Myths about Healthy Eating

Myths about Healthy Eating, the Fruits and Veggies Edition:

I hear all the time, it costs too much to eat fruits and vegetables.

That excuse can no longer be used... Here are some ways to cut costs on fruits and veggies, ideas to incorporate more into your diet, and ways to preserve that produce before it goes completely bad...

How to save on fruits and veggies, and EAT MORE of them: 

1) Buy in-season produce

Look at the weekly ads, see what is on sale that week and plan your meals accordingly.  This week my local Ralph's has plums on sale for $0.99 a pound, and red or green leaf lettuce heads are $0.99 each.  For a couple bucks you can make a salad with the lettuce and a cut up plum (still a little crunchy is just fine).  Sprinkle with some nuts of your choice, splash on some vinaigrette dressing and SCORE! You have an amazing salad to compliment your dinner tomorrow night.

2) Pick frozen

No one ever said you had to buy just the frozen stuff to be healthy (well, at least this dietitian didn't).  Eating frozen fruits and veggies are perfectly fine, and in some cases are packed with more nutrition than the stuff you buy fresh in the produce section.  To get the most bang for your buck, make sure you purchase fruits and veggies withOUT added junk in them.  Read the ingredients and make sure only the fruit or veggie is listed.

You do NOT want to see this: ingredients: corn, salt, butter.... etc.  
You want to see:  ingredients: corn.

I know most people say that frozen doesn't taste as good as the fresh, well.... pick your battles.  My husband will not let frozen broccoli in the house.  He only wants fresh, so I buy other frozen products to make sure we compromise.  One of my favorites:  frozen bell pepper to add to skillet meals or pasta sauce to give my spaghetti a little extra color and flavor.

3) Get creative

Buy the canned stuff and find fun ways to prepare it! As long as you are buying fruit packaged in it's own juice or light syrup you should be good (none of that heavy syrup stuff).  For the veggies, make sure you buy no-added salt products.  Used the canned stuff to add some extra canned tomatoes to your pasta dish, or put some canned mandarin oranges in your fruit salad.  You can even put some grilled pineapple on chicken chicken with a little bit of teriyaki sauce.

One of the best reasons to adapt to canned fruits and veggies is because they do not go bad like the fresh stuff.  If you didn't have time to get to the grocery store this week, no problem you can whip something up with the canned goods you have at home AND not sacrifice by not eating your fruits and veggies this week.  The best of both worlds.

4) Buy from your local farmers! 


I love taking my kids to the local farmer's market to get some produce.  I have never seen my oldest eat so many pieces of fruit in her whole life.  Last time we went, she spent her OWN MONEY to buy fresh peaches, nectarines, grapes, and plums.  It was too cute watching her talk with the farmer's about the foods and which ones she wanted to eat.  Side note, the samples they had got her even more excited about buying everything.  Because of her excitement, one of the farmer's was happy to give her a few bunches of grapes on the house.

At your local farmer's market, not only will you get some wonderful experiences for your family, but you will also get some of the freshest fruits and veggies around.  The farmer's can help you pick the best produce and to know when it will be perfectly ripe.  This will help eliminate waste! Not to mention, the farmer's are often more than happy to throw in an extra piece of fruit on top of what you already bought at no cost (the grocery store NEVER does that).

5) Freeze it yourself OR make something different

If you have produce that is getting overly ripe and you have not eaten it yet... again, get creative.  You can quickly cut up that bell pepper and put it in a freezer ziploc bag, push out all of the air and put it in the freezer for the next time you make spaghetti.  Just don't forget to label it (put what it is and the date you packaged it).

Another good idea is to make something different than you normally would.  Think banana bread.  You won't finish your bananas before they go brown, then mash them and make a quick banana bread! You can take this same principle and apply it to other produce.  Recently, I had some slightly overly ripe grape tomatoes.  Instead of throwing them away because they looked a little shriveled up, I cooked them up!  I diced them, put them in a pan with a little olive oil, fresh garlic, basil and sautéed them.  Once the room smelled wonderful, I pulled them off the stove and used as the pizza sauce for a pizza I made that night.  It tasted amazing!! It was so good, I made them again the following night to put on top of bread.

6) Repurpose your produce 

If you didn't get to the produce in time to eat it, freeze it or cook it up in a different way... at least you can compost it.  Start a composting bin and put all of your slightly decomposing fruits and veggies in there after you clean out your fridge.  Bad image, I know but you've done it at least once in your life!  You can also add trimmings from other produce that you actually ate on time.

Composting can not only help with supplying fertilizer for your own personal garden, but it can also help take away a little bit of the sting from letting your produce get too ripe.


Final thoughts


To avoid your produce from spoiling before you eat it keep these things in mind:

• Write a list of all the produce you have in your fridge and put it on your fridge with a magnet. 
• If it's out of site, it's out of mind.  The list will remind you every time you walk by the fridge that there is some amazing produce in there waiting to be eaten!  
• Or the list can serve as a reminder that it may be getting close to being overly ripe, and remind you to get it ready to put it in the fridge.  Again, keep a list of what you have stocked up on in your freezer for later use.
• After purchasing fruits and veggies from the store or farmer's market, take them home and prepare them... right away, before putting them away!  [Caution, this can only be done for certain types of produce and is definitely not a good idea to do with highly perishable produce like berries, but this can help you to eat more fruits and veggies by making them quick and easy to grab later in the week.]  
• You bought celery to use for "frog on a log" later this week (you know, the snack with celery topped with peanut butter and raisins)?  Make sure you cut the celery sticks up before putting them in the fridge.  When you are done, put them in a little bit of water in a container and place them front and center in the fridge so they are there staring at you when you open the doors looking for a quick snack to whip up.  
• Plan your meals! Don't just go to the store and buy what ever produce you think you will need for the week.  
• Plan you meals out for the week (or two) and buy your produce accordingly while at the grocery store or farmer's market. This will help to make sure you do not over buy.  
• Be sure to plan ahead for any nights you won't be able to make dinner... back to school night, soccer, or the monthly get together you have with your friends this Saturday night.  
• Being creative is key!! 
• Make fruits and veggies differently than you have in the past. Don't be scared to try new recipes.  And certainly, don't be afraid to TRY NEW fruits and veggies!! 

Remember, make small changes NOW in anticipation for bigger changes in the future.
Starting today by doing something small is the key to your success when it comes to eating healthy!

Enjoy! KC

Watching what you are eating???

Try using smaller utensils, plates, bowls, and cups!!!  

Research has shown people who use smaller bowls and spoons eat less then people who have larger bowls and spoons.  One of the researchers sited in the study below- Painter, JE- did a TV spot with people eating ice cream.  The people who had the little pink sample spoons from Baskin Robbins and a small bowl ate less and were JUST AS SATISFIED with the smaller amount of ice cream eaten when compared to people who had larger bowls and spoons and ate more ice cream.  

Also, if you keep the food you have eaten in front of you, you are less likely to overindulge. Don't let the server clear all the plates and dishes from your table while you are eating at a restaurant.  Keep the empty soda/drink cups on the table too!  

Final application:  When eating nuts (such as pistachios) if you crack the nut and eat it from the shell while keeping the cracked shells in front of you, you are less likely to overindulge and are more satisfied with less pistachios eaten than compared to someone who eat pre-cracked pistachios (or other nuts).  Basically- crack the nuts yourself, you will slow down, eat less, and still feel full!  

When you serve your dinner at home tonight, use the salad plate instead of the standard dinner plate.  Use the small (short) cup, instead of the big 16oz cup.  And don't clear the table of any foods eaten until you are completely done eating.  Happy Eating! 

Research citation:  Wansink B, Painter JE, North J.  Bottomless bowls: why visual cues of
portion size may influence intake.  Obes Res. 2005 Jan;13(1):93-100

Healthy foods cost more???

Think it's too expensive to eat healthy... think again!

A new research study that was just released shows ounce for ounce, calorie for calorie... healthy foods cost the same as junk foods. And in some cases, healthy foods are cheaper! 

Myth Dispelled! Healthy Foods not more expensive... read on

A Diet You Can Manage

First off, a diet is completely an inaccurate term- I was just trying to get your attention. It is not a diet, it is a lifestyle. Let's talk about ways we can make eating healthy part of your everyday life.

To start a lifestyle of healthy eating, it takes many small steps. Take the following scenarios for example:

• When someone decides to run a marathon for the first time, how do they approach it? Do they wake up one day and run a marathon? No.
• When someone wants to start a company, does it happen over night? No. 

So then why do we expect to have a perfect "diet" instantly?
Why do we think we can wake up on Monday and go on a diet to lose weight. Really?! And we think we are going to be successful with that?

Tell me, a persons who wants to run a marathon but doesn't train at all...do they make it to the finish line? No. They might if they hitched a ride or took a short cut, but that is cheating! They did not run across the finish line because they work hard to get to that goal, they did it by cheating.  You want to train for a marathon and pass through the finish line because you trained and worked hard to make it to your goal!  Winning is only fun if you put hard work into it, not if you stole it by cheating.

The same basic principle of working hard to achieve your goal applies to eating healthy! You need to take several small steps to get to your ultimate goal if you want to be successful.

Truly your GOAL should be TO EAT HEALTHY & BE SUCCESSFUL DOING IT.   Not just to diet or lose weight.

Ideas for getting started TODAY:

-Write a food journal for three days.

• Write down EVERYTHING you eat AND drink. Make sure to estimate serving sizes as accurately as possible.
• Be honest. If you ate 4 fun size Snickers bars, write very single one of them down. If you don't, you are only cheating yourself. 
• Do not eat differently than you normally would.  Otherwise, you will not get an accurate depiction of what you eat on a daily basis. 
• Lastly, make sure one of those days is a weekend! Some people have a tendency to eat differently on weekends, or drink beverages they don't normally drink during the week (eh, em... alcohol).
• After you track what you eat for a few days, enter it into a program such as MyFitnessPal. This is a government ran app, you can track your daily food intake, and track your exercise. 
• If you prefer, you can even enter your food intakes into the app on a meal or daily basis instead of waiting until the end of the three days.  Do note, you may pay more attention to calories, fat and protein consumed if you enter your intakes in to MyFitnessPal the same day you are eating, this can cause you to have a slightly different picture of what you actually eat.  This is because you are paying more attention to your food, and you are less likely to eat mindlessly (i.e. those 4 fun size Snickers bars).  

These first couple of steps may seem tedious, but they are basic... and necessary. Think about it, if (or when) you plan your financial budget, you have to track your spending for a few months to get an idea as to where all your money goes. Same concept! You must track EVERYTHING you eat for a few days in order to get a better picture of what you eat everyday.  Writing down you food intake everyday will also give you an idea as to we're to start you journey to a eating healthy lifestyle.

Let's think of some examples of what you can change after you track your food intake.

• BEVERAGES: Do you drink a lot of calorie and sugar filled beverages? Juice, soda, whole milk, or alcohol? If you are drinking anything other than plain water, plain coffee or plain tea (no added sugars, sweeteners or creamers), you can probably use some help in this area
• Do you drink whole, try switching to 2% milk.  Or if you already drink 2%, aim for 1% or fat-free.
• SNACKS: Do you have a lot of little snacks through out the day? Those little candies from the jar on secretary's desk can add up significantly over time. Consider taking a mid-afternoon snack with you to work, that way you aren't raiding the candy drawer at 2 or 3pm to make it to the end of the work day. This may even help hold you over until dinner better and help you to not over eat dinner! Win-win!
• ADD-ONS: Do you add a lot of ranch, cheese, butter or other fatty, calorie filled food item, dip or added fat to your foods? Try cutting back, if not cutting it out.
• SKIPPING MEALS: Do you skip breakfast? Or another meal? It's probably best to have a least a snack instead of completely skipping. Otherwise, once you do end up eating, you are far more likely to overindulge.  That then leads to extra calories consumed and weight gain, and is not beneficial to your eating healthy lifestyle.

These are just many ideas to get a jump start on your path to eating right for your healthy diet lifestyle.

• By no means should you do everyone of these things at once!!! Repeat, do NOT attempt to make all these changes at one time. 
• You should pick only one thing to change and dedicate your focus to that. Once you have mastered than, move onto the next lifestyle change to master. 
• Changes should be made no more frequently than once a week, and more ideally, should be done with a 2-3 weeks period apart from one another.  This will help you to be successful and master your new changes in lifestyle!!

If you already know one of your weaknesses, without doing the food intake for three days... consider picking a small change you know will help you, but is also FEASIBLE!  If your goal means to give up something you know you will pick up again in 6 months and eat an entire grocery store's worth of that item, pick something else.  You want to pick something that you know you can change, that way you set yourself up for SUCCESS! 

Good Luck! And remember, start today with ONE small change towards a better lifestyle.  

Healthy Eating Myths

So I was reading different stuff on my phone, having fun surfing the Internet and playing with my new twitter account. Man, someone was reading my mind yesterday!!

I recommend going to the link below for the WebMD article about myths about eating healthy... This definitely supports what I posted about last night. Particularly the part about a diet being all or nothing and thinking of it as something too big to tackle. Take the first step now. Make an oath to make one small change every week or month. One small change can make a huge difference in the long run.


@WebMD_Blogs: I don’t have time to #cook, and other myths that keep unhealthy food habits alive: http://t.co/fW7uQ15Y @mtjacobsen