After Thanksgiving Healthy Eating Tips

Thanksgiving is over! The leftovers are pretty much gone. The desire for more delicious food might not be gone though. Many people just hop right off of the healthy eating train, and eat junk foods for the next month. They avoid the scale, the tightness of their clothes, and turn off their brains. It's a see food feast for sure. It does not need to be that way though!

Simple tips can help you get right back into healthy eating and help you stay there through the next month of seasonal gorging that goes on around you!

1. Practice Healthy Shopping! This is the biggie. If you don't buy junkie foods, you won't eat them. I was at the store yesterday with a friend who is going to be gone for the holidays. She is visiting her son overseas and leaving her other two kids and husband here. She was filling her cart with caloric stocking stuffers at Trader Joe's. They have tons of new candy items for stocking stuffers. They do look amazing. Put the blinders on. She also bought a large container of gummies for her daughter to eat now so she won't want the Christmas treats and whine for them. Overkill. Her daughter is trying to lose weight and does not need the extra 1200 calories of pure sugar now. I bought kind bars for stocking stuffers, which are a healthier treat. My friend complained at the price of the kind bars which was $1.50. She purchased a 4 oz box of salted caramels for $4.99. Not judging, but we do make choices that don't make sense at this time of year and have great justification abilities.

2. Practice Healthy Cooking! Stick with Vegetable laden dishes for the next month. Stir fries, soups, salads, and pasta dishes full of added vegetables are all good ideas. Limit all processed carbohydrates. Just don't buy them. Stir fries are wonderful and don't need a bed of rice or noodles to taste wonderful.

3. Practice Great Meal Planning. A stir fry and half of a sliced apple for dessert is a nice meal. Get rid of all the caloric sides in favor of simple real foods. This will allow you to enjoy a planned treat without guilt.

4. Ramp up your Produce consumption. Include a salad with lunch, and your dinner meal should be at least half vegetables and not just a small side of vegetables, along with tons of pasta and meat. Keep pasta to 1/4 of your plate, if you are preparing it.

5. Practice Clean Eating. If you are going to eat processed foods, make sure you cooked them at home from simple ingredients that don't need a bar code. You can enjoy holiday treats, just make them at home and upgrade the ingredients. Most baked goods are wonderful with whole wheat pastry flour, less sugar, less fat, and filled with fruit. Find treats that are not your grab and go favorites. Cookies are very caloric and many eat a whole lot of them. It is sometimes better to eat a small piece of pie and be done, than grabbing a cookie every time you pass through the kitchen. It's important to know your trigger foods and steer clear of them during the holidays.

6. Limit excess Sweets and Treats! Encourage your coworkers to limit treats and loading their desks with a treasure trove of candy for grab and go. Many companies are encouraging workers to limit treats. I love this! Most people gain weight from a little overeating, over time, rather than massively overeating. If you can limit the times when you overeat a little, you can be a success. This is called the Mindless margin and understanding it can help you to lose weight.

The trick is to practice a little control during the holidays. This is not the time to mindlessly eat, because treats are readily available. It is just a fact of life. If judging from all of the treats at Trader Joe's yesterday is any indication, you are in for a long and tempting holiday season!

Will Power and Your Diet

I don't have enough will power. That is the excuse I hear most often from overweight clients. Is it true and is there a way to increase your will power muscles and give them the strength to say "NO?" You live in a world filled with food. Everywhere you turn, you are faced with food; fast food, processed food, candy, cookies in the lunch room, vending machines, movie popcorn, events centered on foods, giant cheap bags of your favorite chips and more! It's a food lovers dream come true and it's really difficult to say "NO" to all of these food choices. Many of you made New Year's resolutions to change your eating habits and diet. Well most of you have dropped your healthy eating regime by now. You're back to your old ways, believing that you don't have the will power for success. Please do not sell yourself short. Great strategies trump will power!

Strategies to Follow Rather than Willpower!

• Develop a list of Food Substitutions for the foods that tempt you the most. There are many 100 calorie substitutions, but I would encourage you to develop healthy options that will keep you satisfied. Fresh fruit sorbet or fresh fruit mixed with Greek yogurt can be a great substitution for ice cream lovers. My Food Substitutions will be: _______________________________________________________________________.
• Practice Healthy Shopping: Do not buy foods that cause serious temptation and bring them into your home. This sets you up for failure from the start. Make one decision to avoid junk foods at the store and simply walk by your favorites. If you can't do this, then trade shopping with a friend. The foods that I will not buy to avoid temptation are: ______________________________________________________________________.
• Understand your Food History. Each of you is unique. You face food in different places. Develop a food plan that deals with where food touches your life. This will take some evaluation on your part, but is worth the effort. Many of you could change a few unhealthy diet habits and lose weight without dieting. The unhealthy food habits that I will change are: _______________________________________________________________________.
• Keep it simple from the start. If you reduce your daily calories by 500 calories per day without dieting, but cleaning up your diet, you could lose 1 pound per week. If you did this for one year, you would be 52 pounds lighter. The simple goal of one pound per week is totally doable and not overwhelming. I can eliminate 500 calories each day by: ______________________________________________________________________.

Surprisingly March is "National Nutrition Month!" It seems random, but it's a great time to make some Lifestyle Changes without dieting.

Eating Healthy for Cheap

Yesterday I read an article about McDonald's trying to upgrade their kid's meals to make them healthier! Noble goal, but one that I believe is based on Public Relations, rather than health! My opinion! I do not believe that adding treated apples and decreasing fry size, while leaving chicken nuggets on the kid's meal is that much cause for rejoicing. It is a step in the right direction, I guess, but not enough! What concerned me most were the comments of people on this article! It broke my heart! Many people were saying that they had to frequent McDonald's because the food was cheaper than buying food at the market! Really? I pondered this all day! The golden arches seem expensive to me, but I am a frugal cook!

So I am going to keep track of the cost of my meals for a bit, just for my own peace of mind!
Last night we had a giant salad! I was in a hurry! My son had a therapy, right at 6 pm, so dinner was a quickie! I opened a bag of organic spinach which was $1.99 from Trader Joe's! I divided it between four plates. I topped it with chopped cabbage, also from TJ's for $1.19. Next I layered on Broccoli Slaw and used about half of a bag which be a $1.00. I chopped up four large organic strawberries on top of each salad, which I purchased at TJ's for 4.99, but I used only about 1/4 of the package so $1.25. It was a special deal of  $4.99 for 2 pounds of organic strawberries! I added a handful of cranberries, say $1.00 which is more than they probably cost. I also added chopped chicken from a Costco rotisserie chicken. I used about 1/3 of a chicken, so around $1.70. Topped the salad with dressing from TJ's for 1.99 and used maybe 1/2 so $1.00. This meal was delicious, healthy and cheap! It cost $9.15, which for my family of 4, is way cheaper than we can eat at McDonalds! Even if we only allowed each person to choose 2 items from the dollar menu, the cost would have been $8.00, plus tax, plus gas there. I would have come out ahead to eat at home and it was healthier!

Many other meals are so healthy and inexpensive. Even if you do not have access to fresh vegetables, all grocery stores sell frozen vegetables and most grocery stores have sales that you can stock up on these veggies. Soups are healthy and cheap. Make them with grains, beans, frozen veggies (if you can't get fresh), and spices. I use the frozen pea, corn, and green  bean combo all the time for my chicken soup. I add the chicken, spices, 2 16 oz bags of mixed veggies and either rice, couscous or pasta!  Amazing and cheap! I make a huge pot of soup every single week and we eat it for lunches too! Cheap!!!

Use the Costco Chicken, if time is short. My family of 4, 3 adult guys, can get 3 meals from one chicken. I purchased one on Monday. Monday night we had Taco Salad and used one side of the breast, black beans, lettuce, cheese, salsa and organic tortilla chips. Also a cheap meal and less than $10.  Yesterday, we had the spinach salad and used the other half of the breast. Today I am either going to use the rest for a stir fry! Cheap! I buy organic chickens too which are pricier, but I knew this week I was pressed for time!

Grains and Beans are both very cheap, especially if you buy them in bulk! I just wrote up a bean page for my website today, which will take a few days to get on, because I want people to know that they do not have to eat at McDonalds! Beans are amazing and they are not just for poor people! In Mediterranean cultures, beans are huge. It's just our culture that is so meat centric! My kids have been raised on beans because I was raised on beans! No complaints because they are delicious!

Any Grain can become an amazingly delicious salad meal. Try wheat berries, quinoa, rice, couscous, or any grain you find that is cheap can be done like this! Cook your grain and let it cool, add any bean choice, or chopped chicken, and then chop up tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, peppers,  or whatever veggies you have and top with a vinaigrette! It's cheap and filling!

Spaghetti is cheap! A pound of noodles can be bought on sale for $1.00. Use 1/2 pound of hamburger meat. Use a jar of sauce. Even Trader Joe's Organic Pasta sauce is only $2.29. Chop up a pound of zucchini into the sauce too or add a salad and that is still a meal less than $10. Costco has bags of romaine lettuce that are cheap!

I do not live in a food dessert! I live in Seattle, so maybe I am living in a bubble! My family is not rich! I try to buy organics for the dirty dozen at least. I know my local grocery stores well, and which ones carry the best prices on specific organic fruits and veggies, and believe me they all differ! I do not spend my whole paycheck at Whole Foods, but sometimes they do have the best prices. Trader Joe's consistently has great deals, but I realize they are not in every state yet! I love shopping there because they are small, and I do not need so many choices of foods. I want only fresh, real foods and I try to buy the best quality if possible, but I do the best I can. I serve way less meat, because I really can't afford huge amounts of organic meats! I make  meals that are usually cheaper and way more healthy than McDonalds!

Check back! I am going to try and keep track of my food choices this month to prove to myself that it is cheaper to eat at home, than off of the Dollar Menu of Fast food!

Cooking in the Heat

No one enjoys cooking in the heat! Summer is officially here, at least for those of you who don’t live in the Pacific Northwest! Up here we are slowly warming up! As the heat soars, your desire to cook a hot healthy meal dissolves, but it’s not healthy diet habit to live on restaurant food for long. Some lifestyle solutions for cooking in the heat are:

·        Fix simple meals: Meals do not need to be complex to be healthy! Simple meals full of cut up fruits, veggie salads with a meat and grain included, wraps full of meat and veggies, tacos or burritos, quick stir fries full of summer veggies, cold soups, or fresh sandwiches full of nitrate free meats and organic cheeses and lots of chopped veggies, are great choices! Check out the super salad meal chart! Visit your local farmers market for the freshest, tastiest choices!

·        Grill out: My favorite summer meals are grilled. You are all familiar with grilled meats and maybe corn on the cob, but all fruits and veggies can be grilled! They can be placed on the grill if they are cut in large slices, in a grill basket, or placed in a foil packet with seasonings and steamed on the grill. Your grill should be your best friend for summer meals!

·        Use your crock pot: Some of your favorite winter meals can be fixed in your crock pot, which does not heat up your kitchen. There are so many delicious crock pot meals to choose from. Plan ahead, add your veggies and meat to the pot, and a meal is made! Add a chopped salad and cut up fruit for dessert! A great crock pot cookbook is worth the expense! My kids actually beg for crock pot food!

·        Fix light meals: Summer meals should be light and not overly heavy meals. No one wants that stuffed, bloated feeling in the heat! Smaller healthier meals will satisfy and keep you more comfortable. Summer is a great time to take off those extra pounds that you added during the dark winter months when food offered comfort! You just do not need the comfort of heavy foods in the summer!

·        Experiment with some unknown veggies and fruits: There are many fruits and veggies at farmers markets that I have not seen or tasted. Ask venders how they are best fixed and be adventuresome and develop some new favorite recipes. I just learned about avocado squash today and can’t wait to try them out!

Summer is my favorite season for adding lifestyle solutions that make weight control easy! Whatever your cooking method, filling your plate full of veggies and fruits seems like summer. No diet, but just healthy eating! Everywhere you go, fresh produce abounds and should be tasted and enjoyed. Meals that are simple and do not require a lot of time, allow you to get out there and enjoy the great days and long evenings of summer!

Healthy Vacation Foods for Weight Control!

If you are like me, you tire easily of fast food, and plan ways to encourage healthy vacation foods for your family while traveling! This is a healthy diet habit! Summer is almost here, and most of you are finalizing plans for your vacations. Road trips to distant states, trips to lake houses, or a nice visit to your relatives! Here are some tips that will allow you to travel and keep your weight under control!

1.      Travel with snacks always! Kids equate vacations with snacks and mostly unhealthy ones. Win the whining wars early, by providing great snacks. Take a cooler in your car and fill it with cut up veggies, frozen fruit, low-fat cheese sticks and whole wheat crackers, home-made granola, popcorn, soy crisps which are yummy and contain protein, trail mix with nuts and dried fruits, and hummus or peanut butter with pitas. I always try to find a few new ideas that my family will love. We refill our cooler with great snack foods along the way! Make sure that you pack your cooler and snack food bags where they are easily reachable. We have learned this the hard way! Coolers facing the wrong way and snacks buried in the way back under everything!

2.      Take along a picnic lunch. Plan on stopping at a great park or vista along your trip path. My family is always excited about finding a new picnic spot. We have some very fun memories of these travel picnics!

3.      Be prepared for the unavoidable fast food stops. Know what you will eat before you enter fast food restaurants. I guarantee that if you do not do this, you will end up with a meal special, loaded with unwanted calories. Spend a few minutes on-line, before your trip, choosing healthy alternatives at your kid’s favorite spots. If you can’t always provide healthy foods, you can offer some healthy choice advice!

4.      Eat at grocery stores. We do this often because they offer healthier choices. You can find a variety of veggie and fruit salads, soups and chilies, freshly made sandwiches, and fresh juice drinks. This beats fried fast food and sodas any day! There is usually a small area set up for in store eaters too.

5.      Keep your home rules on the road most of the time. We do not drink calories at home and we do not drink calories on the road. All grocery stores have flavored waters or we stick with water. This saves many calories per day. We would rather have a food treat!

6.      Practice portion control on your vacation some of the time. Vacations are a time of fun and fun does not mean that you have to splurge at every meal and overeat. That is a vacation habit that you want to avoid unless you want to return home in the next size clothes.

7.      Practice healthy diet habits on the road. We always delete all sauces, mayo and extra calories from our restaurant meals. Ask for calorie counts on foods before you order and make sure that they fit into your meal plan. If you normally plan for 600 lunch calories, stick close to that number when you eat out. Split portions with your family or order kid size meals for adults which is the correct serving size. If you have a cooler, you can save half of your meal for later.

Vacations are a fun lifestyle solution. We enjoy eating, that adds to our fun. We love to locate quaint little shops to eat in our travel destinations. Some of them are not so healthy, but that is okay. We still talk about the giant feet donuts we got in British Columbia, more than once I might add, but splurges are what memories are made of!

RANT AND TEARS

I am so sorry you guys, I always promise that I will not rant, but I have a personality that stuff bugs me! The good thing is that I am not mean, but rant I must!

Last night after everyone went to bed, I finally had some alone time! Sat down at my computer to write an article for my website. Got distracted by other articles on my facebook page and ended up in tears! Seriously! Head on my keyboard and in tears! Sad because we are all being taken for a ride by big business who knowingly sell us products full of chemicals. Started by reading an article about the new dirty dozen worst produce. Celery is no longer tops, but apples are! Do not eat apples that aren't organic. They are full of chemicals that can't be stripped away with peeling! Read lots of funny comments like "An apple a day keeps the doctor in pay" or something like that! We laugh, but this is a serious problem! Choose organic produce at least for the top offensive produce!

Read another article about the MRSA epidemic in this country and MRSA in meat production. This was the scariest article I read. Much of our meat is tainted with MRSA. Factory workers are greatly infected! Note to self and others. Please purchase rubber gloves while handling meat products, because some meat is infected, and if you have a cut on your hand and handle raw meat, you could be too. Yes, MRSA is destroyed in cooking, but what about all of us who cook and touch raw meat! SCARY! Sent a note to my local "Bill the Butcher" thanking him for bringing organic, chemical, pesticide, steroid, antibiotic free meat to our local community in Woodinville! See, I told you I was nice! He answered with thanks this morning! He is nice too! Check out their stores!

The MRSA article was the one that brought on the tears. I love vegetarian and vegan food, so I started checking out those sites, wondering if I could actually pull off the switch in a family full of guys! They happily eat anything I produce, but enjoy meat. Not going to happen full time. So rubber gloves it is and organic meat for sure! I am a cheapskate at heart and love deals, but I truly believe keeping my family healthy is a good deal. There are other areas that I can save in! Organic meat is not that much more expensive. I am cooking meals with meat as a side, and not the main attraction anyway. I would encourage all of you to do the same! Great healthy diet habit!

I've also been reading about genetically modified products. How they are taking over regular crops and could in the long term wipe out organic farms. Their seeds blow onto organic farms and take over. Organic farmers are put out of business. Many people do not even know what genetically modified products are. People think as long as they are buying their foods from Whole foods and Trader Joe's, that they are safe. Not so! Both of those stores carry GMO products! What is going on with genetic engineering is frightening. Other countries ban this practice or label GMO foods. America does neither! We all eat GMO foods because they are not labeled. Argentina recently cloned a cow that was given human genes, so it could produce milk more similar to humans! Do other people just not know about this or not care? These frankenfoods sure seem wrong to me. The companies say these products are the same and could not possibly harm us! No proof just words! What will they say in 20 years when it is too late?

So the reason for the tears is that so many people still do not know about all of this! They think people that are against all of this stuff are just nuts. I promise you that I am not a nut. I have a science degree in Dietetics, read scientific articles, and and scared to death for my kids, one of whom has autism! Did it come from something that I unknowing ate, breathed, or drank? Tears!

Stir-Fry Away!

Greetings everyone! In honor of half of the United States frying with heat, I thought I would write about stir-fries today. They are a healthy treat on hot days because they are light when veggie filled. I cook mine in a giant 16" stainless steel electric skillet which does not heat up my kitchen! I have never made a stir-fry the same so this will be a generic recipe that you can modify to your hearts content!

Generic Stir Fry


Choose meat of choice: Chicken, Beef, Pork, Vegan chicken choice or tofu, Bratwursts or your choice. Add the amount of meat you like. I use 1/2 pound to 1 pound for 3-4 people. Season meat with pepper, ginger or any spice you love. I like to add more spices than recipes call for. I would add 2 t. of ginger or grate fresh ginger in with your meat. Add 1/4 cup of garlic. I use the chopped jarred garlic because I am lazy. Add a small amount of sesame (best) or olive oil (2T) and stir fry the meat for a few minutes until it is done. Remove from pan.

Choose veggies: Great choices are onions, peppers, celery, cabbage, carrots, zucchini, summer squash, broccoli, broccoli slaw, really any veggie you love will do! I was teaching my son last week and he chose them all! Wild and great! Chop all veggies separately into bite size pieces. Your choice of chop. My son chopped large and it was awesome. I always stir fry each veggie separately and then remove. I add the veggie and a small amount of water (1/4 to 1/2 cup) to avoid calories and stir fry it around until it is still very crispy, then remove to a bowl. Next, next, next, till you are done with all of your veggie choices. This takes a bit longer but I hate mushy veggies and none cook exactly the same!

Add Sauce and Herbs: When it is all done, add everything back in and mix. Add either a predone sauce (Yoshidas) or add a bit of low salt soy sauce and water. I actually just love the taste of the veggies with no sauce. Add in chopped herbs at this point. Love chopped cilantro in everything. Basil works too. Try them all and pick your favorite! Mix it up and heat through.

You can serve this over any whole cooked whole grain, brown rice, whole wheat noodles, or eat it plain. Some times we add a small amount of Yakisoba noodles to our actual stir fry.

Stir fries are very filling great dude food. You can cook huge quantities so it is a great choice for those of you who love to eat large quantities. Fry away in these frying days of summer!

Applying the half plate rule at a party

Last night I went to a Young Life Leaders end of year party with some of my favorite people! Yeah, Young Life Capernaum! Young Life for High school and College kids that are differently-abled! The first thing I did when I arrived, was to check out the meal plan. Chicken and white rice casserole, fresh green beans, fresh fruit salad of mixed melons, Costco white rolls, and s'mores for dessert. I am so not into deprivation, but I also like to practice the half plate rule, so I plan! The half plate rule is to fill your plate half full of fruits and veggies, 1/4 full of your protein source, and 1/4 full of your carbohydrate source.

My plan:

• I know for sure I can make the fruit and green beans fill half of my plate. Great! Half way there! 
• There is dessert on the horizon, which I do want. It is not a great choice, but one I want to indulge in. I know that we will be having a fire, roasting marshmallows, making s'mores, laughing, and having fun! I would feel deprived if I did not make a s'more and eat it! (Not good)
• I will serve myself a small serving of the casserole that would count as my 1/4 plate protein serving.
•  I will opt out on the Costco white roll. If I am going to eat processed food for my grain serving, I would prefer the s'more! 
• I will fill my plate only 3/4 full because I know the s'more will be my carbohydrate 1/4 section of my plate. Remember to do this because dessert counts in your plate!

My plan worked. I filled up on fresh crispy green beans, a large serving of fruit, modest serving of casserole and a s'more. I was satisfied, not deprived, and highly enjoyed the entire meal and evening!

Using the half plate rule is easy to visualize. You know immediately if your choices are off and no one is ever asking you to deprive yourself!

Losing weight

If you are trying to lose weight, you have three choices; go on the latest greatest diet, exercise more, or make longterm lifestyle solutions! Conventional wisdom says that it is all about calories in and calories out. Get them under control and weight control will result. That is what the USDA suggests in their new dietary guidelines. Research is showing there may be more involved. Chemicals, hormones, antibiotics, pesticides and other additives might be interfering with your endrocrine system and actually changing how your body deals with calories, as well as your metabolism, and possibly your fat cell number. Scientists still do not have all of the answers!

What can you do if this is true? My recommendations would be to implement lifestyle solutions like:

• Adopt the half plate rule but use smaller plates. Mounding a large plate, even following the half plate rule, will probably add weight. Remember half of your plate should be fruits and veggies. Aim for more veggies than fruits because they are less caloric.
• Adopt light recipes for your favorites. Most recipes can be just as delicious with reduced calories.
• Adopt the Meatless Monday idea. Have a meatless meal at least one day of the week.
• Make sure you are keeping your starches under control. Remember they are to fill only 1/4 of your plate. One serving of a grain is only 1/2 a cup, which is quite small.
• Eliminate processed foods from your diet as much as possible. Eat real foods. If it comes in a box, bag, or package, it is not real food. If it needs an ingredient list, it is not real food.
• Buy organic meats without antibiotics, or hormones and grass fed or free range. If cattle are given hormones to increase their growth, you are eating the very same hormones. Could these hormones be increasing your weight also? Find a great source of organic meat.
• Buy organic fruits and veggies at least for the most contaminated produce called the dirty dozen. Once again, eating pesticides could be interfering with your endocrine system and causing weight gain.
• Learn correct portions of meat, starches, and fruits, but eat unlimited veggies!
• Limit chemicals in your home. Use green products whenever possible.
• Exercise daily even if it is just brisk walking. Add more steps daily!
• Eat set meals and snacks (mini meals) and end mindless eating.

These are just a few things to think about when you are making lifestyle solutions. The way to personalize your plan is to keep a food journal for a couple of weeks. Evaluate your journal and clean up your problem areas. It is difficult but doable. Unless you want to fight this battle for the rest of your life, it is easier to make a few permanent lifestyle solutions that promote healthy eating and keep your weight under control!

The New My Plate by the Gov!

Well here it is everyone,
The new guidelines for your eating. No more food pyramid, hopefully ever again. It was very confusing. The half plate rule is simple to understand. Learn to rate your plate. Does my plate really look like this. I think you will quickly see that you do not fill half of your plate with fruits and veggies and grains, they are are on the overdone. I quickly see a couple of things that I would add.

1. Be careful with fruits. They are more caloric than veggies. Eating fruits at each meal and also at your snacks will put you fruit heavy. Might be great to make dinner, half of a plate of veggies (large salad and a veggie).

2. Once you get grains under control, I would aim as close to 100% whole grains as you can.

3. Switch to smaller plates. You could use huge plates and eat this way and grain weight! If your plates do not fit in your dishwasher or cupboard, you might be in trouble.

4. Smaller plate sizes are the easiest way to keep portions under control. Simple. Your brain is satisfied and your tummy will be too.

5. Ditch all caloric drinks. The average person drinks 450 calories of liquid a day! Eating is way better!

6. Go with all organic products if possible! Fighting Obesity is more than just balancing calories in and calories used! Chemicals are messing with our hormonal systems!

This is a great start in the right direction but keep getting educated!!!!!!!

    

	Balancing Calories
	●	Enjoy your food, but eat less.
	●	Avoid oversized portions.
	Foods to Increase
	●	Make half your plate fruits and vegetables.
	●	Make at least half your grains whole grains.
	●	Switch to fat-free or low-fat (1%) milk.
	Foods to Reduce
	●	Compare sodium in foods like soup, bread, and frozen meals ― and choose the foods with lower numbers.
	●	Drink water instead of sugary drinks.                   PDF

New Day

Holiday weekends are not known for being diet friendly! The extra holiday day just seems to turn our heads to mush and we eat foods that we normally resist, and portions that are large scale! Many of us started out today with renewed thoughts of finally getting this weight game under control!

Today, I watched the first installment of Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition. I usually do not like these shows because they are not real life. Most of us do not have an army to back our weight loss. This show was different. There will be eight chosen clients, who will strive to lose half of their weight in a year. Each show is about a separate client and their year long process. So you get it, the year is over. They are not competing with anyone. This weight loss is for them. They are doing it for them. They have help in the beginning for one week, because they must learn what they need to do, and then they are on their own for the next year. They are reweighed every three months and their progress is registered. If they lose half of their weight by the end of the year, then they qualify for skin surgery to take off all of the hanging skin from their weight loss. Seems like a great deal!

Last nights show was about Rachel, a PE teacher. She was 220 pounds overweight. She had been the homecoming queen in high school, as well as valedictorian, an overachiever in other words. She was tired of being disappointed in herself. She started out at 369 pounds.

I do not want to give the show away. It is worth watching. What I loved about it is:

• I liked that they showed Rachel as so vulnerable. She said of her weight, "This is all about the mistakes I have made and all the things that I have done to myself"
• They showed how difficult weight loss is and how family often brings you down. Her family was behind her, but not supporting her in their actions. They left all kind of junk food out and around and did not buy healthy foods. It took a few months and tears for them to come around completely!
• Rachel only met her first goal completely. She almost met her second goal, but was 5 pounds off. She only lost 3 pounds from 6 months to 9 months but was still given the weight loss surgery. She ended up losing to 208 pounds and looked amazing. She was still 23 pounds above her original goal to lose half of her weight.

Even though Rachel did not meet all of her goals, and one time only lost 3 pounds in a three month period, she was honest and dealt with it. Together they solved her problems honestly, and gave her more training in nutrition. I loved that. The show was real. Most of us are not machines. We are real people. Weight loss is complex, but do able. It is about figuring yourself out. Practicing honesty with yourself. Even though Rachel did not make every single one of her goals, she pressed on, and she was rewarded for her persistence and looked wonderful. I loved that. Do not give up when you feel like it!

Memorial Day Memories

Today is Memorial Day. The usual holiday wish of Happy, as in Happy Memorial Day, just does not fit. This is not a happy day for many families of service men and women who have served, but not come home. Wives, husbands, kids, parents, friends, and the rest of us mourn with those of you who have lost a loved one. Our wishes, prayers, and thoughts are with you today! This will be a day of remembering!

My Dad was a Lt. Col in the Army. He served for a year in Korea and two years in Vietnam. He was a pilot who flew reconnaissance missions in Korea, flew supplies to troops in Vietnam on one tour, and was in charge of an airfield for his second tour of duty! He was gone from home when I was in first grade and ninth grade. Very difficult years for me and my poor Mom, who was left caring for unruly kids who needed their Dad! We are the lucky family though, because our Dad came home and is still with us and doing well.

My heart is with all of the kids without parents, whose parents are serving right now. It is a heavy burden to live with daily, wondering if your Mom or Dad is okay today. Kids are too young to understand what is really going on. My encouragement to everyone is to reach out to these families right now. Do not wait until they have lost their loved one. Reach out right now. Offer what you can. Invite military kids to your father-son camp outs, if their Dad is gone. Mother-daughter activities also! Do whatever you can to help military kids to make it through! This is a way you can greatly serve military families! It could change a kid's life in the process too!

It is easy to honor bravery with kind words but it is another to take action. Take action this year and reach out to military families and include them in your family, your family celebrations, and reach out to their kids! Be a surrogate Mom or Dad in any way that they will allow! Let's celebrate Memorial Day each day this year as we honor those brave servicemen and women and their families!

Thoughts and Prayers for Military Families! Kerry

Food Guidelines of the Herbfarm

This morning I was checking through my facebook business pages and I ran across "Food Guidelines of the Herbfarm." For those of you who do not live in the Seattle area, "The Herbfarm" is the gold standard of restaurants. I personally believe that we should all be able to make comparable meals at home, so I was excited to see the tenets of their beliefs! Their chefs totally rule!


THEIR BELIEFS:

• No dish can be better than its ingredients and that the best ingredients are usually local! Yeah!
• Chefs who cook with local ingredients develop a more complete understanding of the foods they use and this understanding can give rise to great expressions of the food, its prep and enjoyment.
• Supporting local farmers, foragers, cheesemakers, and fishermen, helps preserve local foods. 

THEIR CREED:

• They will not use products that can only be grown in another climate!
• Foods should only be used in season when they taste better, and if they are not in season should be dried or preserved locally or by the restaurant.
• They should showcase herbs! (I believe herbs are their secret ingredient!)
• Menus should flow in a balanced progression without repeating foods or flavors (translation: lots of variety)
• Menus will delight all.

Well, I started thinking of their beliefs and creed, and imagined a world full of home chefs cooking this way! Don't we all love amazing delicious foods? Why has food developed into something that comes in a bag or box? Are we really that busy? Do we really enjoy those processed salted cardboard foods? Have we lost our ability to taste? Have we really believed advertisers that these fake foods taste great? Why don't we strive to cook delicious foods? I don't know. I do know that fresh foods, full of herbs, are mouthwatering. I deserve to eat this way. I will buy farm fresh local foods this year, grow my own herbs, grow my own specialty lettuce crop in my garage hydroponic set up, and fix delicious fresh local meals!

 The best ingredients do make a difference! Join me this season in cooking organic local farm fresh foods and herbs! Check out your local farmers market or join a CSA this year! Happy Cooking!!!

Memorial Day Weekend

Wow, it is that time again! Do the years keep going faster or what? Here is to hoping that you all have a wonderful holiday weekend full of family and friends. This said as my husband just departed for a weekend away with his fishing buddies! I rate! Seriously, I hope to have some big girl play dates with friends! Maybe see a movie. I am forcing this on myself because I would prefer and could choose to spend the weekend slaving away on my website and making it so pretty. Life is short and we all need play! So I will play!

This morning I intended to finish up a few lose ends but I started reading twitter posts. Hours later, I am so confused. I have read many new things and lots of contradictory information. How can we begin to know where to start on weight control when even experts are torn. So sorry to all of you. My goal is always to make information meaningful and clear and to use balance! Please always correct me if I am off base ever! Here are some of the interesting and confusing things that I read:

• From the government, I read that we are burning 150 less calories per day than in 1960. This corresponds to our countries' weight gain. (No mention of increased intake of processed foods and that we do not eat and buy real foods anymore)  Think of 150 calories a day, times 50 years worth of days, and that is tons of extra calories and weight gain. They say it is all about calories. If you put in more than you burn,you will gain weight and we have. That is it and they solved the obesity problem. The government is amazing! You need 150 minutes of exercise per week and 3 out of 4 of you are not doing this! You might be in the 2/3 of people who are overweight or obese. Lack of exercise is where it is at! Weight control is hardly that simple, even though exercise definitely plays a part.
• There is a new Food Pyramid from the USDA that is due out on June 2 and it is supposedly super simple. It will benefit all of us. It must be the half plate rule, which is simple. I can't wait to see what the government says I should eat. It can only be an improvement because the current food pyramid is very confusing and hard to understand. Do you guys even look at the food pyramid to make your choices? Do we even have nutrition education at most schools? I sure hope this will change because the obesity crisis is really a crisis of worldwide concern!
• There is a new group of Diet Bully's in our nation! You know those people who do not what you to eat what you love but change everything you eat and follow their diet! They must bully because people are wising up that diets do not work long term! But making a new diet is one of the quickest ways to become a millionaire. So they resort to bullying! Do not buy new diet books. Learn to eat for health and learn to eat what you love sensibly!
• Health writers should track the money behind medical studies! Do not even get me started on this one or I might rant and I promised I would not! I lied! Funding done for studies often has strings attached. If a study is funded by a pharmaceutical company, it will more likely have outcomes that favor the sponsor. If they do not favor the funder, the money will dry up. Health writers are lulled in and quote the results and we all buy them hook, line, and sinker (Fishing on my mind from my husband tying flies all week.) 

Weight Loss is not Easy. New amazing studies will not make it easier. A new food pyramid will not make it easier. Adding more exercise will help but is not the total answer. No one is going to bully you into weight loss. You must become the expert and find what works for you! We are all different and one size does not fit all! Healthy Diet Habits and Lifestyle Solutions to correct your problem areas and habits works!

Healthy Eating for Kids

Happy Tuesday everyone! Hope that all is going well! Today is another day of random thoughts from me. Too long without blogging!

 I got up this morning and someone had posted a disgusting picture of something that looked like pink frozen yogurt but was really a goop of meat that had removed from the bones. The goop was recolored and flavored and used in hot dogs, salami, chicken tenders and the like. Gross. Jamie Oliver did an experiment showing American kids that chicken tenders were made from this goop. American kids were happy to eat the final product. British kids were grossed out. Jamie Oliver was blown away that American kids were not grossed out. Why are our kids culturally different? These kids looked 7 or 8 years old? How is there hope for the obesity epidemic in this country if even young kids do not care? They said they would eat it because they were hungry. I have been saddened all morning. But I will keep plugging away because I want to change people's thinking if possible.

I dropped my son off at school and then went to Trader Joe's. I carefully purchased my products. Organic veggies and foods that were not genetically modified, even though that meant spending a little extra money. I had a nice chat with the checker and we chatted about the wonders of cabbage and all that you could do with it. Stir fries, salads, and literally anything that has mixed ingredients could take a helping of cabbage. We also talked about how filling it is. How cabbage is the greatest food item to keep you full. I was starting to feel better. Maybe people do care about what they eat! She also blew me away by saying she was eating the frozen wild salmon patties and cabbage salad for dinner tonight. Very few people menu plan and to find someone that had planned a healthy dinner was heartening. She was a young girl in her twenties! Yay!

My thought for today is: Food choices matter to your health. Plain and simple. If you eat crap, you will feel like crap. If you eat healthy food, you will feel better, have more energy, think better, have less food cravings, have better control of your weight, less chance of heart disease, and diabetes. I could fill an entire page of the other health benefits of healthy eating. Please take this information to heart and feed your families and yourself well. 

Happy Healthy Eating All!