Weight Management

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.

Breathing and Body Scan Exercise for Stress Reduction

Breathing and body scanning are exercises that can be considered meditation, relaxation exercises, or stress reduction exercises. The exercise does not take more than 10 minutes. It can be done anywhere you are able to sit and can be modified if you stand. Essentially it can be done anywhere! Let’s begin.

For each exercise focus on the stretch and your breaths (at least one to two for each stretch) in and out.

Raise your eyebrows
Squint your eyes
Clench your teeth and pull the corners of your mouth to your ears
Bring your chin to your chest
Bring your ears to your shoulder (right, then left, left, then right)
Pull your arms back and bring your elbows to your side
Make a fist and pull up your wrist
Pull your shoulder blades together
Pull your belly button toward your spine
Squeeze your knees together
Point your toes toward your face
Turn your feet inward and outward

Whatever it was that had you stressed, let it go. If you still feel the stress you can repeat the exercise or increase the number of breaths, you give to each stretch.

Women and Weights

Are you one of the women afraid to lift weights? There are several reasons women have for not lifting weights. Some women don’t want to get bulky, while others don’t have time or prefer cardio. During Women’s History Month and beyond, I want to make sure you are a woman that can live a full life and make history.

Weight training has many benefits that can help a woman live a long life. Some of those benefits include enhanced muscle tone, boosted metabolism, and a reduced chance of injury. The muscles gained through strength training also help to burn more calories, which helps with weight loss. A study, using data from the Nurses’ Health Study and the Nurses’ Health Study II, has even shown that strength training through resistance exercise, yoga, etc. can lower the risk of diabetes.

In case you didn’t know, once most women hit menopause, they begin to lose bone mass rapidly. Great habits, such as weightlifting, while you are younger can help prevent this. Starting while younger will help slow the rate of loss and possibly reverse it.

So, what are you waiting on? Get started now! You can become a Wonder Woman and join the Strong Women Accountability Group (S.W.A.G.) challenge for help getting started or encouragement to get back to it.

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!

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!

Is Intermittent Fasting a New Approach to Weight Loss?

As the new year begins you are probably considering some dietary changes. One method that’s claimed to result in weight loss is intermittent fasting (IF). But what is intermittent fasting? Is it for you? Intermittent fasting is not a diet in the sense of restricting food items but is simply limiting the time you eat. Recent research in the December 26 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine indicates it can be a promising approach for weight loss, stabilizing blood sugars, and decreasing blood pressure and cholesterol.

Currently, there are at least 6 popular methods for IF.

1. The 16/8 Method: Fast for 16 hours a day

2. The 5:2 Diet: Fast for 2 days per week

3. Eat-Stop-Eat: A 24 hour fast once or twice per week

4. Alternate-Day Fasting: Fast every other day

5. The Warrior Diet: Fast during the day and eat a huge meal in the afternoon or evening

6. Daily Time Restricted Feeding: Fast outside of the 6-8 dedicated hours for eating

Tips for intermittent fasting

– Consult your physician before trying IF

– Start out slow and overtime slowly increase the fasting time

– For best benefits select healthy food items to eat

– Keep your workout routine at a low to moderate level especially on fast days

For years people have fasted for medical and spiritual reasons. Weight loss is another one to add to the list. Fasting allows the body to slowly burn through the glucose stored in the liver, about 700 calories worth. This takes the body around 10-12 hours to complete. This explanation makes it is easy to see how intermittent fasting be a hopeful approach to weight loss, but it is not for the faint at heart. But like any habit, IF takes time. The adjustment period can occur over a few weeks to a couple of months if you dare give it a try.

Baby It’s Cold Outside!

Yes, winter has arrived! It’s cold outside but that is not a reason to be inactive. The holiday rush is over, and all those extra calories have settled in. If you don’t want those settled calories to become settled pounds, you need to move. The good news is exercise does not require a gym or even equipment. Try this simple routine to keep you moving even when you don’t feel like it. Just start and you will have at least a 20-minute workout before you know it.

Jumping jacks for 45 secs, rest 15 secs
Squats for 45 secs, rest 15 secs
Mountain climbers for 45 secs, rest 15 secs
Lunges for 45 secs, rest 15 secs
Alternating fast feet for 45 secs, rest 15 secs
Plank with alternating shoulder taps for 45 secs, rest 15 secs
Rest for 1 minute and repeat 1-2 times

The Best Bang for Your Calories

In honor of National Nutrition Month, it’s only appropriate to start this blog with one of my favorite topics, FOOD! If you are anything like me, it’s easy to go for a run, bike ride, or hit up a class. Though we can check off the workout box, we can still overeat. When considering weight loss, the secret to balance is the 80/20 rule. This puts a greater focus on nutrition because a 20 minute run cannot make the calories from a 500 calorie milkshake disappear.

In January of 2018, the US News and World reports posted the rankings for the best diets overall. A panel of health experts ranked 40 diets. The diets were ranked based on an overall score, a weight loss score, and a healthy score. The panelists considered ease of following, nutrition, safety, effective weight loss, and protection against diabetes and heart disease. The top three overall were the Mediterranean diet, the DASH diet, and the Flexitarian Diet.

Now, what makes these diets so great?

Mediterranean Diet
In addition to helping with weight loss and weight maintenance, this diet boasts of preventing cancer and increasing brain health. It consists of eating a low amount of red meats, sugar and saturated fats. The diet allows for high intake of produce, nuts, and other healthful foods. Although it is listed as a diet, it is more of a plan that allows flexibility and independence to decide what to eat from day to day. In other words, you are responsible for controlling the intake.

DASH Diet
The DASH diet is most often known as the heart healthy diet for its capability to prevent and lower the risk of hypertension. Though prevention is the main focus of this diet, it is also connected to trimming waistlines. Its emphasis is on the consumption of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean protein and low-fat dairy food items. The diet encourages individuals to limit high saturated fat foods, whole dairy foods, sweets, and sugar-sweetened beverages. Decreasing sodium intake is also a major component to achieving the benefits of this diet, starting with a sodium intake of 2,300 milligrams and progressing to a decrease of 1,500 milligrams a day. To achieve weight loss with this plan, you can include a calorie deficit. Additional resources for calorie intake based on your age and activity level can be found through the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute.

Flexitarian Diet
I am so glad my favorite made the list! People always ask what I eat. The response is almost anything but these days I am focusing on a flexitarian diet because it aims for weight loss and optimal health. Think of a flexible vegetarian – Most meals are vegetarian but there are times when you can enjoy a good burger. The plan has five food groups: plant-based meats, fruits and vegetables, whole grains, dairy, and sugar and spice. Calorie intake for breakfast is about 300 calories, lunch-400 and dinner-500, but it is dependent upon your activity level, gender, height and weight.

These diets/plans can be used separately or combined to fit your needs. They each provide flexibility, nutritionally sound, heart healthy foods, and diverse flavors.

No diet is good alone. Every diet/plan should be accompanied by appropriate levels of exercise and hydration.

I must say I still have some work to do as an eater so if you struggle to bring these things together feel free to contact me to find out more information on how to get on track.

Happy Eating!

Forever,

JoyLoveHealth