we recommend designating one day to wash chop, and store in Ziploc baggies or other see-through containers all those delicious colorful foods you intend to eat that week. Doing so increases your chances of eating them, not wasting them. 5. Don’t put produce in the beer drawer! Seriously, the drawers in the refrigerator especially the old less fancy refrigerators aren’t doing you much good. When we hide our fruits and vegetables in drawers we tend to forget about them until it’s too late. Instead, let’s refer back to tip #4 and keep our washed and ready to eat fruits and vegetables on the top or middle shelf where we will see them and enjoy them regularly.
Food for thought
When you throw away food consider looking at that as throwing away $5 or $10 bills. That sounds crazy!
You can save money, time, and guilt by implementing one or two of these tips. Which one will you try this week? Tell us in the comments below!
There are so many diets, research articles, and ideas it can become overwhelming to try and choose the healthiest diet for you and your family. Kristen and I have talked about many different diets, and you know it’s our well-balanced mission to help people ditch the diet mentality and make it simple.
Knowing yourself is important.
I had a client come to me with an interest in feeding her family more healthy food choices. She told me “I’m really good with the guidelines and rules so if you can just give me a few rules to stick by, I will do it.” This rule mentality works really well for some folks and I was glad she knew herself well enough to tell me her preference.
How we kept it simple
In our session, we focused on simple, healthy habits that start at the grocery store, like understanding food labels. She took the guidelines we discussed to heart and ran with it. By the next appointment, she was proud to report putting any foods with unpronounceable words or too many ingredients back on the shelf. Instead, she is eating mostly whole foods. Now, this mama feels confident making healthy foods choices for herself and her family. Success!
Why this works
After watching this TED talk about The Mindset for Healthy Eating by Gillian Riley, I was reminded that diets typically include prohibiting certain foods or food groups. That prohibition mindset typically leads your brain to fixate on the food that you are supposed to be avoiding. By implementing healthy habits instead of restrictions, and by keeping things simple, we can set ourselves up for success and make it a more enjoyable experience.
Food for thought:
Sometimes we make healthy eating a little more complicated than it needs to be.
Consider this week one simple change you can make it to your eating habits to incorporate more whole foods or reduce the complication of eating well. Tell us about it the comments.
Lucy always says she was put on this earth to spread the good news about fruits and vegetables. I feel the same calling. To us, it’s an important mission because many people often forget or downplay the power of produce. If fruits and vegetables had labels they would boast all kinds of health benefits. If you want to prevent disease, protect your body from cancer, and fight off fatigue then fruits and vegetables are your friends. But because no one can make big bucks off nature’s bounty, there isn’t a multimillion-dollar marketing campaign helping us fall in love with them in their natural form.
