S As a crusader in the fight against snacking, here’s what you need to know: When you stop snacking, you will lose weight! People feel threatened when I recommend cutting snacks out of their diet. When I started talking about it, I was not prepared for the criticism. It’s as if eating between meals is what is keeping us alive. People are afraid of feeling deprived, (or depriving their kids). But even “healthy snacks” are training our brains to need food 24/7. Our guts never get a break. If there was one pivotal thing that has made my weight loss experience […]
4 Portion Control Plates That Get Results
4 Whether your goal is weight loss, better health, or disease management, portion control plates can impact behavior change and help you see results. We all have great intentions to eat better, eat less, and control our portions. But when it’s meal time and we’re famished, anything on our plate if fair game! Bread? Give me 3. Cheese? Drown my pasta with it please! All of that changed when I started using portion control plates. Studies show, if you double the amount of food on your plate, you will unknowingly eat 35% more food than if you had a modest portion. […]
Nutrition Lesson Plan for Elementary School Kids
N Outline and fun ideas for teaching a nutrition lesson at school, for kindergarten through 6th grade elementary kids.
10 Kitchen Hacks to Stop Overeating
1 Simple changes in your own kitchen can support your desire to eat healthier, stop overeating and give you that feeling of control once again! It’s one thing to KNOW you’ve eaten more food than you should, but our modern food culture has set us up to not even notice when we’ve overeaten, until we gain weight or get sick! The mindless eating phenomenon was made popular by the researcher and author Brian Wansink, Ph.D with his research at Cornell University. This is the idea that you are overeating without even noticing or being conscious of it. While I know some […]
42 Reasons You Overeat
4 If you’ve ever reflected on your day and wondered why you ate so much, this list of reasons might give you some insight. The amount of food eaten to be considered “overeating” is different for every one. You can overeat anytime that you consume more food that your body needs to thrive. I began a series on Instagram that explored some subtle ways we overeat, such as a the calories in a little extra peanut butter… the portion size difference of extra granola…. or even the calories of just 3 chocolate covered cinnamon bears! Sometimes, we don’t even realize we […]
Excess vs. Minimalism
E How living a life balanced in between excess and minimalism is the most rewarding! A trending idea today is that “life balance” is a myth. I accepted this for many years. I used this belief to justify my lack of life balance. Something either took over my life, or I ignored it altogether. As a workaholic who fluctuates between being 100% involved with a project, or completely apathetic about it, I told myself “there’s no such thing as life balance. It is what it is”. But the most difficult things in our lives is the foundation for our growth. Life […]
7 Portion Control Handouts to Put on Your Fridge
7 If you need a reminder to stick with your portion control plan, check out these portion control handouts! Our busy, distracted lives makes it difficult to pay attention to our food. Worse, it makes it difficult to pay attention to the amount of food we are consuming, especially when we are multi-tasking. Having reminders, like portion control handouts taped to your fridge can help you be more mindful of your meals and not consistently overeat. The Ultimate Guide to Portion Control states, “Controlling your portions could be your answer to losing weight”. Below are 7 printables or handouts that you […]
20 Questions to Know if you are at a Healthy Weight
2 Achieving your healthy weight will help you feel physically better, feel more alive, be stronger, have fewer aches and pains, and you will live longer. How do you know if you or a child needs to lose weight? How do you know what your healthiest weight for you would be, or if your kids are at a healthy weight? YES- You can be happy at any size! YES – Living by the scale is not helpful. NO- Weight range charts aren’t for everyone. YES- Every BODY is different and has their own healthy weight. However the evidence is clear. There […]
Marie Kondo Your Diet
M The art of simplifying your diet in order to eat less and live more. There is no question, our food culture has exploded into the extreme excess. It’s not just that there are an insane number of restaurants (660,000) and grocery stores (38,571), but we talk about food, look at recipes, plan how we’ll eat less food, shop at Costco, read food blogs, and stuff our cupboards with more food than we can even eat in a week. Food has found it’s way into our lives beyond being fuel for our bodies. From 1970 to 2008 the available amount of […]
The Non-Diet Approach to Healthy Weight For Kids
T How to set eating boundaries to help kids be their healthiest weight. The first thing parents want to talk to me about is their concern for their kids weight. They want advice on setting food boundaries with their kids, without making their kids feel bad about their weight, putting them on a diet, or triggering an eating disorder. I get it! I know as parents you want your kids to have the best opportunities and the brightest future. And while parents don’t want to talk about how their kids weight might affect those opportunities, so many of you are thinking […]
Research Review: Plate Design Associated with Increased Vegetable Consumption
R Preschool kids ate more veggies when there were pictures of vegetables on their lunch plates. A research letter published Oct 2018 in JAMA Pediatrics reviewed the association of fruit and vegetable consumption among preschool children. When pictures of fruits and veggies were on their plates, the amount of vegetables they ate increased. 235 kids, aged 3-5 years old participated in the study. Fruit and veggie intake was weighed and measured to get a baseline. The kids dished up their own food, and the bowls of fruits and veggies were re-weighed. A final measurement was taken after the kids ate, subtracting […]
Entrepreneur Spotlight: Strong, Balanced Solutions
E Helping others get healthier from the inside out is how Sara, from Strong Balanced Solutions trains. I first met Sara almost 10 years ago when we worked together at the Utah State Department of Health. Since then, Sara has grown a thriving business, providing personal training and other services as a wellness coach and exercise physiologist. I interviewed her for this Entrepreneurial business series to shine the light on people in our industry who are truly inspiring healthy change in others. SARA: My goal and focus at Strong Balanced Solutions is to work with the positive psychology of behavior change, regarding […]