Hi everyone!

I know it’s been far too long since my last blog!  School and work sure have been keeping me pretty busy!  With things being so crazy in the midst of COVID-19 right now, I thought it was a good time to set the homework aside for a few minutes and write a bit.

Many of you may be working from home at this point. I’ve seen a lot of silly memes floating around about expecting weight gain during this time…. and we all need to joke around and have fun.  Laughing is especially important now while we’re all a little more stressed out than usual!

Ultimately though, our days of social distancing and isolation will come to an end (seriously, they will!)  And when that happens, we’ll be wishing we moved around just a little more during our time at home.  I thought I’d leave a few ideas floating around here about how to stay active while we’re staying in the house.

So, without further ado… the moment we’ve all been waiting for (for the last 20 seconds anyway):

Erin’s indoor activities!!! Yeaaahhhhh!!!!

#1.  Stairs! Yes, I absolutely did lead with the stairs idea.  I’m pretty sure I heard most of you groan while I typed that.  Hear me out!  Stairs may not have you jumping for joy, but they’re FREE and most of us have some.  Think about it… people pay hundreds of dollars for a stair master and we have the free version of it just hanging out waiting to be walked on!  Even a few trips up and down can kick some butt.  I did a stair-challenge indoor workout at my last apartment.  Try climbing your stairs 10 times and see if you don’t break a sweat!  It’s not the most fun ever, but it’s effective.  If you live with other people, you can make it more fun by making your own challenge or a game out of it.  The first person out has to wash the dishes!

#2.  Aerobic videos! I know how addictive YouTube is for cute kitten videos and silly songs.  But… you can YouTube other things too!  There are countless videos you can find on YouTube for all skill levels.  Don’t like aerobics?  Try stepping.  Stepping not your thing?  Go for yoga!  You will not find a shortage of workout videos, trust me!

#3.  Dance Party!! WooHoo!  Raise the roof! Raise the roof!  Ok… seriously… don’t leave, I’m done.  But also seriously… dance.  Make a list of your favorite songs that you can really move to, and then get to it.  You can make this a solo activity or get the whole family going!  Depending on skill, you can certainly ban any recording devices from the party if need be….

#4.  Calisthenics workouts! Sometimes I hear people say they don’t have any equipment to workout at home.  That’s absolutely fine!  Think about all the exercises that are possible with just body weight.  Pushups, lunges, squats, crunches, dips, burpees, jumping jacks, planks…. You can design your own workout and change things around as you like.

#5.  Jump rope! This is a much more intense activity than I remember it being when I was a kid.  It’s fun, and you can do a lot of different types of jumps with it.  This is one activity that gets the blood moving quickly for sure.

And last, but not least…

#6.  Hula hoop! This is my personal favorite.  Over the years, I’ve learned that you can do all kinds of different dance moves and tricks with a hula hoop.  It’s an amazing workout, and one that doesn’t require a whole lot of space (unless you want and have the space to move more of course.)  I tend to enjoy the tricks that require the hoop to move off my body a lot, and I may or may not have broken a couple knick knacks…. BUT… there are plenty of different muscle groups you can target while keeping the hoop in motion and on your body.  Plus… it’s just really fun!  I highly recommend it!

And there you go!  6 different ways to keep moving while we’re staying home for a bit.  Feel free to leave me a comment below if you have any questions or other ideas you would like to add!  Stay safe and healthy out there guys!

VACATIONS!  WOOHOO!  They’re great, right?  Thoughts of vacations are part of what helps us get through the really tough days at work.  They’re one of reasons we start looking at new exercise routines, or changing our eating habits.  Vacations are a necessary little break from reality where we can unwind and regroup.

Then we get into the “vacation mode” mindset and relaxing gets a little easier each day we’re into it.  Do any of these sound familiar:

“No alarm clocks!  I’m on vacation!”

“Let’s go out to eat, I need a break from cooking… I’m on vacation.”

“I haven’t exercised all week!  We went away for vacation and there just wasn’t any time.”

“Dessert?  Of course!  It’s vacation time!”

And my personal favorite: “Vacation calories don’t count.” 

I’ve said every one of those at some point… and you know what?  There’s really nothing wrong with any of that as long as it doesn’t turn into your mantra for the rest of the vacation!  It’s pretty easy to undo months of working toward healthier lifestyle changes in one week.

So how do we deal with vacation?  How can we relax and not fall into old habits at the same time?

My nutritionist secret weapon…. 

WHAT COULD IT BE?

…..

IT’S:

….

PLANNING!

 Ok, so it’s not really a secret, and there’s no weapon involved… but it does work.  It’s the same idea as not going shopping when you’re really hungry because you will buy everything in the store.  Don’t go on vacation without a game plan for your meals.  You plan everything else… you know what hotel you’re going to, the days you will be there, tourist events you want to see… why not plan what you want to eat?

Do a little research when you’re looking for things to do on your trip.  Find stores near where you are & know what restaurants are available.  You don’t have to go full grocery shopping, but having shelf stable items on hand is definitely a good idea!  You can have a few items like whole wheat bread & peanut butter, protein bars, fresh fruit or nuts.  These are great foods to snack on while you’re planning where or what to eat for your next meal.  Waiting until you’re over hungry to decide usually results in finding the closest place to eat, the quickest food to make, and eating too fast or too much.

When you do go to a restaurant, keep in mind that sides can usually be exchanged.  I don’t think there’s a restaurant I’ve been to that hasn’t allowed me to change the usual fries for a salad or their vegetable of the day.

Go ahead and plan for the splurge meals too!  If you know you will be out celebrating a birthday and there’s pizza and birthday cake, well that just sounds delicious… enjoy it!  Then plan your next meal to be back on track with healthier items.  It’s easy to fall into an all-or-nothing mindset when you go out.  If you’re not sure what that means, it’s where you have two different ways of thinking:

Either “nothing” – where you are very strict and rigid about what you want to eat and you will have NOTHING outside of your plan. 

Or the other side is “all” – where you have a meal that you normally would not have and then decide the rest of the day is ruined so you might as well go crazy! 

Neither of those leads to the best outcome.  Usually the end result on both sides is being unhappy about your choices, and that doesn’t feel good!  That’s why planning is so important.  There are no surprises and you can figure out ahead of time what you want and don’t want on your plate.  Planning gives you the opportunity to stay in control of your choices.  If you know you are going out for your favorite milkshake tomorrow night, it becomes a lot easier to pass on the desserts you come across today. 

Don’t forget to stay hydrated!  A lot of people struggle with drinking enough water during the day anyway, and being away from home and regular routines makes that even more difficult.  Sometimes, when we’re thirsty, signals get crossed and we mistake that for hunger instead.  Not drinking enough and being away from our regular meal times raises the possibility of making unhealthy choices.  Be aware of how much you’re drinking and plan to bring extra water with you if you’re going to be out for the day.

Staying busy to try and get everything in you want to see is pretty normal on vacation.  There are new sites to see, places to go, people to visit.  Depending on where you go, sometimes all that craziness adds up to a lot more activity than you normally have!  Sometimes though, the day is busy, but you still haven’t been too “active.”  Maybe you’ve been visiting family, or relaxing by a pool or beach, then sitting down to dinner, then watching a show… definitely a long day, but there hasn’t been much to get your heart rate up.  If you have an exercise routine normally, this can get lost during vacation week.  Even if you don’t have an exercise routine, you can use that time to try some new activities.  Check and see what your hotel may have available.  Many hotels have a gym, some may have a pool.  If you’re staying with friends or family, even better!  Recruit company to show you around their neighborhood and take a walk to a new place each day.

Ultimately, vacations were meant to take a break and HAVE FUN!  We want to get back from that vacation and feel rested and ready to take on the world again.  If your diet or exercise routine is part of the stress you want a break from when you’re on vacation, it’s time to revisit what you’re asking yourself to do.  Lifestyle changes are meant to enhance your life & be sustainable and manageable… even if you’re away from home. 

Ahhhh… the holidays!  It’s that time of year again!  The decorations, the music, the celebrations, vacations, family get-togethers, cards, and FOOD!  SO. MUCH. FOOD!  If you happen to live in a colder climate, like I do, it’s very tempting to look at the piles of snow from the warm side of the window.  I don’t know about you guys, but when I’m home all day, I tend to eat more!

I’ve come up with some tips that I want to share on how to prevent holiday weight gain:

1.  Do not underestimate the power of your own expectations!

This one *might* be the hardest one on the whole list!  If you tell yourself every year that you gain 10 pounds for Christmas and that’s just what happens, guess what?  You’re almost certain to gain 10lbs!  Just because that happened for the last 5 years in a row, don’t get stuck thinking it’s an endless cycle.  Changing habits is one of the most mentally challenging transformations we fight through.  But it is not impossible!  The rest of my tips will hopefully get your creativity flowing so you can have more confidence to believe this year you know how to prevent holiday weight gain.

2.  Prioritize your favorite holiday.

We’re coming up on Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas & Hanukkah, & New Year’s.  That means 4 months of festivities, and 4 months of treats!  It’s perfectly okay to just pick 1 of those as your favorite and indulge in that particular feast on that 1 day.  That doesn’t mean you’re going to be Scrooge for the other holidays of course!  If you love to host, by all means… HOST!  You can plan, cook, bake, sing, decorate…. all of it!  But you don’t have to treat yourself to all of the goodies that go along with every holiday.  One regular sized plate of holiday food is plenty.  You still get to socialize, which I think is the best part of the holiday anyway.  You still get to taste the holiday flavors you’ve waited all year for… but you’re doing it as a regular portion size because you have one specific holiday in mind that you want to indulge in.

Hey… let’s do a little math problem… Because yeah, everybody loves math!  (Seriously, don’t block me!  This will be quick.)

1 pound = 3500 calories.

Let’s say that you have been mindful of your portions, you’ve planned balanced meals, you have your healthy go-to snacks.  You feel GREAT about what you’ve been eating all week.  On the weekends, you started baking for the holidays and because you’ve planned so well all week, you want to have a few treats while you’re baking and maybe indulge a little more on that one day.  It doesn’t have to be much.  Maybe you made brownies for an office Thanksgiving party and then decided to eat a brownie & have a nice cold glass of eggnog that evening.  One brownie is about 200 calories and one 8oz glass of eggnog is 360 calories.

Your snack was a total of 560 calories.  No biggie!  One snack, and it was delicious and worth it!  The trouble comes up though, during the holidays, when people are getting festive frequently, and this becomes an every weekend event.  That 560 calories ends up being an extra pound of weight gain in just 6 weeks.

Ok… end of the math!  I promise….

I just wanted to point out how quickly weight can be gained even when you’re eating well “most of the time.”  So like I mentioned at the top… prioritize your holidays!

3.  Make the celebrations less about the food

I grew up in an Italian family, so I completely understand that people love to share food.  They LOVE IT!  Some people even get offended when you don’t stuff yourself to the point where you need to take a nap!  It’s not always easy to say, “No thank you.”  I’m very familiar with the look you get when food is declined.  But no one else is going to take responsibility for your health but you.  When you’re making changes to prevent holiday weight gain, you have to believe that it’s okay to not indulge just because it’s the norm. You can start new traditions and activities!

Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Don’t buy Halloween candy until it’s actually Halloween!  If it’s sitting around the house for 2 weeks, that’s a huge temptation every day.  Or skip the candy altogether & hand out little toys or stickers!
• If you’re hosting on Halloween for a group of kids, plan a dance party or have games and movies planned to keep busy.  Make the candy part be a very small portion of the evening.  There are 2 recipes in this Halloween article that might be good to try out this year!
• When you’re hosting holidays for the family, get the games out!  Cards, Apples to Apples, Pictionary… etc.  When large groups of people are sitting around chatting, we tend to want to break out some munchie food to have something to do while we’re talking.  Games are so much fun and a great way to keep busy and avoid the extra snacks.
• Decorate!  Instead of having the desserts taking over, cover your dining room table with crafty items like markers, construction paper, glitter, etc…. I know people usually have the house decorated before guests arrive, but change it up a little!  Have everyone get in the festive mood with some holiday music playing while you guys decorate.
• You don’t have to stay inside the whole time, even if it IS cold!  Have fun with new traditions like making a scarecrow, pumpkin carving, or building a snowman before dinner.  Or (and this is a brave move for my friends in the North…) get your group bundled up and go take a walk around the block!
• Check out local events in your area.  A lot of places host plays, movies, craft fairs, corn mazes, or street vendors to engage the community in the festivities.  Go to them!  Center your holiday around the event and then dinner/desserts is a nice addition to an already full and wonderful day.

4.  Make a pact with yourself to do an activity of your choice every day.

Not only do we tend to eat a little more during the holidays, but we get extra busy with all the planning, cleaning, and shopping.  Sometimes when our thoughts are going a mile a minute, and we’re mentally exhausted at the end of the day, it feels like we’ve moved more than we have.  Cleaning and shopping take up a lot of the day, but there’s not a lot of physical exertion involved.

And for some, maybe the extra errands DO add up to more steps or walking than usual.

For most of us though, it often takes away the extra time we were dedicating (or trying to dedicate!!) to being active.

So make a pact with yourself as soon as the craziness starts to break up your regular routines.  Pick a realistic activity goal that you’re going to do every day just to keep yourself moving and motivated.  Maybe Monday you’re going to make sure you go up and down your stairs at least 10 times during the day.  Or Tuesday, you’re going to take a break from planning, put on your favorite songs, and dance for 15 minutes.  At the end of the day when you’re watching your favorite show, promise yourself you’re going to do laps across your living room or break out the step stool and just do step ups.

If you live near stores that are only a block or two away, tell yourself you will walk there if you need to pick up a last minute item.

It doesn’t have to be the same activity.  You don’t even have to have a whole 30 or 60 minutes dedicated to anything.  Just pick an activity and make it happen, even if it’s in small amounts, all throughout the day.  When life gets busy, finding a chunk of time is almost impossible.  But finding 5 or 10 minutes a few times a day certainly IS possible & it adds up before you know it!

5.  Leftovers!

First and foremost on the leftovers: YUM!  🙂

Who doesn’t love holiday leftovers?  They’re full of fun memories, great taste, and the cooking part is already done!  You can’t beat it!

BUT… (oh come on… you knew that was coming…)

I want you to repeat after me:

“I am not solely responsible for finishing off a 15lb ham, a mixing bowl of mashed potatoes and gravy, and a pie.”

As amazing as leftovers are, there also tends to be a lot of them and we feel responsible for making sure the food does not go to waste!  And that’s definitely a difficult position.  With all the food insecurity and waste that surrounds us all the time, how could we possibly throw out leftovers?  On the other hand, we risk our own health to try and avoid that waste.

I have a few suggestions:

• PLANNING!  You can’t go wrong with planning ahead.  Make sure you’ve cleared out your freezer.  If you store the extras in the freezer, you have a much longer window of time and you won’t feel as pressured to eat a lot at once.
• Take into consideration the ideas above that suggest making the holiday less food-centered.  If there are other activities going on, there will be less food and less waste at the end of the day.
• If you’re hosting, tell everyone who is interested to bring a container with them to take a meal home.
• If you’re the guest and people are offering leftovers, only take what you know you will eat in one or two meals so you don’t feel tempted to over indulge.
• Contact local food pantries and food rescue teams for ideas on facilities that may be able to accept your leftovers as a donation.  I know there is concern about food donations and food safety.  But there is a law called The Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act that protects people  from liability when donating to nonprofit organizations.
• Be forgiving to yourself if you find that you do need to get rid of some foods at the end of the day.  Most foods can be frozen, but if you come across items that need to be eaten or tossed… remind yourself that your health IS a priority and plan a little differently next time.

So there you go!  Hopefully these tips for how to prevent holiday weight gain got your creativity and motivation going a little!  Holidays were meant to be a fun and exciting time of year.  Worrying about gaining weight shouldn’t be the thing preventing you from enjoying yourself!  If you find that there are other things you do or you have a suggestion to share, please feel free to comment and add to the list.

It is really hard to make successful changes to your nutrition habits & to create new routines!  That applies to just about anything, not just food…. Think about when you last changed jobs and had to learn a new process, new people, new structure.  Or what about learning how to cook?  Or drive a car?  It’s awkward…. to put it mildly!  Until I get into the swing of something new… I wish I had a fast forward button to get to the point where it feels natural!  So of course, that’s the same for starting a new activity or changing your nutrition habits.

When I started my current job, there were days I kept thinking I was in over my head and there was just SO MUCH to learn at once.  I was fortunate enough to have a really supportive group of people who were understanding and patient.  It made that awkward time a little easier to get through.

So what happens when you’re starting to create new food habits, and you’re surrounded by people who have the exact habits you’re hoping to change? … There’s that awkward feeling again!

As my own food habits have changed over the years, I’ve come across this more and more often.  I decline a cookie or the birthday cake or whatever-celebratory-food, and then comes the assault of questions:

“You don’t want a brownie?”                                                                                                “Why don’t you want a brownie?”                                                                                “Are you full?”                                                                                                                      “Are you on a diet?”                                                                                                                “Do you not like brownies?  There’s ice cream!”                                                           “What’s wrong?”

And if I reply with, “ok… just a small one….” then all the chaos I just stirred up in the dessert pot settles down, and life goes back to normal.  If I continue to decline, there are times I’ve felt like the host was disappointed and thought I wasn’t having a good time because I didn’t indulge in the foods offered.

Food tends to be the glue that holds events together, so I think we associate people eating with having a good time.  And that’s not wrong!  I love food!  We all love food!  But when we’re working toward making healthier food choices, sometimes the people around us aren’t as supportive as we need them to be.  I think that’s worth talking about because it can make a big impact on our motivation and success.

One of the things I suggest to make successful changes to your nutrition habits is to go out and make sure you do have a support group!  This can be as simple or as elaborate as you need it to be.  This is your journey, so you get to do it how you want it!  You  may be the kind of person who needs 1 close friend and you feel 100% supported.  Maybe you feel more supported in a group.  What about the kind of group?  Would you benefit from actually sitting down and talking face to face with others?  Or would you prefer to go online and do things a little more anonymous?  It’s okay if you don’t know the answer to any of these questions.  But I will give you some suggestions so you can figure out what path might work best for you.  In my blog about “how to lose weight“, I referenced two sites for keeping an online food diary: MyFitnessPal, & SparkPeople.  Both of those sites also have message boards & blogs so you can join in the virtual community for support.  If you prefer something in person, a quick Google search for “support groups in my area” will help you narrow down some choices.  You can fill in whatever type of group you are looking for such as “weight loss support group”, “food allergy support group”, “nutrition support group.”  Maybe you can even start your own if you don’t find exactly what you’re looking for.  Have you talked to any of your family or friends about wanting to make some changes?  Sometimes you can find people who get motivated by your own excitement to make changes… and now you have a buddy to work with!

Whatever path you choose is great!  Just make sure you do have someone to talk to and share thoughts with.  Like I mentioned above, you may be surrounded by a lot of people who don’t understand the changes you’re trying to make.  Having a buddy to text or email in a tough situation is one of the most helpful ways to ensure you will be more successful!

The other side of that involves a little planning from you!    I am a big advocate for moderation.  There are definitely going to be events where you DO want to indulge in more than just the conversation.  So go for it… and enjoy yourself!  But plan on those days.  If I go to 5 birthday parties in 1 month, I’m not going to eat cake every time.  But I go to the fair once a year… and I get peanut butter fudge when I go.  I love it & I look forward to it every year.  I eat cookies & eggnog on Christmas.  Thanksgiving just isn’t complete without pie!  But meeting up with friends every weekend… ?  Instead of meeting for dinner, go bowling or go for a walk.  Going to a movie?  Go after dinner & skip the popcorn.  For my birthday I didn’t want the traditional cake & ice cream.  We had angel food cake & fresh strawberries instead!  (No regrets!  It was DELICIOUS!)

Speaking of moderation… that’s another key to being successful when you change your nutrition habits.  You have to define what moderation means.  It will be a little different for everyone.  I used the example above of celebrating 5 birthdays in 1 month.  At every party, what if you hear, “Just one piece of cake isn’t going to hurt….”?  Then it become 5 pieces of cake in 1 month!!  Is that a change from what you were doing before?  Or is that something you want to change for the future?  Define what your “moderation” is and then plan around it!  If you say you only want to eat sweets twice a month, plan for them and look forward to it!

Another way to stay successful is slowing down and giving yourself time to actually form the new habits you want.  I’ve mentioned in previous blogs that sometimes it’s most helpful to pick one or two things you want to change & just focus on that.  You may have a list of things you would like to try, but when you make too many changes at once, it’s overwhelming!  If you make just one goal & work on that until it becomes routine, then it just feels natural!  You don’t have to try to work on it anymore, you’re just doing it automatically.

When you’re choosing which goals to work on, it’s also very important to make them as specific as you can.  If your goal is “to cut down on soda”…. what is that really telling you?  Make it specific!  Maybe you drink a soda with every meal and one before bed.  An example of a specific goal would be, “I’m not going to drink soda for breakfast or before bed, only with lunch and dinner.  I’m going to have juice in the morning and water at night.”  If your goal is to “eat healthier”, maybe you could modify that to be: “I’m going to eat healthier by having vegetables with my meals & eating fruit for dessert instead of ice cream.”  Be specific!!  When you make a general or vague goal, you aren’t really telling yourself anything and you don’t have a way to get started.  Vague goals set people up to be unsuccessful from the start, so start strong and avoid that issue altogether!

So there you have it!  Support, planning, defining moderation, time, and specific goals….  Those are going to be your key players for being successful.  Change is hard, no matter what form it takes.  But you got this!  If you find other strategies that have worked well for you, please feel free to share and we can add on to the list!

Hi everyone!  This is my first blog… yes… 1st (seriously).  In 2018, I’m attempting my first blog.  Better late than never, right? 🙂

I haven’t completely worked out the details yet other than my tagline description that this will be: “A Blog about Nutrition & Wellness.” Food is my passion, to put it mildly. I’m a Registered Nutrition & Dietetic Technician.

What?

I get it… it’s a fairly long title for something most people haven’t even heard of.  But food…. Everyone knows what food is!  I’m a nutrition professional and I help educate about food.  As a diet tech, I find myself in a unique and fun position to be able to provide nutrition recommendations to the general public and improve health through food!

Currently I work full time in a hospital, and I’m also a per diem staff for long term care.  I love my jobs.  There are, as always, good & bad parts (just like any job!) My favorite part though, is when I’m talking to a patient and they’re interested & excited & they talk back!  I love the conversation, the questions, the suggestions, the motivation.  That absolutely JAZZES me right up!  I’m more alive and in love with my job at that moment than any other.

Hence… the blog was born!  I wanted a way to connect with more people one on one.  Nutrition can be SO DARN CONFUSING!  Believe me, I know!  My career path actually started about 10 years ago when a curious overweight girl started researching diets & weight loss.  OH MY GOODNESS… my head was spinning with all the craziness.  The fun part is… nutrition studies are always finding new information.  So just when you think you know what to do, it CHANGES!

What I’d like to do, once I make sense of this whole blogging thing, is to share my information & journey with others.  I’ll admit, I had this idea & I wanted to hurry up and start blogging when I probably should’ve waited and planned it a bit better!  But where’s the fun in that?  If I’m stuck behind a computer screen clicking & dragging & highlighting… I’m certainly not talking to anyone about food.  (Kind of defeats the purpose.) 🙂

So, without further ado… Here is the official launch of my blog: Cauliflower & Cupcakes!