New research reveals...the correct way to weigh yourself (JOKE)

Thanks to my mother-in-law, Beverly for sending this to me today. My clients who are always so intimidated to get on my office scale...this is dedicated to YOU. No need to stop by the bathroom beforehand with this method. Ha!

End Mealtime Struggles with Children

Are you the parent of a picky eater? If so, you know how stressful mealtimes can be. I counsel many parents that are up to their eyeballs at getting their children to eat balanced and have ample variety. Having young children of my own, I have had to deal with the challenges and opportunities of modeling good eating behaviors.

There are several things that we need to remember about children when it comes to eating. The first thing is that research shows that children need to be exposed to some foods 15-20 or even more times before they find them acceptable. Where parents go wrong often times is that they see their child rejects certain foods while preferring others. They take that information and create future meals with the preferred foods only. Why? I believe much of the reason is our innate drive to nourish our children and wanting them to eat. The problem is that we will do this over and over again until one day you find that your child only likes 7-10 foods. Hence, he/she is now the "picky eater." Instead, what we should do is to make a family meal that includes a variety of food - including some of your child's favorite foods - and serve all those foods on each plate. Even though you know your child might reject some food items, that is OK.

The other thing we need to remember is that children are extremely good at eating when they are hungry and not eating when they are not. In general, they do not eat according to any clock or time schedule. You'll notice that a normal child's eating pattern usually involves waves of high hunger - i.e., eating a lot at meals - to waves of low hunger where they don't eat much at all. These waves can last several days. This is very normal. Again, with our desire to nourish our children in the back of our minds, we get concerned because they are not eating as much as we think they should eat. So, we might do things such as make separate meals for them that includes all their favorite foods or we might force them to eat. Some even force them to eat the "good for you" foods such as vegetables. All these actions come from a very good place, but they are not recommended.

We need to get back to the basics. Include a variety of foods in your home with emphasis on lean meats, whole grains, fresh produce, healthy fats and low-fat dairy. Eat as many family meals as possible with the absence of distractions and controversial conversation. Fix one meal for all and get back to allowing your children 2 choices of drinks - milk or water. I love Ellyn Satter's very easy-to-understand Responsibilities in Feeding:

- Parents are responsible for what, when and where of the feeding
- Children are responsible for how much or whether to eat

I was taught this information in dietetic school and once I had children, I fully appreciated the challenge of living this out. However, my 5 year old, Hannah, is living proof that this works. She is now at a point where she loves all different kinds of foods and will try almost anything. My 2 year old, Evan, is still learning to "trust" different foods. But I continue to serve him everything, and I am much more confident in the process with him. He is slowly adding foods as he watches me, my husband and his sister enjoy the variety on our plates. It works!

By the way, Ellyn Satter is a dietitian and social worker that is an expert in child feeding. She's got a ton of free information on her website and has written many books on the subject. Check her out!

One last note about children and eating --> I re-discovered a book on my office bookshelf entitled, "The Healthy Luncbox: How to Plan, Prepare & Pack Stress-Free Meals Kids Will Love." It's a great book for parents looking to revamp their kid's school lunches! I got some ideas for Hannah's lunch and am excited to fix them.

Making Dinner Happen

I don't know about you, but making dinner happen for my family can be a challenge. Both Jeff and I have our own careers, my daughter has school activities, Girl Scouts and gymnastics and my 2 year old son's hunger does not like to wait for anything! I've tried so many different tactics myself and I've spoken to hundreds of my clients about their own struggles with this issue and I've found the easiest and most successful process in making dinner happen:

1. Make a realistic goal for how many home meals vs. eating out you will have in a given week. If you are eating out 4-5 times per week right now, making a goal of not eating out at all would be unrealistic for you. Start with decreasing your eating out and then move it down over time. In general, I believe the ultimate goal of keeping the eating out down to 2 days per week is a good goal to shoot for.

2. Plan your meals for an entire seven (7) day period. Make a spreadsheet or worksheet that makes it easy to write each day of the week and beside that day, put the meal you have chosen. For example, our family chooses to eat out every Friday evening, so I write that in next to my Friday spot. Plan out lunches the same way. Use your recipe books, online resources and family favorite meal ideas to fill in your sheet. Make sure you take into consideration leftovers! Either plan to redo leftovers to make something else or stretch one meal over 2 dinner nights. Or plan to eat leftovers for some of the parent and/or child lunches. This saves time and money.

3. Now make your grocery list and go shopping for those items. Take the worksheet from above and list out all the food items you need at the grocery store. Include healthy snacks and basic everyday food and beverages along with sundry and cleaning items. Note that you will be shopping for an entire 7 day period. This allows you to go on auto pilot for the week! Pick the same day each week to plan the week out and go grocery shopping. For many people it is a weekend day, but for others that have time during the week it could be a day when less people are out grocery shopping. That is the best scenario.

My very favorite meal planning resource is The Six O'Clock Scramble. It is a monthly subscription that you can pay for which will provide you with 5 fast, healthy and great-tasting meals in your email box one a week. What's so awesome about this subscription is that each week comes with its own grocery list of all the items needed for the meals! And if you don't like one or more of the recipes, no problem. Go onto the Scramble website and pick/choose your own meals. Once you are done, it calculates your grocery list! Aviva Goldfarb, the author of both the subscription and the cookbook The Six O'Clock Scramble is a genius. She's got another book coming out in April, place your order now on Amazon.com for delivery upon release.

Happy Eating!!

Snack for Weight Loss

We all have our favorite snacks. My favorites include Triscuit crackers, 2% swiss chese and a low-sodium V-8 or sour green apples with Almond butter. I am such a creature of habit! I could eat the same 3-4 snacks over and over. But just like you, I need to challenge myself to try new meals and snacks in order to maintain a varied diet. This helps us achieve optimum levels of vitamins and minerals.

I am telling you, one of the ways to achieve a healthy weight is by snacking. YES, snacking!! Your parents or grandparents probably thought that snacking was a bad thing (especially in the Hispanic culture), but it actually helps you to avoid overeating at meals. It takes practice - many of my clients tell me one of their biggest hurdles is to plan their meals and snacks. They get caught up in life and forget to eat! Make healthy snacking a priority, and you will find your overal health goals much easier to attain.

A new article came out in the Dallas Morning News entitled, "Plan to Snack to Conquer Cravings" that offer some great healthy snacks. I, along with other areas dietitians, were interviewed and they asked us for some of our favorite snacks. One of my other snack favorites is also listed. Check it out, brand names are listed by all!

Healthy Lifestyle Goals for 2010

My husband, Jeff, has talked me into doing something CrAzY in about a year. We are going to climb one of the largest mountains in the world. No, NOT Everest. I'm not that crazy! We're gonna go to Tanzania to summit Mount Kilimanjaro. It's a pretty big challenge for me and to be honest, I'm scared! In preparation for this expedition, I need to train my body in new ways throughout 2010 in order to gain additional muscle and endurance. They say the physical part is not so difficult, but the fact that I'd be in Africa camping for about 7 days on a gigantic mountain is quite intimidating. I am not one of those thrill seekers. In fact, I actually have real fears about stupid things. Fear would quite easily dominate my life if I let it. But still, I love the analogy that can be made when comparing this challenge to life. We all have our own "mountains" in life. Some have many mountains. The meaning of life cannot be found by avoiding mountain after mountain. It is facing them head on!

I may not be able to talk you into climbing Kili with us, but I do want to challenge you to set out to make 2010 your BEST year yet. We've all faced challenges in 2009, and I've even heard many say that they are extremely happy to have this past year behind them. The past is the past. Let us all strain forward and receive all the great things that this new decade has in store for us. No, it's not by sitting around waiting for it to happen. Let destiny do its part, but you need to meet your destiny halfway.

In January's Nutrition Tidbits, I asked several dietetic colleagues what they will be doing in 2010 to maintain good health. Check out what they had to say. What will it be for you? In other words, what is your mountain(s) to climb?

Let's start this year off strong with measurable yet reachable healthy lifestyle goals. And let us reach them together. Take a chance. Do something different to change things up. Challenge yourself in new ways. You will not regret it!

Getting Back Into Routine

I don't know about you, but my daily routine has been ransacked over the Holidays. It's great to change things up -- I am not complaining at all. We need a break from the same 'ole, same 'ole. But it's also nice to get back into some semblance of normalcy. Our family did a lot of travelling, which required leaving our home and staying in multiple locations. This includes eating different foods, waking and sleeping at alternate hours as well as having less control over when you can find time to exercise.

For me, it's been a time of new discoveries. When I was at my sister's home in Reading, Pennsylvania, she turned me on to her On Demand exercise videos. She has Comcast Cable, but I remembered that I also have a similar set-up with my AT&T Uverse in Texas. Kathy and I worked out with Jillian Michaels one day and Billy Banks, Jr. another day. It was quite fun! Besides, you may have heard about all the snow the northeast got -- my favorite exercise past time, running, was out of the question so I had to find alternate ways to keep the activity going. In addition to Pennyslvania, we visited the exciting city of New York City. Needless to say, we got a lot of walking in as we explored the lights and adventures all around us. My 2 year old son refused to walk, so I carried him most of the time. Great arm and leg workout! [Check out the picture of me with my family in Time Square!] The foods we got to experience were wonderful. My brother-in-law spoiled us with homemade ravioli and Italian wedding soup one night followed by homemade traditional Italian pizza another night. Desserts included homemade canolis and my sister's famous chocolate cake. Decadent and rich all around!

I know most of you have had a similar situation. You may not have travelled this year, but your Holiday has taken you away from your typical routine. The research shows that the average person may only gain a couple pounds around the Holidays, but the key thing to ensure is that you do not carry those behaviors on throughout the year. Otherwise, those couple pounds could end up translating to 10 more pounds throughout the 2010. Get back into the groove with your healthy lifestyle TODAY. In the January edition of Nutrition Tidbits, there will be many dietitians that will discuss the things they will personally do in their own life to make 2010 the healthiest year yet - including me! I will post a link to that newsletter as soon as it is published. Here's to a Healthy and Happy New Year!

Staying Healthy Through the Holidays

It's amazing how many parties there are in December! But what a fun time to get together with friends and family to remember the reason for the season. But just like you, I need to stay relatively balanced so my healthy lifestyle track doesn't get too far off-kilter. Here are some survival strategies so we can all remember in order to stay on track through the Holiday season:

• Avoid starving yourself in preparation for a party or get together. This is a very common approach, but it is a guaranteed way to take in too many calories. Instead, strategize a plan so you can enjoy calorie-rich foods in moderation.
• Maximize the veggie tray. Most parties do have some lower calorie fare such as vegetable trays and salads. Load your plate with larger portions of these foods to keep your total calories in check.
• Watch those alcohol calories! The average alcoholic drink is around 150 calories, so be mindful of how many you enjoy. Not only do these calories add up, but drinking alcohol decreases inhibitions and could cause you to overeat.
• Contribute the healthier dish. If you need to bring a dish to a potluck party, bring a healthy dish to balance out the higher calorie choices. Most people that have healthy mindsets are very thankful for these type of dishes. This also ensures that you have some low calorie choices to include with the higher calorie foods you plan to eat.
• Be mindful of mindless eating and grazing. Many people tend to eat in the absence of hunger during social situations because the food is simply there. Try and be extra conscious about why you are eating. It sounds obvious, but make sure you only eat when you are hungry and not just because the food is merely there in front of you. Go back to the basics.
• Increase physical activity. Who says time spent with family during the Holidays has to only involve eating and sedentary activities? Be the encourager of your family by suggesting a refreshing morning walk or even an after dinner game of hoops at a local park. Be creatively deliberate about staying active, which is sure to help avoid Holiday weight gain.

Our family is heading to the northeast to celebrate Christmas with friends and extended family members. We will be enjoying many holiday foods of many types. We plan to implement these tips while we travel. There are many trails where we're heading, so my husband and I are looking forward to bundling up and doing some long trail jogs together to maintain our physical activity.

Hope you have a very safe, happy and Healthy Holiday!