Tag: nutrition tips

close up photo of delicious meat being grilled
May 26, 2022
Blog

Healthy Cookout Tips

As we are heading into the unofficial start of summer with Memorial Day weekend, many are likely curious about some healthy cookout tips. As with all things, I think the key here is balance – we should be able to enjoy our favorite cookout treats while also eating nourishing foods as well and not feel guilty about it. Here are some healthy cookout tips to help you do just that.

1. Don’t try to compensate

The first thing that many people try to do when it comes to any special occasion involving food is compensate for their food choices either by under eating or overexercising before or after. There are 2 issues with this approach: 1.) it doesn’t work, and 2.) it actually creates more issues. 

If you under eat in order to “make room” for your favorite cookout foods, you set yourself up to arrive at your event extra hungry. And in response to that, you tend to eat more food and more quickly than you would otherwise. In fact, studies have shown that folks who under eat prior to an event actually consume more in total that day than folks who eat normally prior to the event. It’s just not an effective strategy. 

Beyond that, when we restrict and binge as this strategy sets us up to do, we tend to experience feelings of guilt and shame. And those feelings then prompt us to restrict more, which inevitably ends with another binge. This is how the binge-restrict cycle self-perpetuates.

Likewise, overexercising to “burn off” what you ate does not work either. You don’t get to pick and choose what you body burns for fuel. And it takes a lot more to burn calories than you think. Overexercising to compensate for special occasion eating is much more likely to result in your getting injured, possibly keeping you from exercising later. 

2. Don’t deprive yourself of the food you want to eat

Take the stress and pressure off yourself by giving yourself permission to eat the foods you want to eat. If you arrive with a list of foods you’ve told yourself you’re not allowed to have, those exact foods are going to exert so much power over you and it’s going to be increasingly more difficult to resist them. So that once you finally have them, you are likely to binge on them. The best way to avoid that is to allow yourself to have them, normalize them, treat them like any other food. This will help you strike the right balance for yourself.

3. Stay hydrated

A lot of those foods we like so much at cookouts are really salty and can dehydrate you, as can the alcohol. Ironically, the more alcohol you drink, the more of those salty dehydrating snacks you’re likely to eat and vice versa. On top of that, cookouts take place outside in the heat offering more opportunity for dehydration. Make sure you drink plenty of water before, during, and after your gathering.

4. Moderate your alcohol intake

In addition to contributing to dehydration, alcohol can also cause you to eat in ways that you normally wouldn’t – hello, drunk eating! But there is another way in which alcohol can hinder your healthy eating efforts. Alcohol is literally a poison to our body. And so, when we consume it, our body tries to process it out as quickly as possible. This means that the alcohol is processed before anything else you’ve consumed thereby increasing the amount of food you ate that gets stored as fat. Additionally, alcohol can impact your metabolism by disrupting your sleep. It can also impede your performance the next day regardless of whether you feel hungover.

5. Eat mindfully

This is a tricky one for social situations, but it is extremely helpful to eat as mindfully as possible at a cookout or other social event. This means dishing out a portion for yourself and walking away from the food table rather than mindlessly picking from it while you talk. It means pausing to check in with yourself while you’re eating and between portions to see how you feel. Should you eat more? Wait? What are you craving? It also means being consciously aware while we eat. Enjoyment of the food we eat is a key component of satisfaction and to experience that enjoyment we need to be mindful while we eat.

6. Mind your own plate

Avoid comparing your plate to others’ and don’t allow the comments other may make impact your enjoyment of your food. Remember, we all have different nutritional needs. What works for you won’t work for someone else. Comparing how you’re eating to how someone else is eating simply is not helpful. Here are some tips on what to do if someone does try to comment on how you eat.

Follow these healthy cookout tips to find balance for yourself so you can enjoy enjoy the cookout season and meet your goals.

dinnerware set on brown wooden table
April 8, 2022
Blog

Eating after 7 PM

Does eating after 7 pm cause weight gain, really?

Many of us have heard this and believe that food eaten after a certain time is automatically stored as fat. 

The good news is that this is not true. But there are some reasons to be cautious about eating too late at night. 

First thing’s first, there is no time after which your body automatically stores the food you eat as fat. Furthermore, your digestion doesn’t just stop when you go to sleep. Sleep is actually quite an active time for our bodies and they need fuel to carry important processes. Our bodies process food eaten later at night the same way as the food you eat earlier in the day. 

Where did the myth of eating after 7 pm come from?

This myth partly arose from the fact that, in American society, we tend to eat our most calorie-dense meal at night. On top of that, many of us snack after that dinner. So that evening eating could place us into a calorie surplus, leading to weight gain. Therefore, if we stop eating after 7 pm, we most likely inadvertently reduce our calorie intake, possibly creating a calorie deficit which could lead to weight loss. As you can see, it has nothing to do with timing and everything to do with the amount of food eaten.  

So should I eat at night or not?

Eating larger meals close to bedtime could cause heartburn or GI upset as we lie down before that food has been digested and moved out of our stomach. That discomfort can disrupt our sleep which, when experienced chronically, can create other issues.

So what should you do if you are hungry close to bedtime? My advice? Eat. If you choose to ignore that hunger, you could lose sleep because of it. You could also wake up ravenous and eat in ways you normally wouldn’t and that don’t resonate with your goals. If you do need to eat close to bedtime, keep it on the lighter side of things (avoid acidic foods) and eat just enough to be satisfied. This should help prevent any GI upset. 

person in red blazer sitting at the table
April 7, 2022
Blog, Employee wellness

How to find time to eat at work

As more of us are returning to the workplace, I’m hearing very frequently from folks that they are finding it difficult to find time to eat at work. As a result, many find themselves ravenous when they return home, leading them to overeat or make food choices they would not have otherwise.

What Happens When We Undereat During Our Workday

A number of issues arise when we fail to eat during our workday. For one, our energy levels drop and it becomes hard to focus. Our performance may suffer, whether we realize it or not. That extreme hunger can also impact our mood and, by extension, our relationships with our coworkers and staff. Failing to provide our bodies with ample nutrition during the day also makes us less resilient to stress. When we do get to eat and overdo it, that often results in feelings of guilt, shame, and regret, further contributing to our stress levels and sometimes leading to unhealthy behaviors to compensate. Finally, eating too much too late can disrupt our sleep, which can affect our performance, stress levels, and immune system function.

How to Make It Easier to Find Time to Eat at Work

Ideally, we make time for at least a lunch break each day, but sometimes that’s not possible. If you find yourself struggling to pull yourself away from your work, it’s important to make it as easy as possible to eat.

What to Eat at Work

When eating at work, we want to make sure that we have enough energy and are feeling satisfied throughout the day. The key to achieving this is balanced snacking. Combining protein, complex carbohydrates, and fat will provide the calories and nutrition we need.

  • Protein – provides fullness and satiety for longer periods
  • Complex Carbohydrates – provides steady, lasting energy levels
  • Fat – contributes to satisfaction as well as energy

Here are some nutritious snacks that will hit the mark on this:

  • Starkist tuna packet with whole grain crackers
  • Crunchy chick pea or edamame snacks
  • Jerky
  • Protein bars
  • DIY trail mix: nuts, dried fruit, dark chocolate chips
  • Individual packs of almonds
  • Cheese stick with whole grain crackers
  • Apple with nut butter (individual packets of nut butter like Justin’s are super handy!)

You might have noticed that many of the examples above are shelf stable and/or transportable. That is entirely by design. Keeping snacks like these in your desk drawer or in your car makes it very easy for you to eat and make nutritious choices.

So that’s one step for making it easier for yourself to eat during the workday: keep simple snacks handy.

But what if you tend to look up at 4 pm and realize you haven’t eaten since 8 am?

A good solution for this issue is to set an alarm or calendar event for every 2 hours or so. When that alarm goes off, take a minute or two to check in with yourself: when was the last time you ate? Do you feel any signs of hunger right now? How is your energy? Your focus? If you’re feeling hungry, grab one of those easy snacks.

If you are able to make these small changes and increase the amount of food you eat during the work day, you will likely find you energy levels improve, your mood improves, and you feel more in control around food at the end of the day.

person in red blazer sitting at the table
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