Fight the Winter Blues Part 2: Balancing Comfort Food Cravings

Ahhhh.....the effects of comfort foods. Why is it that we crave more comfort foods in the winter time? I think there is certainly a tempertature connection - comfort foods warm us up inside and make us feel nice and cozy. I get that. But there may be even more at play here. A lack of energy expenditure can cause some people to have episodes of insomnia. It is a fact that people that are inactive have a tendency to have disrupted sleep patterns. Comfort foods can help increase serotonin levels, which can assist helping people fall asleep. The next time you eat a big bowl of pasta, make note of how it makes you feel afterward. If you haven't been very active, most likely it will make you feel tired.

Webster tells us that comfort foods are "foods prepared in a traditional style having usually a nostalgic or sentimental appeal." Comfort foods also have a reputation of being high-calorie and high-fat, which can be a concern if eaten excessively. What is your favorite comfort food? My favorite comfort food by far is mashed potatoes. Potatoes in any form is and has always been a love of mine, but there is something about homeade smashed, buttery and salted potatoes. [Have you ever met a meat and potatoes dietitian?? If not...nice to meet you!!] Whatever your favorite, allow yourself those indulgences balanced with lower fat, lower calorie foods. The great thing to note is that many comfort foods are high nutritive quality. The Eating Well website provides several food recipes that can provide the comfort while not sacrificing on nutrients. I love their baked mac and cheese recipe with a layer of spinach in the middle. :) Look for comfort food recipes that provide the calorie content so you can get an idea of what you are eating, especially if you are trying to lose weight or lower your cholesterol. Even the healthy versions can still get up there in calories, but if you balance your eating patterns out with lower calorie foods, you can still enjoy them. Another great healthy comfort food recipe resource is Evelyn Tribole's Homestyle Cooking Cookbooks. Every dish I make out of her cookbooks are amazing!

My take home message to myself and everyone else as we round out the winter season is to enjoy some of your favorite comfort foods in moderation. Counteract excessive cravings with creative, winter time exercise and you are good to go!

Fight the Winter Blues Part I: Invigorate & Energize Naturally

Are you feeling the winter blues? You know, that sleepy, low movement, low energy, hibernation mode with excessive cravings for comfort foods? As a healthy lifestyle educator that promotes regular physical activity, I am feeling it myself and chance are, you are as well. If you are, don't be discouraged. Luckily, spring is just around the corner. Weather - good or bad - can set the tone of our moods if we let it. It's great when it's a positive effect such as the feeling a nice, sunny day has on us. But it can be quite challenging if you are living in area of the country that provides several dreary, cold and/or cloudy days back to back. The majority of the states throughout the country are experiencing this for short or long spurts. My favorite workouts have always been outdoors, although I do not prefer to workout in cold and wet weather. If you are like me, this can be a recipe for missing regular workouts.

On top of the weather challenge, most Americans have sedentary jobs. Even my job of improving the health of others requires many hours in front of a computer. This "screen time" - whether you work professionally from home or at the office - must be counteracted by purposeful physical activity in order to keep us fit and healthy.

For me, mornings and late afternoons are great opportunities for workouts at home. What time of day is best for you? Whether you have 5 minutes or an hour, there are many opportunities to get your heart rate up and energize. Push away that temptation to reach for caffeine and instead break the day up with a workout! If the weather is poor, consider doing your workouts indoors. I love doing Exercise TV workouts through my AT&T Uverse Free On Demand, but you can also download the workouts straight off their website. My favorite trainers are Jillian Michaels and Steve Maresca - check them out! Both of them use such great words of motivation throughout their workouts which helps in maximizing your time. Exercise TV have everything from yoga to pilates to target zone training. What is also great is that many of them do not require any equipment. And if you only have 5 or 10 minutes, no problem. They have a quick, pick-me-up workouts that will get your heart rate up and help in finishing the day off strong. Regular exercise and proper nutrition together are the keys to beating the winter time blues. Set the timers on your phones or computers to remind yourself to get UP and get moving every so often. You may have something else in place like a treadmill or a mini trampoline or even the Wii Fitness. If you are at a workplace, take a 10 minute break and walk the staircase or walk the corporate floor. Whatever it is, take time to move. Endorphins will be released and you will have a renewed outlook on the responsbilities that lie before you. Let's do life together, and stay strong in body, mind and spirit. In Part 2, we will discuss ways to balance our comfort food cravings. Stay tuned!

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!