Recently in Meal Planning Category

Eating out has become a major part of the busy American lifestyle. Remember that improving your health is not the concern of the restaurant industry. Their biggest concern is making money! That's the bottom line. What sells food is fat, sugar and salt, so that's what they're going to serve!

You know what else sells? A bargain! For some reason we all think that the more food we get for our buck, the better deal we are getting. Think about that for a minute... is it a good deal if your $5 "meal deal" means that you just consumed 500 more calories than if you ate at home?

It's not a good deal when it means you have to find an extra hour running off those calories! In order to be a smart consumer and promote a cancer fighting immune system, be sure to follow the 10 tips for healthy eating at restaurants.

Here are the final 5: (The first 5 can be found in Part I).

6. Keep portions SMALL! I cannot stress enough how much portion size makes a difference. Typically at restaurants, the portions of meat and starch are much too large and the portion of vegetables are small or non-existent.

Want to see how portion sizes have changed over the last 20 years? Check out this Portion Distortion Quiz! Two simple ways to cut the portion size is to order a kid's size (without the cookie!) or split the meal with someone else.

7. Stay away from refined "white" grains. That means avoiding sweetened, sugary drinks like sodas and sweet tea. If you're really smart, you might replace the white rice or white pasta with a veggie for the side dish. Also, if you must have desert, share one with everyone at the table!

8. Balance the rest of your day. There's not a whole lot you can do with how the food is prepared, so make sure that the rest of your day is low sodium, full of fruits and vegetables and certainly don't starve in anticipation of eating out. That is a sure fire way to overeat!

9. Eat a healthy snack before going out. Sometimes by the time I get to a restaurant, I'm so hungry that there's no chance that I will a good decision. One way I fight against this scenario is to eat a healthy snack like fruit or veggies with dip BEFORE I head out.

 
10. TAKE A WALK!! To make sure that you provide your body with the metabolism to process the meal you eat, be sure you get some sort of physical activity in that day. Sweating will help rid your body of the extra sodium and the muscle building will help burn the extra calories you eat.

Make your health more important than a Meal Deal!

- Julie

1. Avoid Buffets! Research has told us that when people are offered a variety of food at one time, they eat more. Research has also showed that when people are offered large amounts of food at a time, they eat more.
   
   Buffets are the worst of both worlds! They offer a wide variety of large quantities of foods. This is a deadly combination when it comes to health. If you have to go to a buffet, order a meal rather than paying for the buffet. Contrary to instinct, it is NOT a good deal to get an abundance of calories for cheap. Those calories are going somewhere, and it might as well not be on your waistline!
   
   
2. No matter where you go, there is a "best" choice (or two!). Don't get caught up in the defeatist mentality that there's nothing good to choose from so you might as well get the burger, fries and biggie soda! No matter where you are, find the best choice. It might be a few sides that you order instead of a meal.
   
   
3. Get the Nutrient guide. Don't play dumb when you order. Know what you're getting when you get it. Almost all fast food restaurants have nutrition information in the store or online. Many chain restaurants also have their nutrition information online.
   
   Check it out before you go so that you know what you want to order before you get there. Another option is to purchase a restaurant guide from a bookstore or online. My favorite is Calorie King.
   
   
4. Look for the "Light" Menus. Maybe the restaurant you chose didn't have the nutrition information. They might have a icon on the menu to indicate the healthier items. [Just as a note, if it's marked as low carb, it's not likely to be healthy. Many times it is an excuse to sell you a high fat meal with "no carbs"].
   
   If you don't see signs of healthy options, ask your server what options they have that are healthy.
   
   
5. Avoid foods described as "fried", "creamy", "cheesy", or "rich". These words are very appetizing, which is why it's on the menu! Marketing professionals pay a lot of money to know what sounds best and helps grease the money out of your wallet! These are just fancy terms for "fatty".

It can be difficult to find healthy foods to eat when you travel. This is especially hard because many times you don't have access to refrigeration or a kitchen to cook in. Foods offered in the airport or along the highway are usually convenient but don't fit the category of "health foods".

When my husband and I moved to Arizona from North Carolina, we drove out in a U-Haul. We only ate out one time over the 2.5 day trip and the rest of the time we had crackers, cheese, fruit and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

I'm not suggesting you be this extreme! But you might wonder how you can eat a health promoting diet when you're traveling. Here are some suggestions on healthy eating while away from home. These suggestions are usually easier on the budget than eating out too!

Plan Ahead!

Planning ahead is imperative in having healthy options available to you. This might mean bringing a cooler on a car trip, or bringing a lunch box when you travel by air.

Think about how many hours you are going need food.  Plan on a snack every three hours and try to keep a variety of options. Obviously, if you're driving alone, your choices become more limited.  Plan on a few crumbs escaping, and keep a napkin and trash bag handy. Here are some suggestions of healthy snacks for a car trip:

• Fruit
• Sandwiches (lunch meat or PB and jelly)
• Trail mix
• Water
• Crackers and Hummus
• Baby carrots
• Pre-washed and pre-cut fresh vegetables

It can be hard to find snacks to take on an airplane due to space limitations and lack of refrigeration. Here are some of the things that we bring on the airplane:

• Trail mix (dried fruit and nuts)
• Kashi granola bars
• Fig newtons
• Fruit
• Juice box
• PB and Jelly sandwich (usually gets smooshed!)
• Water
• Dried fruit bars

Make Smart Choices When You Eat Out

When you are on vacation, you are more likely to eat out than when you're at home. So make the most of your choices when you go out. Be sure to pick a restaurant that is going to give you healthy choices. Focus on getting enough fruits and/or vegetables at the meal. 

One of my favorite places to eat is a grocery store. If you find a good one, they will often have a salad bar and then you can pick up some fresh fruits and veggies to snack on later in the day.

I think the hardest thing about traveling is getting in as many fruits and vegetables and whole grains as I get at home. By bringing snacks such as dried fruit and nuts with you and visiting a grocery store every once in a while, you can still eat healthy even though you're not at home.

Safe and Healthy Travels!
- Julie

Survey on Soy and Cancer

I'd like to know how many of you have heard about soy foods and cancer risk. To assess that, I have created a VERY short 3 question survey: Click Here to take my survey.

Next post I will give you my thoughts on soy and cancer risk as well as healthy survivorship. And I'll let you know what the survey results are.

Mini Meals: When You Don't Have Time

For today's post, we'll focus on some mini meal ideas. Mini meals are meals that you can put together quickly when you're in a hurry or when you're in a "mood". The kind of mood I'm referring to is where you don't feel like cooking, but you do feel like eating!

Often at that point, you don't want to even think about what to eat. Having these mini meal options already in your head or written on paper on the fridge can make a big difference and reduce the stress you're feeling at that time.

Mini Meal Ideas

• Low-fat Yogurt with fruit and granola on top.
• Rice cakes – Spread with natural peanut butter and top with banana slices or raisins.
• Apple slices and celery sticks topped with peanut butter and raisins.
• Dried nuts and raisins mix – For added interest, include a few dark chocolate chips.
  
• Baked tortilla chips and salsa – add canned corn and canned black beans to the salsa.
• Pita bread – Fill with your favorite hummus and fresh veggies.
• Air popped popcorn – eat with canned minestrone soup.
• Whole-grain crackers – Top these with cheese, lean sandwich meat, tuna or peanut butter. Have carrots and an apple on the side. 
• Cottage cheese – Eat it plain or topped with fresh fruit. Or fill a green pepper with it and use it as dip for carrots. Eat the “pepper bowl” when done.
• Bran or banana muffins - Eat with a glass of milk and  vegetable soup.
• Low-fat string cheese – String cheese makes another great portable snack. Eat it alone or mix it up by wrapping some thin sliced ham around it. 
• Edamame  (soybeans)– These are soy beans in their shell. Steam them and top with a bit of salt or lemon juice. You can find these in the frozen vegetables section.
• Fruit and Cheese Kabobs – Alternate chunks of fresh fruit and cheese cubes and thread them on a bamboo skewer.
  
• Cooked Sweet Potato – Just cut it up in chunks and bake in the oven. Add flavor with honey and cinnamon, or salt lightly.  They are delicious warm or cold.
• Lettuce Wraps – Take a large leaf of lettuce and top it with raw veggies, ham or turkey and a little low-fat ranch dressing. Wrap up and serve.

Don't forget to take the survey on Soy Foods and Cancer (Click Here to take my survey). Look for the results to be reported next post!

- Julie

They’re NOT a food group! Fats and Sweets

On the old pyramid, fats and sweets were their own food group. Not this time though! When it comes to fats, most people know that there are good fats and there are not-so-good fats.  Good or bad, all fats have the same amount of calories in them. 

When trying to lose weight, pay attention to the calories, regardless of good or bad fat. 

However, for heart health and overall health, the type of fat is very important. Healthy fats are  monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats.  They are found in nuts, seeds, avocados and oils.

Not-so-healthy fats are saturated and trans fats, which are found in meat and dairy as well as many boxed foods or foods you get at restaurants.

It’s important to know what you’re looking for on the food label. When looking at fat, don’t focus on the total fat, rather see how much of the not-so-healthy fats are in it. Sugar is listed on the food label under the carbohydrate section. However it doesn’t tell you if it’s a healthy sugar (from fruit or milk) or an unhealthy sugar (from table sugar or corn syrup). By looking at total carbohydrate and fiber, you will know if there are too many added sugars or not.

Supermarket Smarts: Buy It or Bypass It?

Here is a guide for how to determine if you should buy an item or not. If the item is one part of a meal, or a snack, use the chart for ‘Snacks’. If the item is going to be most or all of your meal, use the chart for ‘Meals’. In order to qualify as a buy it, it needs to meet ALL the ‘Buy It!’ criteria.

Snacks                         Buy It!                Bypass It!

Calories                                 < 200                           > 200

Saturated + Trans Fat             < 2 g                            > 2g

Sodium                                  < 350mg                       > 350mg

Carbohydrate                         < 30g                            > 30g

Fiber*                                     > 3g                              < 3g

Meals                          Buy It!                  Bypass It!

Calories                                 < 600                            > 600

Saturated + Trans Fat             < 5 g                             > 5g

Sodium                                  < 800mg                        >800mg

Carbohydrate                          <65g                             > 65g

Fiber*                                      >5g                               <5g

*When you're looking at fiber on the food label, don't expect to find any if it's a dairy or meat product. Only plant products have fiber in them. So if it's a dairy or meat, just ignore the guide for fiber.  If you see fiber on a dairy product, you know that it has been added.

For a printable chart of this information, click here.

Happy Shopping!

- Julie

Get Your Day Started Right!

You have all heard it before. I'm sure Kellogg's started it. But really, the most important meal of the day? Let's not discriminate; I think ALL meals are important. No one meal is more important than any other. They're just, how should I say it ...  'different'.

Yes, I'm talking about breakfast!

The first meal of your day can be a starting point for getting in cancer 'phyters' (phytochemicals). Breakfast is also important in maintaining a healthy weight, which is imperative for healthy survivorship and in decreasing your risk for cancer. Research shows that people who are successful at maintaining their weight eat breakfast every day.

Breakfast is the meal that tells your body the day has started. When you go to bed at night, your body's metabolism slows down. However, your metabolism won't speed back up again until you have that first meal.

What is a Healthy Breakfast?

If you're one that doesn't like breakfast, you're not alone. It should be a relief to know that you don't have to only eat breakfast food in the morning. Think outside the cereal box. Who said you can't have a sandwich or soup? Or leftovers? Don't tell me you've never had pizza for breakfast!

A healthy breakfast should consist of 3-4 different food groups. Since most people don't like vegetables at breakfast, fruit is a must! I prefer that people eat their fruit rather than drink it, but 3/4 cup of 100% fruit juice can be a good back up plan when you're in a hurry.

Some examples for breakfast might be:

• 1 cup cereal with low-fat milk and 1/2 grapefruit
• Low fat granola with berries and yogurt
• 1 egg, whole wheat English muffin and strawberries
• Fruit smoothie (frozen fruit, milk, yogurt and a splash of juice)

When I'm in a hurry, here are some things I grab to eat on my way:

• Kashi granola bar and banana
• Crackers, 1 oz. low-fat cheese and a 100% juice box
• Apple and peanut butter
• String cheese and a banana

Plus, I'm NEVER without my hot tea in the morning (thanks to my husband)!

The best time to have breakfast is within 1 hour of waking up. It's OK (in fact normal) if you get hungry a few hours after eating breakfast. That just means it's time for a snack!

In the US, we tend to get stuck in a rut for breakfast. All we can think of is cereal, toast, oatmeal, eggs and McDonald's. A lot of the cereal bars on the shelf really ought to be in the candy section! The worst thing to do,though, is to NOT eat breakfast at all.

Good Morning to you!

- Julie

	Enter your search terms Submit search form
	Web cancerdietitian.com eathealthylivehealthy.com dietsfordoggies.com

Behind the Cart

Last time I emphasized the importance of planning. Today's post is about implementing your meal plan at the grocery store.  For the best use of your time, it's best to plan out your meals and THEN make the grocery list.

I'll confess though. Sometimes I just go to the grocery store, buy some things on sale and then plan my meals after I get home. That often requires an extra trip to the grocery store on my way home from work another evening to get the extra things I need for my menu. However, when I'm not in the mood to plan, and I just want to buy some groceries, it works.

Here is a tool for planning your grocery trip. It's called The Shopping Planner. Once you've picked your meals to cook for the week, write down everything you need to get at the grocery store. The handy thing about this list is that it breaks the food up into the areas of the grocery store, so you're less likely to forget something. That makes the trip go faster too! I found it very handy last time I went grocery shopping.

Download Shopping Planner.pdf

My only problem is that the Fruits and Vegetable part wasn't long enough! So I just let them run over into the dairy section. How many dairy foods are there anyway? Milk, cheese, yogurt... I'm not sure why you need so many lines for that section!

Here are 5 grocery store tips for your next trip:

1. 90% of the products in the grocery store are NOT healthy. OK, maybe just 85%. When you pick up a product to buy, you are best to assume it's not healthy until proven otherwise. Don't be deceived by the claims on the box, those are just to get your money!
2. Mainly shop on the exterior of the grocery store, where all the "real foods" are kept. (Except for the pre-made cookie dough that for some reason sits near the eggs. What the heck are they doing there??).
3. Of course, don't shop hungry.
4. Don't buy too much. I made this mistake last week. Now I have some foods already going bad. I'd rather make an extra trip than have food go bad. To avoid this scenario... always make your plan!
5. Smile and thank the grocery check-out person!

That's all for today. Remember that on your grocery list, you should have mostly protectors and not many promoters. Looking at people's grocery carts can give you a good indicator of their health status! Start working on what meals you're going to make next week and try out the shopping planner for your grocery store trip.

Happy Shopping!
-Julie

Hopefully you have taken the challenge to cook more meals at home. Maybe you've even decided to experiment with some new foods or cooking techniques. Cooking works great when you have the time and energy to put into it. Most of us know that an abundance of time and energy is not reality. For the most part, lack of planning (not lack of time or energy!) is the biggest barrier to people eating healthy.

There are many days when I get home from work and the last thing I want to do is cook, much less think about what to cook! What helps me the most is to have the meal already planned out so that when I get home I just need to put it together. Or even better is to prepare something ahead of time, in a crock-pot or the weekend before. That way you just have to heat it up.

Here is a tool that I find handy in order to eliminate the hassle of trying to think about what to make for dinner. It's called the "meal planner". I got it from the NC government's public health department and their website called 'My Eat Smart Move More NC' (myeatsmartmovemore.com).

Download meal_planner.pdf

This sheet encourages you to keep a list of all your tried and true main dishes and sides. Often when I'm planning a week of meals, I forget what meals I like and can cook. By using this list, it makes my planning of meals for the week much quicker.

The "meal planner" is also useful when grocery shopping to make sure that you have the ingredients needed. That way if you get home one night without a meal planned, you can pick one off the list to make.

As mentioned before, lack of planning is the biggest barrier to people eating healthy. Use this meal planner as a place to start. Think of it as your index to fighting cancer!

-Julie

PS. To see my list of main dishes and sides, click here.

	Enter your search terms Submit search form
	Web cancerdietitian.com eathealthylivehealthy.com dietsfordoggies.com

It's easy to learn about what foods you should eat to prevent cancer, or live healthy after cancer. However, it's MUCH harder to actually do it!! For many people that I work with, I have them keep track of what they are eating so we can set some healthy eating goals and really identify what areas of their food intake needs improvements.

This is something you can do too! Use the tracking form below keep track of what you're eating each week. Some people write down everything they eat. Sometimes I suggest that they just keep track of certain aspects of their food intake. Especially if it seems like too much work to write down everything you eat, just focus on 1 or 2 things.

Download nutrition tracker

Here are some examples of things you can track to see how you are doing:

• Write down all foods and beverages consumed
• Focus only on the fruits and vegetables you eat
• Keep track of your fluid intake
• Focus on one meal (for example, breakfast)

Keep track for a week. At the end of the week look back over each day and make some observations on what choices you made. Keep in mind these are OBSERVATIONS, not judgments. Many people use this time to criticize what they did. Don't! That isn't productive. We want to observe what is going on, and focus on some things to change.

If you didn't make the best choices, think about why (I call these barriers). Was it stress? Emotions? Convenience? Knowing why you made the choice is the first step in making a change.

Once you decide what to work on, write it down where you can be reminded of it daily. Put it on the fridge, on your bathroom mirror or in your wallet. Keep track for another week and see if you improved. Again, look at your barriers and pick one area to work on.

It takes 3 weeks of making a change before it becomes a habit.  Work on one thing for 2 or 3 weeks before you decide to focus on something else.

Happy Tracking!!
Julie