I’m wrapping up my blog posts for the Dairy Council of California with a three part series “Concrete Steps for Letting Go of Diets.”

In Part I I’ll talk about how to gradually stop counting calories.  Part II I’ll discuss the process of letting go of the ‘cheat day.’ And Part III  is about defining what normal eating means to you.  Part I is already posted on the Dairy Council of California’s website, Part II will be posted on Thursday, and Part III will be posted on Friday.

Each one of these topics are very important to me.  When it comes to letting go of dieting, these three steps are so important.  If you’re knew to the non-dieting concept, the steps I’ve covered may seem overwhelming, even impossible to accomplish at times.  I encourage you to read each post and chime in. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

I’ve truly enjoyed guest posting for the Dairy Council of California.  Their website is a great resource for healthy eating and loads of healthy recipes.

I hope you enjoy the series

Its been many months since I’ve written a post about nutrition.  With the New Year in full swing I thought it was perfect timing for a nutrition post.  If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know my nutrition philosophy.  If you’re new to my blog, here’s a little background info.  I’m an RD with 10 years experience.  Having run my own private practice, I’ve seen just about every nutrition problem that exists.  If I’ve learned anything from my clients, and from myself, its that restrictive diets don’t work.  There’s no such thing as a good or bad food… there is such a thing as a bad portion.  Eating healthy is important but how much we eat is even more important.

As a mother raising a daughter, I’m well aware of the effects my eating has on her.  She will do exactly what I do.  If I eat all day, she wants to eat all day.  Its my job to be a healthy role model for her.  If you’re looking at adopting a healthier lifestyle for the new year, consider a more mindful approach.  Losing weight isn’t rocket science.  Its easy mathematics.  If you eat more than your body needs, you will gain weight.  If you want to lose weight, you need to mindfully do the opposite.  The key word is mindfully.  Its all about having a healthy state of mind.  What ever approach you take towards adopting a healthy lifestyle, be sure to keep a realistic view of it all.

Throughout the month of January, I’ll be blogging over at the Dairy Council of California.  They have a fantastic series call “New Year, New Approach… Kick off the New Year with a renewed passion for healthy eating by letting go of negative feelings about food.”

My first post is Mindful Eating, Satisfaction Guaranteed. Be sure to check it out along with all their other fabulous posts for New Year, New Approach series.

If you’d like to read more about nutrition, check out my nutrition bites page.  There’s all sorts of info there

Question for you…

What’s approach do you take towards living a healthy lifestyle?

I thought I’d start your Wednesday off with a dose of cuteness…

Moving on

I ran my 6 miles yesterday… it was rough. I think it was the humidity, combined with hills, combined with the jogging stroller. I had to stop and take a few breathers… which I’m totally okay with I’m just saying… it was a tough run…

I was out of organic milk for M so I stopped by our local organic market and found this…

High Country Kombucha! I was drinking Synergy Kombucha until it was pulled from the shelves. Apparently, High Country is the first to complete the new labeling requirements which shows it has a lower alcohol content. I read that Synergy is suppose to be back on the shelves at the end of August. Yay! Both brands are still natural and raw. This was my first time drinking High Country. It was good, but not as good as Synergy. I missed the tanginess of Synergy and the fizz. High Country isn’t very fizzy. I’m interested to see if Synergy tastes the same as it did before… I hope so

About a week ago I was sent some Kerrygold Irish Butter to try out. Two pounds to be exact…

I’ve never tasted or cooked with Irish Butter before… so this was a first for me.

If you’re like me, you have no idea what the difference is between Irish Butter and regular butter.

Here’s the scoop:

Their cows are fed a year-round grass fed diet which produces very sweet, creamy milk. Their butter taste deliciously sweet and creamy! I had a little taste test at home and spread a piece of toast, half with Irish Butter, and the other half with Land O’Lakes Butter. There was a distinct difference in the two. The Irish Butter had a very rich taste.

I pondered on what to do with it…. since I hadn’t baked in ages, I thought I’d bake some good ole’ chocolate chip cookies.

I’ve always loved this particular recipe… it could just be mental… but I swear these tasted better! They were incredibly flakey and soft. You could taste the butter. Half a pound of Irish Butter went into this recipe.

Here’s what went into the cookies:

• 8 oz Kerrygold Irish Butter
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 18 oz (1.5 bags) semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 360 degrees.

In a separate bowl, sift flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.

In a mixer, beat together butter and both sugars for about 3 minutes until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat for additional two minutes. At low speed, slowly incorporate flour mixture. Mix until combined. Fold in chocolate chips.

Drop by giant tablespoon full onto cookie sheet lined with silpat or parchment paper. Make sure cookies are at least 2 inches apart. Bake for 13 minutes until edges are lightly golden. Remove from oven. Let sit for 2 minutes, than carefully transfer cookies from cookie sheet to cooling rack. Enjoy

Drink Booze & Stay Skinny?
I love it when I read headlines like this. Drink alcohol and stay slim? Of course!?!! How could you not be intrigued by this…
A study in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that women who drank about one alcoholic beverage a day gained less weight over a 13 year period and were 30 percent less likely to become overweight and obese then nondrinkers.
Obviously, this doesn’t mean we should start to booze it up… we all know that drinking too much is not only unhealthy, but can lead us to the all night burrito bar The article suggests that maybe women who imbibe tend to eat less to compensate.

Here’s my two cents:
I’m all about having a night cap every now and again… but you all know I’m NOT a fan of counting calories. I do listen to my body, and I treat a cocktail like food. It never replaces food for me… but I do consider that fact that overdoing it is the same as overeating. I love having a glass of wine in the evening… and I think about that when planning my meal. The same rule goes when I eat out. My favorite drink of all time is a margarita. I can’t go to a mexican food restaurant and not order one. But I do know they are loaded with calories. I’m always mindful of what I order and how much I eat. Sometimes I finish my drink, sometimes I don’t. This study is saying the same thing we already know… those who eat and drink in moderation are more likely to maintain a healthy weight then those who consistently overindulge.

What about you? Do you find that you eat less when you drink?

Hi!

Today we start week two of 12 Weeks No Diets!

To recap, here were last weeks goals.

• Eat when we’re hungry, stop when we’re satisfied
• Drink at least 12 oz of water with each meal, and 8-12 oz between meals.

How did we do?

Like I mentioned in my last post, drinking water is pretty tough for me! I literally felt like I was constantly guzzling water. The first few days felt like work, but after a while I started to feel so much better! As far as eating when I’m hungry… I pretty much do this already, but this time I REALLY focused on it! Before I ate, or wanted to eat I asked myself “Am I REALLY hungry?” Sometimes the answer was yes, but other times it wasn’t. I had moments of boredom where I wanted to eat, but didn’t. I also had moments where those lovely “female hormones” kicked in and made think I wanted food. Boy was this hard work! As frustrating as it was, I waited it out and low and behold, my tummy eventually started growling, hunger pains kicked in, and before I knew it, it was time to eat! I have to say it felt almost like a victory!

Moving forward to this week, I wanted to focus on eating routines and fiber.

Mindful Tip #2

Break Mindless Eating Routines

Do you have any routines where you eat mindlessly? I had/have a couple. Sometimes I like to snack a little while working on the computer… like right now! I’m righting this post from a cute little bakery/coffee shop. There are people all around me working on their computers, sipping coffee, and eating. I smell the yummy quiche that the women sitting next to me is eating, I smell the warm cinnamon roll that the man across from me is eating. I am not the least bit hungry at all… not even a tingle of hunger… but I feel like I should order something because a) I’m working on the computer, and b) because everyone else around me is eating.

Another mindless eating routine I did/do is eating as soon as I get home from work. For the longest time the first thing I would do when getting home from work was eat. I would pull my car into the driveway, get the mail from the mail box, let Shiner (my dog) out, and sift through the mail while eating either pretzels or pita chips. Majority of the time I wasn’t even hungry.

Breaking mindless eating routines takes some time. I had to take a look at my day and identify the routines where I ate mindlessly. Then I had to work on them. I did this my focusing on breaking my routines. It took a conscious effort, but over time, I developed new routines.

Nutrition Tip #2

Eat your Fiber!!

Fiber is good for us. Fiber helps makes us feel full. Fiber comes in the form of whole grains, fruits, and veggies. The daily fiber requirement for women is 25 grams, and for men it’s about 40 grams. Instead of trying to count fiber grams, just try to make better choices. I like to choose bread that has at least 4 grams of fiber per slice. As far as fruits and veggies go, I REALLY need to work on this!!! I don’t know why this is so hard for me, but it is. I can manage to eat a salad most days to get my veggies in, but other than that, I need work. I don’t know why, but when I’m hungry, I rarely go for fruits or veggies.

Goal for this week:

1. Try to identify any mindless eating routines, think of a different behavior/activity to work on changing those routines
2. When hungry, at at least one piece of fruit per day, and include veggies in some form (preferably fresh) for two meals.
   

WORKOUT OF THE WEEK

Click here for Jessica’s No More Resolutions Workout!

No More Resolutions will run for 12 weeks along with No Diets in the New Year

There are beginner, intermediate, and advanced workouts for everyone! My favorite thing about these workouts is that they can be done at home!

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Do you have any questions?

I’m happy to answer any questions you may have. I started a “12 Weeks No Diets” page. Every Mondays post/tip will be on that page.

If you have any workout specific questions, go to Jessica’s Blog at How Sweet It Is.