I know, schools in Memphis and Shelby County started several weeks ago…but it is not too late to think about healthy habits for the school year. Here’s some links to articles that can help you get started -
Want your kids to get more physical activity? Here’s an article on the importance of exercise (which you already know, right?) and ways to help kids be more active.
Each child needs to find the right sport or activity to participate in. Here’s some ideas broken down by age group. Whatever you do, keep your kids moving!
A good day at school starts the night before with enough sleep. Here’s some tips to help your child get the rest they need.
Please leave a comment and let us know if these are helpful for you and your kids.
Who has given any of these video games a try? Who wants to? Might be a way to add some variety to your fitness routine – but don’t let it completely replace your regular workouts with us!
Iced tea is a southern staple, and has some health benefits. It is certainly better than soda as we discussed in a previous post! Here’s tips on making a delicious pitcher of it!
Smart phone apps can help you determine the nutritional value of the groceries you buy -
If external cues can lead you into bad eating habits, you can use the same cueing process to eat better, and less mindlessly. Stop relying on your all-too-exhaustible supply of will power or your intelligence and education, which has been demonstrated not to work. Think about financial planning. Companies with 401K plans used to make people sign up to contribute to the plans, and participation was low. But when they automatically enrolled people, with an option to opt out if they wanted to, participation went way up. Set your default to healthy rather than unhealthy.
Here’s how:
Use smaller bowls, plates, glasses, etc. Put the big ones away so you can’t get to them easily.
Leave salad and vegetables dishes on the dinner table, where they are easy to reach, but put the entree on the counter, where it is harder to get to.
Buy foods in smaller containers, or if you buy in bulk, repackage them into serving sizes.
Leave fruit out on the counter in bright serving bowls so it is attractive and people can take it easily.
Put carrots, celery, and other vegetables in water in clear containers in the front of refrigerator to attract the eye.
Put the ice cream, cheese, and other high fat foods in the back, out of site and out of mind.
Put leftovers in plastic containers to encourage or discourage their use: clear containers in the front for veggies & salads, opaque containers in the back for entrees.
If you must eat fast food, change your default order from burger & fries to grilled chicken & side salad. You may also have to change your default place to make this work.
Think about your own life and how you can use your intelligence and awareness to change your daily cues from overeating to healthy eating patterns.
You do deserve a break today – a break from self-destructive eating. Good luck!
Please post your own suggestions or examples of how you have used re-cueing to eat better.
All the research was done by Brian Wansink, a professor at Cornell and the author of Mindless Eating – Why We Eat More Than We Think. You can learn even more at his website mindlesseating.org
When researchers served the same tasty brownies on either a napkin, a paper plate or fine china, the people rated them respectively as either really good, really really good, or the greatest brownie ever eaten, worth triple the price.
Note: put out the good china when you host dinner parties.
It works in your favor as well. Serve the same amount of food on a big plate and a small plate. I’ll bet you feel more full after eating the small plate than the big one, because it looks bigger on the small plate. Well, don’t eat the actual plates, just the food on them.
All the research was done by Brian Wansink, a professor at Cornell and the author of Mindless Eating – Why We Eat More Than We Think. You can learn even more at his website mindlesseating.org.
Secretaries were given candy ostensibly as an award for performance. Hershey’s Kisses were put into either a clear bowl or an opaque one, and the bowls were placed either right on their desks or about 6 feet away from them. The bowls were refilled daily. When the bowls were on their desks, the secretaries averaged 9 Kisses a day; when the bowls were 6 feet away, they averaged 4 per day. The secretaries reported that the extra effort it took to go 6 feet gave them time to think about how hungry they were, and decide not to eat. Also, those with the clear bowls ate 2 more Kisses per day than those with the opaque bowls.
In homes, studies were done with serving dishes left on the dinner table or not. When the serving dishes were left on the table, men ate 29% more than when the dishes were left on the counter. The main reason for this is that men eat fast, and then they watch the rest of the family eat, so they are prone to taking seconds and thirds while they wait. Women tend to eat slower, but they still averaged 10% more food eaten when it was left on the table.
So, leave the salad and vegetables on the table at dinner and put the meat back on the counter. Maybe the kids will eat more veggies.
All the research was done by Brian Wansink, a professor at Cornell and the author of Mindless Eating – Why We Eat More Than We Think. You can learn even more at his website mindlesseating.org.
Do you realize that the names and descriptions on menus can change your perceptions about the food and the restaurant considerably?
Name Change
At a healthy cafeteria, the names were changed on menu items to be more appealing. For example, the “Italian Pasta” was changed to “Succulent Tuscany Pasta.” The recipes and ingredients were not changed, only the names. Afterwards, sales jumped 27%, the restaurant was rated better and the chef more competent.
If you expect something, you tend to find it, either good or bad.
At a prix fixe dinner, the same wine was served to everyone, but the labels on the bottles were changed to read either California or North Dakota. Those who got the “California” wine rated the wine and the food better than the “North Dakota” wine people, they stayed 10 minutes longer, and many made future reservations.
By the way, both groups drank all the wine. Why not, it was free!
All the research was done by Brian Wansink, a professor at Cornell and the author of Mindless Eating – Why We Eat More Than We Think. You can learn even more at his website mindlesseating.org.
Like most people, you probably think that you know when you’re full and that you’ll stop eating when you are. But as you’ll see, we tend to rely on external, not internal, cues for how full we feel or how much we eat.
Large Portion Sizes
In one study, people going into a movie who had just eaten a full meal 20 minutes earlier were given either medium or large sized bags of popcorn; some of the popcorn was fresh and some was 5 days old.
Those who got the large sized bags ate 34% more of the stale popcorn and 45% more of the fresh, than those with the medium sized bags. When asked afterwards if the size of the bag had anything to do with how much they ate, they all said, “No, how could it?”
Never-Ending Portions
In another study, people were given either regular bowls of soup or bowls that secretly re-filled themselves. Afterwards. the refillable bowl eaters did not rate themselves as feeling any more full than the regular bowl eaters, even though they ate 73% more soup. When asked, they said, “How can I be full when I have half a bowl left?”
Evidence
Another study looked at visual evidence of eating. People at an all-the-wings-you-can eat restaurant were randomly assigned to tables that either were or were not regularly cleared of bones. Those who saw their bones pile up ate less; at the tables where the bones were cleared off, people ate 28% more.
Then, everyone was offered a 450 calorie cookie on the way out of the restaurant. 15% of those who saw the bones pile up took the cookie. 85% of those from the cleared tables took the cookie, and 66% of them started eating the cookie before they even got to their car. So they ate more wings plus the cookie!
Note: Remember this study when you eat ribs the next time, Memphis! Have your server leave the bones piled up in front of you.
All the research was done by Brian Wansink, a professor at Cornell and the author of Mindless Eating – Why We Eat More Than We Think. You can learn even more at his website mindlesseating.org.
Sorry about the crudity, but I wanted to get your attention. The more I learn about soft drinks, the worse they seem. Not that I haven’t indulged in them on occasion.
While sugary soft drinks are worse, even diet drinks suck. Research has linked all sodas to an increased risk of obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol. and diabetes, as well as metabolic syndrome, which is a combination of the above. Colas – the most common type of soda – in particular are also associated with lower bone mineral density in women, which can lead to osteoporosis.
But sugary sodas are definitely the main concern. Among US adults, sodas, energy and sports drinks are the 4th highest source of calories, averaging 112 per day, and are the highest source of added sugars, while providing no essential nutrients. As American’s consumption of added sugars has risen for the last 30 years, so have our waistlines and Body Mass Indexes. Sugary sodas are also associated with increased incidence of pancreatic cancer, gout, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
So lets sum up the current findings on soft drinks into 2 categories:
What sucks about soft drinks What doesn’t suck about soft drinks
Obesity Hydration
High blood pressure
High cholesterol
Diabetes
Metabolic Syndrome
Low bone density
Pancreatic cancer
Gout
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
Zero essential nutrients
I rest my case, and I’m cutting back even more my already meager consumption of soft drinks. They really do suck, big time!
Let’s talk about the lowly potato, which is currently being cast as one of the villains in our obesity and diabetes epidemic. Is it as bad as some people say? Or does it have a place in a healthy diet?
Potatoes are vilified because they have a high glycemic index (GI), which means that the body quickly breaks down its carbohydrates into sugar, causing a rapid rise in blood sugar and insulin. Some studies have found that high glycemic index foods increase fat storage and the risk of diabetes and obesity, and there are some studies which implicate potatoes directly in this. There is a strong current in the health & fitness field which buys into this theory that high GI foods play a big role in obesity.
But not all studies show this association for either high GI foods in general or for potatoes in particular. Plus, the GI of any food can be changed by how it is prepared, and not all potatoes are equal . For instance, red potatoes are a moderate GI food. So, how do you separate the effects of the potato from those of the meat in a “meat & potatoes” diet?
Some research actually suggests that potatoes help with weight control, because they have a high satiety factor (you feel full), and they contain proteinase inhibitors which inhibit appetite.
What we do know is that potatoes are low in calories, are a good source of fiber (if you leave the skin on), potassium, and vitamin C, and they provide protein, iron, B vitamins, and magnesium. We also know that a medium plain baked potato at a 140 calories can quickly become a high fat, high calorie behemoth with a couple tablespoons of butter and sour cream.
Alright, so what does all this tater talk mean?
For me, I will continue to make potatoes a regular (weekly) part of my diet, usually baked or boiled, with lots of pepper and a little butter. I think you can too. Just prepare them in a healthy way and go easy on the oil, cream and cheese.
This article originally appeared in out monthly e-newsletter The Healthy Habituator. Want your own copy directly in your inbox? Sign up in the box in the left column.
“Doesn’t working out make you hungrier? Then, don’t you eat more and end up not losing any weight?”
These questions are often asked, and can be a reason people decide to avoid exercise. But, are they true?
First, we need to consider the difference between hunger and appetite. Hunger is the body’s NEED for food. Appetite, on the other hand, is the desire or craving to eat. It is instinctive, but doesn’t always correspond to true hunger.
It seems that, depending on the person, some types of exercise may increase your appetite while others don’t. None of them, however, will have any effect on true hunger.
If exercise does increase your appetite, when and what should you eat to keep from overcompensating?
If you’ve eaten a large meal, you should wait at least 3-4 hours before exercising. With a small meal, allow a 2-3 hour gap. If you have not eaten recently, plan on a small snack about an hour before your workout. This will help keep your blood sugar up, which can fall during the first 20 minutes of exercise. Good snack options include banana, yogurt, bread/cracker with peanut butter or granola bars.
You should also plan to eat a small meal containing both protein and carbs within 2 hours of finishing your workout. This is the time period when your muscles absorb the most nutrients. Eating during this time may also help your body recover more quickly.
So don’t worry about exercise increasing your appetite and leading you to overeat. Make smart food choices and time it right to get the most benefit from the food and the workout.
Healthy Habits offers 1 to 1 personal training, partner and group fitness programs, BioMetrics nutrition and exercise plans, golf fitness and weight loss programs, post-rehab clinical exercise, and beginner and intermediate yoga classes in Memphis, TN.
