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Sleep to eat less

by Carolyn Dunn, PhD, RD, LDN

02-bad-habits-insomnia-sleep-too-early

Would you be able to maintain your weight if you ate a large brownie every day, how about a hot fudge sundae? A new study showed that folks that don’t get at least 7 hours a sleep a night consume upwards of 385 calories more the day after a low-sleep night – about the number of calories in a large brownie or hot fudge sundae.

Making sure you get at least 7 hours, preferably 8 hours, of sleep each night is quickly becoming weight management strategy #1. The data continue to pile up the impact that sleep deprivation has on our eating and physical activity patterns. It is clear that getting enough sleep should be in our list of “must dos” to help achieve and maintain a healthy weight.

 

 

Eur. J. Clin. Nutr. 2016 Nov 2. doi: 10.1038/ejcn.2016.201.

 

Making Vegetables Cravable

by Carolyn Dunn, PhD, RD, LDN

We all know we should eat more vegetables. It is one of the few things upon which nutrition experts continue to agree. How do we get more vegetables, not just in the refrigerator or on the plate, but actually eaten?

We have to make vegetables cravable. 

We have to make vegetables a dish that friends and family ask for again and again because they are delicious. The easiest way to make them cravable just happens to be the easiest- roasting. I have some experience with this with my extended family. It’s ten people, ranging in age from four to 85. One night for dinner I made a selection of roasted vegetables, five different vegetables using different spices. There was not a vegetable left. They now ask for roasted vegetables and even make suggestions as to what we should roast. eat vegetables

I roast a few vegetables each week and keep them in the refrigerator. They are great heated in the oven, cold in salads, or room temperature. They also make a wonderful addition to your lunch box. Roasting is super easy. Here is a step-by-step roasting guide with a few recipes to get you started.

  • If you are choosing to make more than one vegetable, pick ones that have similar cooking times such as broccoli and cauliflower. Dense vegetables such as potatoes, winter squash, and other root vegetables have longer cooker times than vegetables higher in water such as summer squash, asparagus, or mushrooms.
  • Cut the vegetables in bite-size uniform pieces, keeping in mind they will shrink during cooking.
  • Toss the vegetables in a large bowl with a few tablespoons of olive oil and seasoning of your choice. It can be as simple as salt and pepper or a combination of spices. A favorite of my family is cumin, salt, and a dash of cayenne pepper. Make sure that each piece of vegetable is very slightly coated with oil, and the seasoning is will distributed.
  • Place the vegetables on a sheet pan, lined with foil for easy clean-up. Have a thin layer of vegetables that are not overcrowded which would cause the vegetable to steam instead of roast.
  • Roast at 375 degrees until tender. From 15 minutes for asparagus to an hour for dense vegetables such as winter squash. Roast until there are some pieces of charred bits which makes the vegetables super sweet and delicious.

Two of my favorite roasted vegetable recipes:

Spicy Roasted Cauliflower – This recipe calls for cauliflower, however, you can use any vegetable. Make extra of the spice mixture and keep it in the refrigerator or freezer for the next round of roasted vegetables.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts – This is an amazing vegetarian side dish. Add a small amount of turkey bacon for added flavor if you wish.

 

 

Create a Culture of Wellness

by Madi Johnson

A workplace is great starting point for employee health improvement. employee wellnessWhen a culture of wellness exists, healthy behaviors become the norm in a work environment. The presence of this type of culture can improve the outcomes of a corporate wellness program due to the supportive and reinforcing environment. A workplace that possesses a culture of wellness supports these attributes to overall health:

  • Physical activity and exercise efforts are supported
  • Healthy foods are offered
  • Emotional health is valued
  • Importance of preventive care is emphasized
  • Leadership is engaged in wellness activities
  • Policies are in place to reinforce healthy behavior

In an upcoming blog series, we are going to provide tips and strategies to improve these health focus areas within your organization. A few examples include ideas for active team meetings, ways to be active at your desk, leadership engagement, and many more!

Stay tuned!

 

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“The skills I have learned will be with me the rest of my life.”

by Madi Johnson

The following is a testimonial from a current Eat Smart, Move More, Prevent Diabetes participant, Margaret. Margaret sent us her feedback as she heads towards completion of Eat Smart, Move More, Prevent Diabetes. Way to go, Margaret!online diabetes

“I first took the Eat Smart, Move More, Weigh Less program 2 years ago and it has changed my life.  I have lost 60 lbs, my fridge is full of fruits and vegetables, we eat mainly whole grains now and I have been walking and moving more.  The Eat Smart, Move More, Prevent Diabetes program has taken me further into my journey by thinking about how my body processes blood sugar, and how exercise affects it, but also a more in-depth understanding of whole grains and which foods are better in terms of fiber and calories.  The mindfulness component then ties it all together.  Reducing stress and enjoying the moment has helped me be more successful in my journey to be healthier.  The skills I have learned will be with me the rest of my life.”

 

 

 

5 Easy Ways to Reduce Screen Time

by Madi Johnson

One of my goals for 2017 was to reduce the amount of time I spent on social media and to instead, just live in the moment. Instead of being burdened by taking a perfect picture, crafting a clever caption, and keeping track of the number of likes, I decided to look UP (something I learned from this blog), and enjoy life around me instead of others’ lives living on my phone. Loosening the ties of social media has been incredibly freeing, eye-opening, and rewarding. I’ve also slowly started to reduce other forms of screen time in addition to social media, including tv, computer, and iPad.

As a part II to this blog about controlling social media time, I have found a few other tips and tricks to help me reduce my overall screen time:limit social media

  1. Remove all notifications for social media apps. I turned off all forms of notifications for the social media apps, especially the ones that appear when you have a locked screen. No longer am I being interrupted or tempted by an enticing notification to remind me to check a comment, picture, or like. This has been very helpful (and saves battery)!
  2. “Hide” all my social media apps on my phone. I used to have my go-to social apps on my home screen, so anytime I would open my phone I could easy open one of the apps. Now, I have moved all my social media apps into one folder on my phone, and I put that folder way back on the last page. That way, I have to be very intentional about going on social media and I am not reminded right when I open my phone. This one surprised me with how helpful it has been.
  3. Set limits. I set various limits and rules to my phone use, specifically social media use. A few include “no phone before bed” (has helped go to sleep earlier!), “no phone before breakfast” (has helped get out of bed), “no phone at the table” (this one has been set in place for awhile, but important to emphasize), and “no phone before exercise”. Even when I do go on social media, I only allow myself a few minutes. These rules have helped limit distractions and they have helped find motivation for exercise.
  4. Play music. The number one factor that has helped my family reduce screen time! Although using my phone less for social media, I am using it much more to play music. We set up a bluetooth speaker to easily connect to the phone and this has helped our whole family reduce the amount of time the TV is on. Now that there is music always playing, we never turn the TV on for background noise. I turn music on right when I wake up and right when I get home from work and change the Pandora stations based on how I am feeling. I used to cook dinner with the news on in the background, now I cook (and dance) with upbeat and energizing songs. We used to occasionally eat with the TV on in the background (the ultimate no-no!), and now we just switch up the music. This simple change has allowed us all to be more mindful and reduce screen time!
  5. Create alternate activities. My husband and I were noticing we got into a bad habit of watching too much tv on weeknights. So we set limits (mentioned above) and created specific activities to do before and/or instead of watching tv for different nights of the week. For example, Tuesday is “Reading Night” so the tv stays off, the music stays on, and we each choose a book or something to read (or a podcast since my husband isn’t the biggest fan of reading – but this night was actually his idea!). Thursdays we have “Game Night”, we have to play at least one game before turning on the TV. Our other nights we have a rule of taking a walk and waiting until 9pm to turn on the TV, and really, turning the TV on has only come down to Wednesday nights (Modern Family and Blackish can’t be missed).

These various tips and tricks have been extremely helpful for myself and my family to reduce screen time. Although some of them are specific and might not apply to everyone, hopefully, one or two of these can be of help. I’d like to say I never go on social media or rarely watch TV without having to write this blog, but hopefully there are others of you out there with the same struggles. Share your own tips and tricks, we can all learn from one another!

 

Corporate Wellness Made Easy: How We Can Help You

by Madi Johnson

Facilitating a corporate wellness program for your organization can be overwhelming. Especially if you work in Human Resources and already wear a thousand different hats. Creating a wellness program can seem like just one extra chore to add to your list, and it can often fall by the waist side.

Partnering with Eat Smart, Move More, Weigh Less and Eat Smart, Move More, Prevent Diabetes can alleviate many challenges that come with implementing a wellness program. Some of the benefits of our partnership include:

online weight

  1. Online delivery format: Finding a facility or creating space for your wellness program at your organization would no longer be a factor. This is increasingly beneficial if your organizations have multiple locations. We also accommodate all time zones! Request a demo.

employee wellness

  1. Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) Instructors: Our highly-qualified instructors guarantee that your employees will receive quality instruction with evidence-based information. Learn more.

corporate wellness

  1. Personalized Marketing Materials: We create personalized flyers in hard and soft copies for you to distribute via email or to post around your facility. Learn more.

  1. Group Discounts: We offer a discounted rate for employer groups who purchase 20 or more slots, which leads to a LOT of cost savings! Not to mention the cost savings from employees lowering their A1c level through Eat Smart, Move More, Prevent Diabetes, which can save $600-$2,200 annually.

To learn more about improving the health and well-being of your employees, request a demo below or contact administrator@esmmpreventdiabetes.com.

employee wellness

Tired of the Same Old Fruit?

by Cathy Thomas

Eating more fruit is one of the hallmarks of the Mediterranean lifestyle. If you are like me, you sometimes get stuck in a fruit rut – apples, oranges, and the occasional banana. I love all fruit but just get in fruit jags that don’t make my fruit eating very exciting.  healthy snack

Enter kiwi. I love kiwi and I just forgot about it until I saw a big box of the cute brown furry fruit in the produce aisle. They are the perfect lunch addition or snack.  The other cool thing about kiwi as a snack it that you can really grab one and throw in your lunch bag with a spoon. Yes, the new thing is to cut and scoop out with a spoon. Easy enough, right?

So here some facts you may have know but forgot about KIWI:

  • Has more potassium than a banana
  • Has more fiber than most leading cereals
  • Has more Vitamin E and K than an avocado
  • Has more Vitamin C than an orange

How do you like to eat a kiwi? Any other “fun” fruits we should try?

 

 

My New “Healthy Little Dessert”

by Kelly Nordby, RD, LDN

I absolutely love my after-lunch yogurt with berries!  I consider this my “healthy little dessert” that doesn’t have a lot of sugar…or so I thought.

As I have been trying to cut back on my added sugar overall, I took a closer look at the sources of added sugar in my diet.  It turns out that my main source of added sugar was in my Chobani mango-flavored yogurt, which contains 16 grams of total sugar.  Since 4 grams are natural sugars (lactose), 12 grams falls into the category of “added sugar”.   It is recommended that women not consume more than 6 teaspoons or 24 grams of added sugar per day.  Men should not consume more than 9 teaspoons or 36 grams of added sugar per day. healthy yogurt

As it turns out, half of my daily added sugar allotment was coming from my “healthy little dessert”!!

Hence, I set my plan in motion to find a lower-sugar yogurt that could substitute for my beloved Chobani.

A few considerations for this plan:

  1. I really don’t like plain yogurt, even flavored with fruit. It makes a great substitute for sour cream, but not a great fruity dessert.
  2. I also do not like artificial sweeteners, especially in my yogurt. That ruled out MANY low-sugar yogurt options.

Drumroll please…

Siggi’s was the winner!  It has more protein than sugar and really tastes good!   It is thick and creamy like Greek yogurt, but has less sugar and more protein!

My favorite flavor is the Orange and Ginger (what a heavenly combination) – only 9 grams of total sugar, 5 grams of added sugar, 17 grams of protein and 120 calories!!

Now I really do have a “healthy little dessert”!!

 

Refer a Friend – You BOTH Receive a Free T-Shirt!

by Madi Johnson

Calling all current and former Eat Smart, Move More, Prevent Diabetes participants!

Have a friend, family member, or colleague interested in joining your healthy journey?

For a limited time, refer a friend and you BOTH will receive a free Eat Smart, Move More, Prevent Diabetes t-shirt! 

online dpp

The person you refer must put your name under the “How Did You Hear About Us” question during registration. While supplies last.*

Share this link to see class times and register: 

See Class Times

*Limit of one t-shirt per person while supplies last. For additional referrals, additional prizes will be offered. Current and former participants’ is defined as participants whose program registration and payment have been received. Offer subject to change.

“Joining this program has been my best decision”

by Madi Johnson

Below is a testimonial from a current Eat Smart, Move More, Prevent Diabetes participant, Karen. Way to go Karen!

“I’m working really hard but I’m online dpp
struggling with dinner choices because I cook everyday. At night I cook dinner, then prepare breakfast and lunch for the next day for my entire family. Looking and smelling all that food is so tempting!!! I’m proud that I am still fighting to overcome these temptations. Sometimes I fail but the next day I just try harder. I’m going to focus this weekend on preparing some meals in advance of next week to make it easier to resist temptation, Lol.

P.S. since my double knee surgery 5 years ago, I have not walked other than around the house and walking to my office and back to my car. The first two weeks of walking was difficult because I had headaches from cutting out sodas and the arthritis in my knees and hips was very painful. I’m so proud that I made it through and now I walk 3.5 to 5 miles a day without pain! Hooray! I’m really focused on a lifestyle change and I don’t beat myself up when I fail, I just try and figure out what will help me be more successful. Joining this program has been my best decision so far this year!