Life Is A Long Time - You Are Responsible for Making It A Healthy Time!

Joshua Rosenthal, founder of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition where I received my Health Coach training, likes to say, "Life is a Long Time." He says it to encourage us to be patient with ourselves and to internalize the idea that there's time to do everything, but maybe not all at the same time!
 

I recently devoured a book called Younger Next Year - For Women, by Chris Crowley & Henry S. Lodge, M.D., and it provides another take on life expectancy and quality.  (Their original book was directed at men; I chose to read the subsequent female-oriented edition, and it is smart and insightful despite being written by two guys!)  Have you ever taken a quiz to predict your life expectancy based on your current age, gender, weight, and basic diet & health behaviors?  There’s a thorough one in the Younger Next Year books and a variety of other quizzes online, and I invite you to complete one of them.  You will (hopefully) find that you are likely to live to be 90+ years old.  Mr. Crowley and Dr. Lodge’s book is all about how to make that outcome more likely, and more importantly, to have a healthy and active life for as long as possible. 

Imagine a curve with time on the x-axis and health level on the y-axis.  Some of us are resigned to the idea that once we hit “middle age” (whatever that means these days… isn’t 60 the new 40?) we start to gradually decline – a downward curve until we die.  The authors of Younger Next Year argue that this does NOT have to be the case.  Our actions (and I do mean actions) influence the quality of our lives more than we realize, and we have the power to maintain our health and vibrancy well into our later years, so that our personal age X health chart can register health at a steady high level until we are well advanced in age, with a quick decline at the very end.  Isn’t that better for us and our loved ones, not to mention the healthcare system?

The key to healthy aging is to promote growth in the body & mind, not decay.  The authors argue that there really is no middle ground.  This is programmed into our genes from prehistoric times and is based on the earth’s seasonal cycles – we are either in spring/summer “growth” mode when we are energetic and active and our body is building muscle, or we are in fall/winter “decay” mode when we slow down and store fat preparing for food scarcity and a hard winter.  I’m sure you know where this is headed… today we have no food scarcity and we spend most of our time being sedentary, so our bodies move into constant storage/hibernation mode – in a word, decay. 

What to do?  The authors advocate EXERCISE, virtually every day, and including both moderate and high intensity workouts each week.  Exercise boosts your metabolism, it reduces stress, it improves your mood, and it is believed to offer protection against development of Alzheimer’s disease.  As you know, we recently got a puppy whose pictures are regularly featured in my newsletter and on Facebook.  My husband, Randy, spends hours each day training and briskly walking Foxy either on the beach in Hilton Head or here in Cincinnati.  He enjoys every outing with his dog – rain or shine, hot or cold – and he has lost weight and feels fit and energized.  And, as a bonus, we have a very well-trained dog!

It is critical to your health and well-being that you establish some sort of fitness routine, whether it involves a dog, a running or workout buddy, a spinning class schedule, a favorite yoga instructor or DVD, or any other vigorous activity.  The important thing is to do something physically intense nearly every day, for the rest of your life.  Your body, mind, and loved ones will thank you.

http://www.youngernextyear.com/

You and... You!

As any serious Sex And The City fan knows, the very last line in the TV series’ final episode includes Carrie’s voiceover saying… “The most exciting, challenging, and significant relationship of all is the one you have with yourself.”  Of course we’ve all heard this sentiment expressed with various words and in different contexts.  I looked on www.quotationspage.com and a wonderful version is attributed to Lucille Ball:  “Love yourself first and everything else falls into line.  You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.”  What a great combination of the spiritual and the practical!   

It’s interesting for me to write about self-love after my most recent blog was about how we are shaped by the people with whom we spend the most time.  I think that recognizing and understanding the interplay between these two critical dynamics – one directed inward and the other outward – is our life’s work. 

The more clients I work with in my health coaching practice, the more I believe that the real power of the process is that it empowers people to understand and accept themselves and because of that, to decide to take the best care of themselves that they can.  This self-love spreads to wanting to take care of family and friends and even to make larger-scale changes in the world, and this is the “Ripple Effect” described by Integrative Nutrition’s founder, Joshua Rosenthal (www.integrativenutrition.com/about). 

Before we get too carried away, though, here are some thoughts on ways to deepend your understanding and appreciation of yourself.  And by the way, I fully appreciate that sometimes life feels so busy and overwhelming that spending time on your relationship with yourself seems impossible and possibly irrelevant and silly.  That’s ok – just read on and file these ideas away, and pull them out when you do have a moment to breathe – it’ll happen!

Breathe (what a coincidence) – When we’re stressed it’s common for us to shorten our breath, tighten our muscles, and steel ourselves for whatever threat we’re facing – physical or emotional, real or perceived.  The truth is that we are much better able to cope and will start to connect with ourselves, by becoming aware of our breath.  Slow it down.  Close your eyes and breathe slowly through your nose.  Ideally, pause for a beat or two after you inhale, before exhaling slowly and smoothly.  Here’s a link to a recent Andrew Weil column describing several breathing techniques:  www.drweil.com/drw/u/ART00521/three-breathing-exercises. 

Meditate – and I use that term loosely.  Conscious breathing is meditative.  Yoga can be meditative, as can walking or running outdoors, listening to or playing music, petting your dog or cat, hugging your partner or child, chopping vegetables, or doing anything else that slows you down and helps you to empty your mind of the chatter.  Here is a link to one of my other favorite sites, on meditation:  www.zenhabits.net/meditate. 

Listen and Watch – I’m talking about listening and watching your own mind.  Sit still and close your eyes.  What thoughts float by?  What songs pop into your head?  What images do you see?  What do you think it means?  This could be described as analysis of your waking dreams and can be fascinating. 

Dream (you knew this was coming) – Of course, tuning into your dreams is also a great way to get in touch with yourself and your unconscious.  Julia Cameron, author of books such as The Artist’s Way (www.juliacameronlive.com), advocates writing “Morning Pages” upon waking, to capture your dreams, thoughts and feelings while still in a semi-conscious state.

Remember – Allow yourself to think back to your past – to happy and sad and just regular times.  Give yourself permission to feel the feelings that come up, and begin to perceive patterns between your past and present.  My mom has been living on her own in Florida for 10 years now, and while she keeps herself busy with music, tutoring, and ushering, she also has a lot of unscheduled time.  She has told me that with more space and time in her life, it is amazing what she remembers about the past – and doubtless connects to her present.  My mom is not a big fan of the concept of “happiness,” true to her German and Norwegian roots, but she is a model of contentment.

Imagine – Take time to envision and plan for your future.  Intriguing research at Stanford and NYU has shown that those with greater ability to imagine their future selves (as measured by the location of brain activity) make better choices today – from flossing their teeth to saving for retirement.  They actually have greater financial assets and are more likely to own their own home than those less able to project themselves into the future.  There is evidence that this skill can be learned – another study showed that simply exposing research subjects to age-advanced pictures of themselves (the magic of Photoshop!) was related to their making longer-term decisions about how they’d spend an unexpected $1000, vs. those gazing at their current images (see link to New York Times article below). 

I’m sure you’re all thinking about how making good food & exercise choices today affects you positively now, and sets you up for a healthier and happier future too! 

“Bad Habits?  My Future Self Will Deal With That” www.nytimes.com/2012/02/25/business/another-theory-on-why-bad-habits-are-hard-to-break-shortcuts.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=bad%20habits%20february%2025&st=cse   

Who are your five??

“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”  Jim Rohn, the personal development guru who passed away in 2009, was quoted by Scott Dinsmore in a recent post on his inspiring site, www.liveyourlegend.net.   

I think this idea is thought-provoking from multiple angles and I encourage you to spend some time with it and ideally use it to proactively improve your life.  Here are some of my noodlings on this idea, which I believe to be extremely useful, even if I may quibble with it around the edges… 

So what’s the exact equation? 

Is it really 5 people, or could it be 4, 6 or 7?  Do they all have to be in your life right now or can past influencers count?  More broadly (and mathematically), what are the weights on each person (variable) in the equation and how do you account for time?  This relates to quality vs. quantity time – is it possible that someone you’re rarely with can impact you disproportionally?  I think that’s possible, but I believe Jim Roh’s points was that you do need to look at what you do and who you do it with EVERY DAY.  And can a country or company or other organization count as one of your influencers?  I believe the answer is YES.

Think about the following… Over time, people begin to resemble their spouses.  Sometimes there even seem to evolve similarities between people and their dogs!  This seems sort of funny, yet it’s true.  And why is there such positive power in the family dinner?  If “you are what you eat”, then this makes perfect sense.  People who eat the same food together become more similar.  Groups (races, nations, age cohorts, regions, etc.) with similar eating habits develop a culture, which consists of shared beliefs and behaviors.  I love that the founder of my nutrition school (Institute for Integrative Nutrition*), Joshua Rosenthal, says that when he goes to dinner with a friend he makes a point to let them order first, and then orders what they did so that their bodies & minds can be on the same wavelength from the food, and they can connect over – and as a result of – their shared meal.  More insidiously, you have probably read about the studies that demonstrate “clustering” of obesity – that your chances of becoming obese increase significantly if you have a friend who becomes obese during a given time interval.  Same goes for spouses or siblings.¹

Let’s take this sharing a step further.  Deepak Chopra, the famed M.D., neuroendocrinologist, and mind-body medicine expert who never fails to deliver mind-blowing research findings & ideas, has described human beings as verbs or processes, not nouns or structures.  We are constantly changing and evolving.  With every inhale, Dr. Chopra describes, we take on 10²² new atoms; the same goes for every exhale – that’s a lot of new atoms in, and a lot out!  Each time we breathe, we incorporate atoms from our surroundings into our bodies, and we exhale massive amounts as well.   Did you know that our breath is the most important detoxifying mechanism that our bodies have?  Not sweat, not elimination – breath!  Our bodies are incessantly regenerating.  This is an opportunity!  As Dr. Chopra asks:  “Who do you want your 2012 model to be?”

I hope you will take some time to think about your “5 people” (plus or minus!), evaluate your current situation, and make plans/set goals for modifying it if your situation doesn’t serve you.  And please remember that it’s reciprocal.  You are doubtless one of the 5 people for others in your life, and that’s a great privilege, a great opportunity, and also a great responsibility. 

*See www.IntegrativeNutrition.com  for more information

¹Christakis, Nicholas A., M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., and Fowler, James H, Ph. D. ”The Spread of Obesity in a Large Social Network over 32 Years.” New England Journal of Medicine. July 26, 2007. <http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsa066082Special Article.>

K.I.S.S. - Keep It Simple, Sweetie!

Did you know that our country’s agricultural system produces twice the calories that our population requires?  That sounds like a good thing, but the fact is that too many of those calories are provided by our ingenious food industry in unhealthy forms – refined and processed foods that are loaded with sugar and bad carbs.  With appealing advertising and abundant availability it’s easy to eat too many calories and yet be malnourished.  This can set up a vicious cycle – our bodies continue to need nutrients so we keep eating, yet the only thing we gain is weight.   

The bottom line is that it’s easy to eat healthfully if your diet is dominated by high quality whole foods – vegetables, fruits, lean protein, whole grains, and good fats.  When you do buy packaged foods, it’s important to read the ingredient list (not just the nutrition panel) and try to stick to products with just a few ingredients that you actually recognize.   I decided to call this post K.I.S.S. for Keep It Simple Sweetie – no need for insulting adjectives like “stupid” when we’re talking about taking care of yourself and those you love!  

A recent article in The Washington Post (see link below) does a great job of spotlighting food items that are marketed as healthy but are actually far from it.  Here is their list: 

Reduced-fat peanut butter:  This product typically has as many calories as regular peanut butter but also more sugar and other non-peanut ingredients to create a peanut butter-like texture.  The oil in peanuts provides nutrients, so stripping some of it out decreases the product’s nutritional value.  Your best option is to purchase natural peanut butter, which ideally includes only peanuts, or perhaps adds a little salt.   

Enhanced water:  Vitaminwater and similar beverages “are essentially sugary drinks with a vitamin pill.”  Zero-calorie water drinks are better, but the best choice is to drink plain water and to eat your vitamins in food form, not as reduced and isolated additives to other products. 

Energy bars:  Depending on the brand you buy, energy or meal replacement bars may contain some whole foods and provide protein and fiber, but they are usually high in sugar too.  My teenage sons love Clif bars and I like that they contain organic whole grains and have a pretty impressive fiber/protein profile, but I was dismayed to see that the #1 ingredient is organic cane sugar!  Organic, cane… it’s still sugar!  Again, read ingredient lists carefully and consider nuts & dried or fresh fruit for an energy boost. 

Multigrain foods:  Grain-based food products can be very confusing with all the healthy-sounding descriptors out there, but keep in mind that multigrain does not mean whole grain.  Multigrain just means multiple grains, but all may be refined and stripped of nutritional value.  Look for a whole grain as the first and preferably only grain in the ingredient list, noting that multiple whole grains are even better.   

Non-fried chips and crackers:  This is a tricky one, because Baked sounds healthier than Fried, doesn’t it?  In the case of chips and crackers that may not be the case.  As Walter Willett of Harvard’s School of Public Health notes, “Now that trans fats have been removed from most cooking oils, the healthiest part of potato chips is the fat.”  That’s because most chips and crackers are made from refined grains or starch, so their natural healthfulness is greatly reduced.  Look for whole grain crackers and chips made from whole grains (or vegetables, such as Terra Chips) and fried in healthy olive or canola oil.  Note that Sunchips are recognized as a decent option “so long as you keep to the one-ounce serving size.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/5-so-called-health-foods-you-should-avoid/2012/01/31/gIQA6E7vfR_story.html

The Importance of Being Persistent

One of my prior posts was about habits and it strikes me that they represent mindless persistence.  On the flipside, mindful persistence is a good thing in all areas of life, from raising children to maintaining relationships to succeeding at work to improving your health.

A weight-loss message that I’ve been seeing and hearing a lot lately is actually one that has been around for a long time and is very simple:  You have to expend more calories than you consume in order to lose weight.  Diet fads come and go and the bottom line is that most people will lose weight on most of them because they are cutting calories, and likely reducing processed foods and saturated fats to boot.  The key to losing weight on any diet is persistence, willpower, stick-to-it-ive-ness, or whatever you want to call it!  And after the weight is off, it’s important to establish a healthy maintenance diet heavy on vegetables, fruits, lean proteins, and good fats.     

A recent article in the Philadelphia Inquirer summarizes all of this nicely and emphasizes the importance of accountability and support, too (see link to article below).  Accountability can be to yourself, by keeping track of everything you eat and weighing yourself frequently, so that you can act quickly if your weight loss stalls or you backslide.  “One of the major differences between the average-weight person and the overweight person is the ability to recover from overeating,” the article states.  Being accountable to someone else is also a powerful incentive and ideally includes getting support from that person, whether it’s a friend, family member, or health coach.  I try to provide holistic nutrition education, warm support and gentle accountability to help my health coaching clients reach their weight loss and other important wellness goals.   

We’ve all heard the phrase, “Eat less, Move more,” and while both suggestions are worthwhile, recent research has shown that they address different goals.  Persistently eating less is the most effective way to take pounds off, while establishing a regular exercise routine is particularly important for keeping those pounds off.  “Exercise is the single best predictor of who keeps weight off and who doesn’t,” the Inquirer article states.  Exercise revs up metabolism and improves overall health, and it helps people maintain muscle mass, which tends to decrease as we age.  And of course, a toned body looks and feels better too.   

So if you’re interested in losing some weight, find a diet that works for your body and lifestyle, stick with it, and develop an exercise routine that you love, and stick with that too.  You’ll be glad you did!   

www.philly.com/philly/health/20120221_New_science_can_help_guide_diets_and_exercise.html

It's National Almond Day!

I opened up my Smartbrief for Nutritionists newsletter (sign up for this and other Smartbriefs at www.smartbrief.com) this morning and discovered that February 16th is National Almond Day!  Now here's a food lobbying group I can support -- the Almond Board of California!  Here's a link to their website featuring all things almond:  www.almondboard.com/consumer/pages/default.aspx. 

Almonds are a great snack because they are natural and nutrient dense.  A one-ounce serving contains 160 calories, 6 grams of protein, 3 grams of fiber, and 13 grams of good mono- and polyunsaturated fat (plus only 1 gram of saturated fat).  They contain no cholesterol and are a great source of vitamin E, calcium, magnesium and potassium.  If you buy unsalted almonds you will also enjoy their naturally sweet flavor and consume no sodium.  I like to buy raw organic almonds from Whole Foods. 

So what's a one-ounce serving?  Well, it is 23 almonds, and the website offers a variety of ways to measure them out besides counting.  (Remember the glamazon counting out almonds for her breakfast at the beginning of the movie, The Devil Wears Prada?)  A one-ounce serving fills a 1/4 cup measure or a shot glass, and it covers a 3" X 3" post-it note in a single layer!  The most fashionable method offered on the website, though, is to order a special almond tin, and these are really cute.  There are four different patterns, the price is only $1.87 each, and I ordered a whole bunch to use as health coaching client gifts.  The dimensions of the almond tins are 2 3/4" long, 2" wide, and 3/4" high, which is similar but not identical to an Altoids tin size (according to another Google search).  If anyone has an Altoids tin lying around and wants to let me know how many almonds fit into it, I'd greatly appreciate the info!

Beyond eating almonds on their own, I recommend you try almond milk, but get the unsweetened varieties from Silk or Trader Joe's or whichever brand you like, to avoid unnecessary sugar or artificial sweeteners or flavors.  Our cat, Raz, rejects dairy milk and soy milk, but meows if I don't give her a bit of almond milk in the morning! 

Almond butter is also wonderful if you like nut butters, and again try the natural creamy or crunchy versions.  Once you open your new jar of natural almond butter and stir it up once, keep it in the refrigerator and it will stay integrated.  Sprouted grain toast with almond butter, plus a sliced Honeycrisp apple, is my favorite at-home lunch these days.

Finally, here's a super-easy recipe that gets rave reviews every time I make it, most recently for a CAbi party.  It features edamame in addition to almonds, so it is really packed with great nutrition.

Edamame Almond Salad

1 (12-ounce) package frozen shelled edamame, thawed
1 large red bell pepper
1/3 cup sliced almonds, toasted
2 tablespoons almond oil
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon soy sauce
Sea salt to garnish

Place edamame into a bowl.  Trim and seed bell pepper; slice into very thin strips, each about 1 1/2 inches long; add to edamame along with almonds.  In a small bowl, whisk together oil, vinegar, and soy sauce.  Pour over salad and toss gently.  Garnish with a light sprinkling of sea salt, and serve. 

The Almond Board website includes tons of almond recipes too, for us all to try.  Let me know your favorite!

Girl Scout Cookies!

The topic for today was going to be recent research on decision fatigue and the implied best grocery shopping strategies.  However, I've been advised to keep my posts light and perhaps a little less academic, so this one's topic is Girl Scout Cookies!  Hey, it's still about decision making, right?  What are you going to do when your neighbor or coworker (or his/her adorable daughter) approaches you with their clipboard and hopeful smile? 

A Google search reveals that this year's cookies will begin to be available in late February in the Cincinnati area, so that explains the articles I've been seeing online about the Best and Worst nutritional choices when it comes to Girl Scout cookies. 

The article I'm referencing primarily is by the editors of EatingWell magazine (http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/best-38-worst-girl-scout-cookies-184400020.html).  This and other articles agree that the BEST nutritional choice is to select the Shortbread cookies, which are called Trefoils in certain locations.  These are best because a standard serving of 4 Shortbread cookies has 120 calories and 4.5 grams of total fat of which 2 grams are saturated.  This cookie also has a notably short ingredient list -- just 10 total ingredients, with sugar appearing only twice in the list. 

The cookie dishonored with the label of "least healthy choice" is the Caramel deLite, also called a Samoa in some locations.  This variety has a serving size of only 2 cookies, which deliver 140 calories, 7 grams of total fat (of which 6 grams are saturated), and an ingredient list that starts with sugar.  Caramel deLites also contain trans fats, though per serving they register under the threshold of 0.5 grams per serving, allowing them to be labeled as containing 0 grams. 

All of the other cookies are judged to fall within these two extremes based on their standard serving size, which, not coincidentally, has between 110 and 160 calories.  Well, here's a radical idea... How about disregarding the company's suggested serving size and relying more on the per-cookie stats?  The EatingWell rankings do take that into account in their rankings -- note that the winning Shortbreads allow four cookies per serving and the losing Caramel deLites only two.  However, think about what this means if you're willing to consider eating less than the suggested (standard-calorie-amount) serving?  Two Shortbreads only have 60 calories and 2.25 grams of fat.  Other contenders emerge:  two Savannah Smiles have only 56 calories and 1 gram of total fat; even decadent Thin Mints have 80 calories and 4 grams of fat if you eat only two. 

Try portion control!  Here's another example.  One of the perks of my nutrition program was that we all received a handful of counseling sessions from our own health coaches.  Mine was wonderful, encouraging me to try almond milk (instead of dairy or soy) and to include dark chocolate in my diet (70%+ cocoa, of course).  I began buying a brand called Endangered Species (http://chocolatebar.com/), specifically the Dark Chocolate with Cranberries and Almonds.  This product is sold at Whole Foods and in Kroger's organic section.  It comes in individually wrapped pieces, with a serving size of four pieces (200 calories).  I swear I have never eaten more than two in any one day.  I break each one into four and savor each bit.  They have so much flavor that two pieces (really eight, the way I think about it!) are more than enough to satisfy.  It's quality over quantity.  Let me know how it works for you!