Associates in Nutrition & Sports Specialty

Happy Friday!  It’s time to plan your family fitness activity for the weekend. Here are a few tips that are perfect for this time of year:

• Visit a nature center and enjoy a hike.
• Enjoy a canoe or kayak trip.
• Go camping where you can pitch a tent, gather firewood, fish, bike, and walk.
• Visit a local farm where you can pick your own strawberries, peaches and apples.

Remember to keep your family active to enjoy a healthy lifestyle!

Consumers looking for a quick fix for losing weight are often tempted by fad diets including pills and supplements. While these may seem appealing, there are no shortcuts to weight loss. With diet pills and supplements available by prescription and over-the-counter, consumers should understand the products and potential side effects and weigh the advantages against the possible dangers.

Diet pills and supplements are designed to suppress the appetite so you will consume fewer calories. However, as you reduce your caloric intake, your metabolism also slows down. As your metabolism slows, the amount of weight you lose also slows down.

This is why it is common for people to lose only a certain amount of weight while taking diet pills alone. It is not a long-term solution, and the side effects can be serious.

Headaches, nausea and insomnia are some of the more common side effects of diet pills and supplements. Through the Food and Drug Administration, consumers have reported elevated blood pressure due to the over-consumption of diet pills.

In some serious cases, diet pills cause heart attacks and can be responsible for heart failure.

When considering diet pills or supplements, consumers should check the label for approval of the FDA. Diet pills can be habit-forming and abuse of these drugs may lead to dependence.

Before taking any prescription or non-prescription diet pill, you should find out if they are habit-forming and what signs you should look out for to alert you to this problem.

Discuss your weight loss strategy with your physician or a registered dietitian, who can help you set goals and create a long-term weight loss plan that is safe and effective. By making lifestyle changes such as regular exercise, nutrition changes and regular health checkups, you can greatly increase your weight loss success.

– Elaine Hastings is a registered dietitian and owner of Associates in Nutrition Therapy in Fort Myers. Contact her at AssociatesinNutrition.com or Elaine@eatrightRD.com.

A good way to check whether you are within a healthy weight range is to calculate your  “body mass index” (BMI).  BMI is a fairly good indicator of a person’s body fat based on height and weight. It is also used to assess your risk of certain weight-related health conditions.

A BMI calculator can help you determine your status. Click here to take the BMI test:  http://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/assessing/bmi/index.html

• If your BMI is less than 18.5, it falls within the “underweight” range.
• If your BMI is 18.5 to 24.9, it falls within the “normal” or healthy weight range.
• If your BMI is 25.0 to 29.9, it falls within the “overweight” range.
• If your BMI is 30.0 or higher, it falls within the “obese” range.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has an online calculator to provide BMI and the corresponding BMI weight status category. Use their calculator for adults, 20 years old and older. For children and teens, 2 through 19 years old, use the BMI Calculator for Children and Teens.

Take the family to a yoga class. Many local gyms and community centers offer weekend yoga classes designed to help increase muscular strength and reduce tension and stress. Yoga has a low potential for injury, is non-competitive, has spiritual and psychological benefits and a 5,000 year track record. The 84 basic yoga positions, or asanas, range from simple bending and twisting to pretzel-like contortions reserved for the most advanced practitioners.

Yoga instructors suggest that yoga be studied with an experienced teacher rather than learned from a manual. Also note that yoga teachers in general are unlicensed and unregulated. Find an experienced teacher affiliated with a reputable yoga organization.

If you can’t get to a class, there are plenty of good yoga videos at your local library. Use books to supplement your training.

While dining out and dieting may seem like a contradiction in terms, both can be accomplished with some planning and willpower. By focusing more on the company you are with and less on the food, you can create a more enjoyable experience.

The best way to dine out without ruining your diet is to plan ahead and become familiar with the menu. Once you have an idea of what you might order, you can better plan your daily calorie count to accommodate your choices. Most restaurants today provide menus and calorie information on their Web sites.

A few examples are:

Applebees: applebees.com
Bob Evans: bobevans.com
Chili’s: chilis.com
Olive Garden: olivegarden.com
Outback Steakhouse: outback.com
Perkins: perkinsrestaurant.com
Red Lobster: redlobster.com

In order to make the best decisions while dining out, please refer to the following as some helpful comparisons that allow you to choose delicious foods without adding extra calories and fat.

By planning ahead, reviewing your menu choices and staying within your allotted calorie intake, you can make good choices and stay within your diet.

– Elaine Hastings is a registered dietitian and owner of Associates in Nutrition Therapy in Fort Myers. Contact her at http://www.associatesinnutrition.com/ or Elaine@eatrightRD.com.

Knowing how much and when to eat before exercise can help make the most of your workout. Coordinate your meals and snacks to help maximize your exercise routine.

Eat small meals three to four hours before exercise. Snacks should be eaten 30 to 60 minutes before exercise. Be sure to eat a light snack after vigorous exercise to help your body recover. As always, drink plenty of water to keep hydrated.

Avoid eating snacks that are high in sugar. Some healthy ideas include the following:

• Apple or banana slices and peanut butter
• Baked potato with cheese melted on top
• Carrot and celery sticks with dressing
• Cottage cheese with fresh or canned fruit
• Dry cereal with dried fruit
• Energy bars or granola bars
• Granola with low fat milk and a banana
• Instant oatmeal made with low fat milk and dried fruit
• Crackers and hummus (garbanzo bean dip)
• Pudding and graham crackers
• Yogurt and canned fruit
• Peanut butter and crackers
• Fruit smoothies
• Whole grain bagel with peanut butter or yogurt
• Whole grain cheese and crackers

While mom and dad may be tempted to leave the kids at home or in the gym daycare during workouts, family fitness can bring families closer together while reinforcing the importance of exercise.

Fall is the season for charity walk-a-thons, a great activity for the entire family. Community walk-a-thons are a great opoprtunity to participate for a good cause. Strollers and young walkers are usually welcome. For families with older children or grandchildren, more competitive 3K or 5K events are also available. Check out your local charities for upcoming events and get the whole family involved in exercising for a cause!

Fruits and vegetables contain essential vitamins, minerals, and fiber that may help protect you from chronic diseases. Compared with people who consume a diet with only small amounts of fruits and vegetables, those who eat more generous amounts as part of a healthful diet are likely to have reduced risk of chronic diseases, including stroke and perhaps other cardiovascular diseases, and certain cancers.

To get a healthy variety, think color. Eating fruits and vegetables of different colors gives your body a wide range of valuable nutrients, like fiber, folate, potassium, and vitamins A and C. Some examples include green spinach, orange sweet potatoes, black beans, yellow corn, purple plums, red watermelon, and white onions. For more variety, try new fruits and vegetables regularly.

Whether you are pregnant, preparing for pregnancy or you know someone who is, good nutrition is vital to a healthy pregnancy. By following simple guidelines of good nutrition, a pregnant mother can help ensure the health and proper development of her baby.

The old saying about eating for two during pregnancy doesn’t mean you need to eat double the calories. In fact, you need only 300 extra calories per day in the second and third trimesters to support proper growth and development of your baby.

By monitoring your caloric intake and eating a prenatal diet rich in nutrient-dense foods, you can prevent unnecessary weight gain that may lead to health complications later on.

While pregnancy doesn’t mean giving up foods you enjoy, you should avoid empty calories and limit fats and sugar. Give in to a pregnancy craving now and then, but in moderation. Limit sweets to one small portion a day so you won’t feel deprived or tempted to overeat.
Some examples of nutrient-dense foods that you should incorporate into your pregnancy diet include yogurt, peanut butter, chicken, eggs and dairy products that are higher in protein, calcium and iron. Lean pork and lean beef also contain protein, vitamin B, iron and zinc, which are essential to a healthy pregnancy. Orange juice offers folate, a B vitamin that helps prevent neural tube defects, and vitamin C, which helps you absorb iron from foods such as fiber-rich black beans and spinach.

In addition, a healthy pregnancy diet should include whole grains, a great source of fiber, B vitamins, magnesium and zinc. Calcium is especially important to a pregnant women’s diet. Mothers-to-be need approximately 1,500 mg of calcium daily to support the baby’s bone growth and to prevent the mother from losing her bone density. It is important to remember that most women do not get enough calcium even when they are not pregnant. Therefore, extra effort has to be made to get the right amounts of calcium throughout pregnancy. Calcium-rich foods include tofu, salmon, green leafy vegetables and dairy products.

In addition to getting enough calcium, folic acid is important to proper fetal growth. Natural foods such as dark green vegetables, oranges, grains, beans, lean meat and liver are rich in folic acid.

Eating four small meals and making healthy snack choices can help you control hunger during pregnancy. The best way to make sure that you’ll get all the proper nutrients is to eat the following recommended servings daily:
– Six to 11 servings of whole grains such as bread, cereal, rice and pasta
– Two to three servings of protein-rich foods including meat, poultry, fish, beans, eggs and nuts;
– Four or more servings of vegetables;
– Three to four servings of fruit; and
– Three to four servings of dairy products such as milk, yogurt and cheese.

In addition to eating the right foods, you should drink plenty of water to keep your body hydrated. Drink at least eight to 10 glasses of water daily to help prevent dehydration. You should avoid alcohol and caffeine during pregnancy.

Be sure to take a daily prenatal vitamin that contains 100 percent to 200 percent of the recommended dietary intakes for vitamins and minerals. Always discuss vitamin and supplement choices with your health care provider or registered dietitian before you start taking them.

Developing healthy eating habits during pregnancy can help ensure the proper growth and development of your baby, not to mention the health benefits for mom too. Eating well during pregnancy and continuing those habits after your baby arrives will set the stage for your child to have healthy eating habits too and potentially reduce his or her risk for certain illnesses.

Give your baby the best start at life by eating smart and living well.

Elaine Hastings is a registered dietitian and owner of Associates in Nutrition Therapy in Fort Myers. Contact her at AssociatesinNutrition.com or Elaine@eatrightRD.com. Visit her blog for the latest information on nutrition and great tips for staying healthy: www.AssociatesinNutrition.com/wordpress.

It’s Friday again, so make sure you fit fitness into your weekend plans.

As the fall season falls upon us, it’s a great time to enjoy the outdoor weather. Gather the family for a picnic at the park where you can walk the trails, rent bicycles, or perhaps give your arms a work-out in a canoe or kayak. You can burn calories while enjoying some quality time with the family.