"Fuel your body...Delight your senses"
Stephanie Brina-Herres, MS, RD, CDN
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Mar
3
2015
Lifestyle matters! This year’s National Nutrition Month® (NNM) is “BITE INTO A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE ” with the spotlight on YOU!
The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics is encouraging you to review your own lifestyle. Consider what might work best for YOU to promote your overall health and well-being. (Note that all images in this blog post are the property of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and only displayed in honor of the Academy’s celebration of National Nutrition Month® and National Registered Dietitian Nutritionist Day).
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May
12
2013
Since it is springtime, we thought it would be a good time to share some infotainment relative to various sensory elements that can set the tone for mealtimes.
Those sensory elements can include, but are not limited to, ones which are visual in nature, or are from sound, are aromatic, pertain to taste, or are textural, all of which can influence the tone at mealtimes.
Sensory elements may interplay in multiple ways in terms of mealtime atmosphere as well, but that’s a topic for another time.
These principles can be especially beneficial to keep in mind if you have any family members or friends who are particularly sensitive to light, sound, smell, taste, or texture or otherwise cope with life issues such as those involved with hyperactivity or autism spectrum disorder.
You can apply what is known about sensory elements when setting the stage for any dining scenario as these principles can apply when preparing mealtimes for your own family unit or when you are involved in setting the stage for any get dining together(s) with others.
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May
3
2013
Although researchers have studied locations around the world described for their “Blue Zone” longevity status, some researchers ultimately went elsewhere in the world to seek out information about characteristics of “happiness” per se.
They were seeking to find individuals, some of whom are more affected by the modern day world and industrialized society, who expressed being happier in their lives.
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Apr
26
2013
In the first blog post in this two-part series, we mentioned that Dr. Michel Poulain, a Belgian demographer researching longevity, along with Dr. Gianni Pes, a medical statistician tied to the University of Sassari, Italy, coined the name Blue Zone.
Why choose the name Blue Zone you ask?
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Apr
8
2013
Health care costs continue to spiral upwards out of sight.
The sad reality is that experts are estimating that health care costs will just keep on climbing at a rate of 8-9% or more per year unless Americans as a nation positively change their health related behaviors.
The population health of Americans overall continues to decline. Current health care reform legislation does NOT address a way to actually lower health care costs overall.
Employers looking at employee benefits & risks and reviewing current health currency statistics are concerned and with good reason. Consulting firms such as Towers Watson estimate per employee health care costs incurred by corporate employers and came up with a figure over 12K for this year of 2013 alone.
Dollar sign image courtesy of ba1969 at rgbstock.com.
Faced with tough financial decisions, some employers are now deciding to mandate the imposition of penalties along with increasing other aspects of health care cost-sharing paid by employees who don’t participate in health-risk assessments, don’t report health measurement parameters, and don’t take steps to reduce health-risk when given the opportunity. Employees will have to ask for more input when it comes to matters of certain types of elective surgeries or else pay a penalty for deciding to have such surgery without having considered the other options that might have been available to them.
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Apr
3
2013
Registered Dietitians (RDs) aka Registered Dietitians Nutritionists (RDNs) are health care professionals who are fond of saying that good food habits beat out fad diets any day.
Habits have been a prime time topic in the media for decades.
Research is now showing that indeed some habits may be keystone ones that dramatically influence one’s chances of success in achieving what one really desires.
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Jan
3
2013
In Part 2 of 3 of this blog series we mentioned that you’ve probably heard of the “stages of readiness” for making actual behavior change based on the work of Prochaska & other colleagues. In Part 1 of 3 of this blog series we talked about what to expect from a professional resource and even touched on the subject of health coaching.
In Part 1 of 3 of this blog series we also cited an example of a chance encounter we had in the produce section of a supermarket highlighting that timing is everything and how it provided an opportunity to support someone who was ready to make a positive choice for behavior change at the point of purchase.
Opportunities for making small changes in life can occur at any time on any day.
We also mentioned a simple downloadable pdf with some family stories focusing on “A Year of Being Well” that mention how anyone can implement small changes and have those steps add up in improving the quality of their lives. The family members kept some key points in mind as they engaged in behavior change that made it easier for each of them to be successful.
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Jan
3
2013In Part 1 of 3 of this blog series we mentioned a chance encounter in a supermarket with a man who had reached the produce section and wanted to buy more salad vegetables, but was stymied once he was actually in the store at the point of purchase.
He almost walked away without any salad ingredients because he was still going through the stages of making an actual behavior change.
All he needed was a little encouragement, information & support in his decision making once he was right there in the store. Timing can make such a huge difference in life!
He’d been thinking about eating more vegetables as one of his New Year’s Resolutions for 2013, but hadn’t yet gone through all of the stages of readiness to really be fully prepared to follow through on such behavior change.
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Jan
3
2013We’ll start off this blog post with a true story about a chance encounter with someone in the supermarket who appeared to be ready to make behavior change just this week.
While shopping on the day before New Year’s Eve, a fellow shopper was staring at various salad making packages in the produce section.
He seemed to be trying to decide if he should get a package and if so, which one to get.
He had put a package with added seasoning packets into his cart, then just as our cart was reaching that section, turned right around and put the package back onto the produce cooler shelf. His hands were then moving around between two other packages and he was hesitating before he drew them back. His body language indicated it was likely he was about to leave the produce area with no selection made.
Noticing our cart, he offered to get out of the way, saying he knew he should be eating more vegetables and was thinking of getting some salad greens, but he really was unsure of what to get. “I know I should be eating more vegetables and I really want to, but I’m not much of a cook” he said.
This was a split second opportunity to support him in what he really wanted to do, before he wheeled his cart away due to self doubt in his own food shopping & preparation skills and missed the chance to turn his intent into action. Fortunately he had no dietary restrictions to consider.
Asking him if he preferred any type of salad green(s) over others, it turned out he did prefer the mixed baby greens. Next we determined if he had any seasonings already at home and he remembered he had some Italian Seasoning blend he liked–so we discussed quickly how he could sprinkle that on a plate of mixed baby greens.
Then it was time to determine if he liked his salad with anything else in it or on it. Once it was clearer what he enjoyed, it was easy to discuss how to simply add some of those other raw vegetable items he liked that were right there ready-to-use, and then working with some other preferences he expressed, review options for a touch of a more healthful salad dressing with taste and flavor elements he liked to top it all off.
This discussion in total literally took just about a minute, but in that time he was able to move into preparation for behavior change and then next hopefully take action and actually change his behavior since he left the produce section with ingredients in his cart and a big smile on his face and said “thanks” for the help.
He appeared ready to make behavior change–he just needed to see how he could successfully do it. He verbalized a stumbling block to making change was his doubt of his own food shopping & preparation skills. He just needed a little help when shopping in order to feel confident about making fresh produce choices in the supermarket.
Coping With New Year’s Resolutions That Involve Behavior Change
Yes, it’s that time of year again when people begin the annual cycle of making New Year’s Resolutions that might involve behavior change.
It happens every new year. Just as life is a cycle, so is each year. Sometimes failed attempts at previous New Year’s Resolutions are “recycled” and sometimes new resolutions that involve behavior change are contemplated.
Many people have probably been going through thinking about making some 2013 New Year’s Resolutions, just as this man stated his desire to start eating more vegetables in the new year. Some might even be considering exactly how they might implement such behavior change.
The man in the supermarket went shopping without a grocery list, so he hadn’t taken all the steps necessary to help himself once he got to the supermarket to shop more confidently and purchase the items that would allow him to make the behavior change to eat more vegetables.
Others may not yet have fully crystallized their thoughts on the topic. They may not realize what is actually involved in making serious behavior change or they may not yet be convinced they need to make any serious behavior change.
(Image of “A Year of Being Well” property of & courtesy of the Michael and Susan Bell Foundation and shown here for illustrative purposes only).
Many New Year’s Resolutions have to do with behavior change involving food consumption +/or fitness. Keep in mind that for an approach to work long term, you will probably have to adopt some new behaviors.
If you seek professional advice and assistance, just what should you expect to receive?
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