Nutrition

Family and Health: It’s Not Complicated

Spending time with family and friends is an even greater victory when you can combine it with a healthy habit.

Get Active: A nature walk is a fun activity that can get you outside and spending time with family and friends. Select an area that has lots of trees and birds. Kids can explore the differences between trees and talk about the different animals and maybe insects they see throughout the walk.

Get Cooking: Another fun group activity is making a meal (breakfast, lunch, snacks or dinner). You can engage children by asking them to complete several tasks. If the children are very young, you can ask them what they would like to cook and find a recipe together. If they are a bit older, you can ask them to find a recipe on their own that you can make together Kids can also help with shopping for and prepping the ingredients. You can go with something as simple as a salad or pizza or as complicated as homemade pasta sauce or cookies. The point is for everyone to play a role in making the meal.

These are just two activities that can keep you committed to your health goals and enjoy time with your loved ones.

Family Time is the Best Time

Just as you need movement or exercise and good nutrition for physical health, you also need social connection for your mental health. Endless studies highlight the benefits of social connection. These studies suggest that social connection strengthens your immune system, lowers anxiety and depression, increases self-confidence, empathy, and trust. Spending time with family and friends increases social connection but also provides significant benefits to children. Some of the benefits of family time for children include:

building confidence
creating life-long memories
creating a stronger emotional bond between parents and children
allowing for better communication between family members and others
increasing performance in school
increasing opportunities to model behaviors such as conflict resolution, confidence, and happiness

As you continue practicing social distancing, you can think through opportunities for volunteering, cooking (especially new cuisines and dishes), and physical activities as a few options for family time that can fit into your wellness journey and hopefully start theirs.

Mindful Eating During Stay at Home Orders

Although some stay at home orders due to COVID-19 are being lifted, most people will still find themselves spending a significant amount of time at home. Since we are at home, the temptation to eat out or on the run is minimized. Because we are unable to maintain our regular lifestyles, this is a good time to practice healthy habits such as mindful eating.

What is mindful eating? It is a technique that promotes weight loss and reduced binge eating. As a practice, it is thinking about your food before, during, and after consumption. Practicing mindful eating can help you gain control of your eating habits and feel better overall. Here are some easy ideas on how to start.

– Listen to your body: eat when your body tells you to eat and stop eating when you are full

– Consider where your food comes from

– Eat foods that are nutritionally healthy

– When eating, only focus on eating

– Reflect on how you feel after you eat

For more information about mindful eating, check out Mindful Eating: The Art of Presence While You Eat. If this something you would like to incorporate but need help, let JLH Wellness help you through a health coaching experience.

The Diet Challenge: East vs West

Are you a true westerner looking for a way to change your diet? Leave the western diet behind and head over to the Mediterranean.

Some of our favorite western diet food items have doubled and sometimes tripled in calories over the past 20 years. Cheeseburgers, once 330 calories, are now 590 calories. In the 90s, you could get French fries that were 210 calories; today those French fries cost a whopping 610 calories. Aside from the calorie count, the western diet mostly consists of red meat, dairy products, processed and artificially sweetened foods, and salt. The Mediterranean diet is quite the opposite. The diet consists of a high amount of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, nut and seeds, and olive oil. They even throw wine! Thinking about changing yet ? This diet is considered one of the healthy eating plans supported by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the World Health Organization. People who subscribe to the Mediterranean Diet are one step closer to reducing risk factors for cardiovascular disease. The Mediterranean diet provides some food for thought if you are considering a new way to address nutrition.

Something New Sautéed Kale and Chickpeas

It’s March and we are slowly working our way off the winter soups. If you’re looking for a nutrient rich dish, sautéed kale and chickpeas could be your something new. Kale is super rich in vitamin A, K, and C. 26% of the daily value (DV) of manganese. This is very helpful for women as manganese is essential for bone health in addition to the well-known vitamin D and magnesium. Chickpeas are rich in protein, folate, fiber, and iron just to name a few. They are good for those with diabetes (help prevent blood surges), heart disease (interfere with the body’s absorption of cholesterol) and obesity (make you feel full). Try it this month and let me know what you think!

Ingredients

2 tablespoons of garlic

1/3 cup of olive oil

1-2 tablespoons of lemon juice

1 cups of kale (more if you desire)

1 can of chickpeas (garbanzo beans)

Salt, black pepper, and red pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil in saucepan or skillet. Add the garlic and cook until it starts turning brown.
Stir in the lemon juice.
Slowly add some kale, about 1 cup. Mix it up and let it wilt down a little and add the remaining kale. Cook the kale for about 10-15 or until it softens.
Add the chickpeas and seasonings. Cook for approximately 5 more minutes.
Serve!

The S.W.A.G. Challenge

I’m calling all women that are looking to get stronger to join the Strong Women Accountability Group Challenge (S.W.A.G.). You can have the desire to be physically stronger or stronger in adhering to the goals you set for yourself at the beginning of the year. This is a virtual challenge but you will be provided with the tools to succeed. These tools include

-an initial assessment
-weekly encouragement
-weekly workouts
-nutritional guidance
-private webinar
-private virtual team connection
-a prize for the challenge winners

Check it out!

The New Way to Have Oatmeal

If you are like me, you enjoy sweet oatmeal and good oatmeal cookies. But there’s something else you can do with that oatmeal, try savory oatmeal. It’s still cold outside; there is nothing like warming your belly before going out or after coming in. Try the savory oatmeal recipe below and tell me what you think!

Ingredients

1/4 cup of steel cut oats

3/4 cups of water

1-2 tablespoons of grated cheese

1 cooked egg

sautéed onions

salt and pepper to taste

Place ¾ cup water and pinch of salt in saucepan and bring to a boil. Once boiling, add in steel cut oats and allow to boil for about 1 minute then reduce to a simmer. Cover and simmer for 20-30 minutes, or until the water has been absorbed and the oats are soft but chewy. Remove from heat.
While your oats are cooking, cook your egg however you like, poached or fried.
Once both the egg and oats are finished cooking, grab a bowl add oats and top with cooked egg, cheese, cooked onions, avocado, fresh herbs, hot sauce, or whatever your heart’s desire.
Enjoy your savory warm oatmeal.

The Heart Health Secret

The number one cause of death for Americans is heart disease, but it’s preventable. You may already know this, but come closer… the heart health secret is…diet and exercise! Yes, lifestyle changes such as a good diet and some good old exercise could save your heart and your life!

So, what do I mean by good exercise? If you like vigorous activity that’s 90 minutes a week (e.g. 15 minutes for 6 days) of activities such as running at least 5 miles per hour or jumping rope. For those who like more moderate level exercise such as brisk walking or dancing, you need to complete 120 minutes of exercise a week (e.g. 20 minutes for 6 days). Don’t forget to include strength training at least two days a week!

For a lot of people, the real challenge may be a good diet or eating patterns. The 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines provide some good suggestions for healthy eating patterns such as:

– Choose foods to make up most of your nutrition instead of supplements/substitutes

– Choose the appropriate calorie intake for your body

– Keep variety in your meals

– Limit calories from added sugars and fats

– Limit sodium intake

– Choose healthier options for food items and beverages

– Make healthy eating a lifestyle

As Heart Health month continues, I encourage you to grab a friend and challenge each other to make some changes for your heart. If you struggle with making these changes, there is no shame in seeking help through a health coach. I think I know where you can find a good one!

Matters of the Heart

It’s month two into your new year, new you plan. Some may have jump started their efforts, but it’s quite possible that others have not for various reasons. Whatever position you’re in you are not alone! If you’re well on your way that is great! If you’re not remember changing behavior is hard to do. This is particularly true when you’re trying to make lifestyle changes. When trying to make those types of changes you should have a will and a way. An article in Psychology Today indicated that the will is your why and the way is defined as the how. Sometimes people lose focus on why they are trying to change. It’s also possible that the “why” isn’t strong enough for one to commit to the change. You may have had a plan that didn’t quite work out once you got started. If you have fallen off the new year, new you wagon, you can get back on. Assess your will and your way and ensure your goals are SMART goals.

Become a New You in 2020

At the beginning of a new year most people look towards a fresh start. Some commemorate this fresh start by making new year resolutions or setting new goals. These goals are often related to health, finances, time management – just to name a few. The running joke is that by the end of March, most people don’t remember what those goals were or the last time they looked at them. But there are a few steps you can take to develop a healthy lifestyle for many years to come; to become a new you in 2020 and beyond.

One of the first steps towards becoming the new you is to understand the “why” of your goals/resolutions. Failing to accomplish goals often comes from not really thinking about the “why”. For example, losing 20 pounds may be your goal however your reason may be because you want to fit into a certain size. Or maybe you want to stop taking medications. Maybe you want to feel better physically and emotionally. Knowing the “why” is one of the most important steps you can take because it will help you recalibrate if you get off track.

After understanding your “why”, the next step is to make SMART goals. What do SMART goals look like? SMART goals represent goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-based. To develop SMART goals ask yourself the 5 W’s: why, who, what, where, and when. You already know your why so next, determine who will help or support you while you work towards your goals. After that, write out what you want to accomplish. If you have several goals write them all out, then decide which goal or goals to focus on first. When thinking about your what, also determine what you need to accomplish your goals. Are there are certain skills or expertise you need to attain the goals? Once you know the why, determine the who, and narrow-down the what, be sure to decide where you may need to go or not go to achieve your goals. Finally, choose when you will work on your goals based on your schedule and patterns.

Now that your goals are very specific ensure they can be accomplished in measurable increments by developing milestones for your goals. Accomplishing these milestones offers opportunities to reward yourself on your success and helps with self-encouragement. Setting milestones for your goals also helps you consider if the goals are currently attainable. If you want to eat healthier do you know what that means or what that looks like? If you don’t know, what resources do you need to make this goal attainable? If you are not eating vegetables consistently it could be very difficult to change from a regular western diet to a vegetarian diet. It may be more realistic to start by eating 1 more vegetable serving over the next 2 weeks. Once that milestone is reached, you could increase your vegetable intake biweekly. To ensure your goals are SMART you want to have them time-based meaning have a deadline for accomplishing the goal.

The last step to becoming the new you is to get started and stick to it! Research has indicated it takes 66 days to develop a habit, not a month. That sounds like a lot of opportunities to get it wrong and miss some milestones. Let’s be honest, it is! YOU WILL make mistakes. YOU WILL miss some milestones! But don’t sit in your failure. Keeping going! These 66 opportunities give you enough time to ride that wave up and down until your goal becomes a success and forms into a habit that can change your lifestyle.

Changing is hard but it can be done. Hopefully your new goals for the year are meant to change your lifestyle and not just a moment in time. Setting SMART goals gives you the structure to be successful in making lifestyle changes. If you find setting goals and sticking to them to be too difficult, seek out help. Now go make 2020 the year of a New You!