Why New Year’s Resolutions Fail

It’s new year’s resolutions time! Again. Sigh. Is your resolution this year the same one you had last year because you kinda fell off the wagon some time in, oh, February? Well, then, my advice to you is to scrap the whole resolutions thing altogether. You heard me right. Scrap ’em. I’m obviously not a fan of resolutions. Mostly, they just set you up to fail, and they’re right up there with the concepts of willpower and guilt-free eating in my book. Big thumbs down all around. I actually cringe when I hear clients vow to “never eat chocolate again” or “give up carbs forever”. Most of these types of new year’s resolutions are broken or forgotten before Valentine’s Day because they’re too extreme. You may know you want to try a no carb diet, or that chocolate is your downfall, but focusing on the end point, rather than the process is why most resolutions fail. {Tweet this} In other words, change your mindset from “I’m gonna lose 10 pounds” to “I’m gonna learn how to eat healthy.” And c’mon, chocolate is way too delicious to never eat again. The trick is to learn how to enjoy a conscious indulgence. As far as eating carbs? Your body needs them! Don’t give them up, rather learn which are the healthy kind and and how to incorporate them into a healthy diet. Wanna really pull out a knockout you this year? Don’t buy into fads or try something you don’t want to do forever. Instead, take the time to acknowledge your diet history and figure out what didn’t work in the past, so you don’t keep repeating the same diet mistakes. (If you’re frustrated in this department, check out my ebook Why Can’t I Drop the Weight.) Learn to listen to your body, rather than that infomercial promising a brand new you in two short weeks. Specifically, I’m talking about Hunger Quotient (HQ). Everybody has one at all times, and it’s a tool that may be one best ways to lose weight. Nutritious Life is rooted in 8 pillars of health and wellness that lead to the healthiest you that you can build. I always say, it’s not just about the food. If you ignore your stress levels, no matter how hard you’re dieting you’ll still probably gain weight. If you’re skimping on sleep, your body is going to be craving those carbs you vowed to give up and you’ll eventually begin throwing in the towel for a bagel every morning. If you aren’t taking time to keep your desk clean, chances are your pantry and fridge will also suffer. All of these things that have nothing to do with food affect your healthy eating efforts, and eventually, well, affect everything about food. Instead of un-doable resolutions this year, begin to improve a little with small goals, resolutions, and intentions that are guaranteed to bring out the best you. For example, if you’re already into healthy eating and feel your balanced diet is super strong, bring it up a notch by trying to get 2 cups of dark green leafy’s and 5 – 7 servings of veggies each day. If you’re weak in the sleep department, set yourself up with a sleep hygiene ritual to improve your shut eye. You’re already fabulous, no matter what dress size you are. Use the Nutritious Life pillars as your foundation this year and you’ll be ringing in next year in whatever dress size you want.

Why You Need to Eat a High-Fiber Diet

Ask Keri: I keep hearing I should be eating a high-fiber diet. Why? Keri says: You see and hear about fiber every time you open a magazine, turn on the TV and walk down a grocery store aisle. It’s in our faces all the time because it really is that important. Old school thought was that a high-fiber diet was something to worry about when your senior citizen discount became available. But the new school of thought is that fiber is a super important part of a healthy diet at all stages and ages. Because it gets harder as we get older to change our diets, there’s no better time to start chowing down on it than right now. If you pay attention to the fiber buzz, you know that fiber keeps our hearts hearty and (ahem), our bowels regular. RELATED: 20 Foods That Help You Poop Why is a high-fiber diet so important? Dietary fiber is the part of plant foods that your body cannot digest. It’s classified into two categories: the kind that doesn’t dissolve in water (insoluble fiber) and the type that does (soluble fiber). Soluble fiber soaks up water like a sponge and turns it into a gel-like consistency during digestion; it slows the process of digestion and helps your body absorb nutrients. This is why you feel full for a longer period of time after eating a high-fiber meal versus a low-fiber one (ah ha!). Soluble fiber also helps to lower blood cholesterol and manage blood sugar levels. Most soluble fibers also are known as prebiotics. Prebiotics feed the healthy bacteria of your gut, which may help improve your immune system, digestive health and aid in calcium absorption. Yes, you still need to consume probiotics, too. RELATED: Gut Love: 3 Facts About Prebiotics Your Tummy Will Adore Insoluble fiber, on the other hand, helps to speed up foods going through the body and bulks up your poop. (Sounds gross, but it kind of acts as a scrub brush going through your intestines). A healthy diet rich in insoluble fiber is often touted as a best way to lose weight or maintain a healthy weight. It also helps in preventing constipation and reducing the risk of colon cancer. While I prefer to have you eat food and not numbers, you should know how much fiber you need, so you can be aware if you’re getting the right amount. Men need about 30 to 38 grams per day and women need about 21 to 25 grams. If your food has a label, you can check out the amount of fiber listed and add up your daily intake fairly easily. However, many of the best places to get fiber come from healthy foods without labels such as fruits and veggies. I want you to get most of your fiber from vegetables, fruits and whole grains, but when trying to eat more fiber don’t forget about sneaking more in in the form of nuts and seeds too. So, there you have it. A rather blah subject, indeed, but super important for your insides. Now go get your fiber on.  

New Years Resolutions Start Today

I’ve never been a big fan of new years resolutions. Even though I love that google search histories are dominated by “healthy dinner ideas” and “healthy snacks” and “how to eat healthy” around the new year, by February the healthy eating novelty often wears off and January’s healthy searches are replaced with “weight loss supplements” and other quick fixes that aren’t part of a healthy diet or a healthy life. And don’t even get me started on just having willpower to lose weight every January. I believe we should be working on improving ourselves daily, and that we don’t need a holiday date to begin self-improvement work. However, there is something to be said for taking a minute to reflect on the past year and take action moving forward. That I am down with. There are many “rules” to follow in life but looking ahead at a new year, there is one rule I would like to focus on: be responsible. It translates into your personal, professional and social life in a proactive and productive way. We don’t need a million guidelines. There shouldn’t be a hundred messages telling you how to govern yourself as you navigate the world. Moving through life with the mantra ‘be responsible’ should cover you in most situations. As we approach the New Year, it’s a good time to revisit the simple message of being responsible and perhaps use it as an alternative to your usual new years resolutions that never seem to last into spring. New Years Resolutions the Healthy Way: 1. Be responsible for your health. Make choices that keep you accountable to your physical, mental and emotional health. Find a way to be responsible when you are indulging and enjoy yourself with a thoughtful recognition of your actions with food, exercise and well being. Make and keep your doctors’ appointments, schedule regular dental check-ups and be proactive in eating empowered by keeping your refrigerator and pantry responsibly stocked with healthy foods. 2. Be responsible in your environment. Take a New Year’s minute to look at the space you spend the most time in. Do you love your home? Is your bedroom a sanctuary? Are you proud of the desk you keep and spot where you relax? No? Then take some action and make the spaces you live in spaces you love. Take ownership of improving your world you live in so that you can feel good about your choices. 3. Be responsible in your love. Release some oxytocin, the love hormone that is responsible for managing your stress and negative feelings. While sex is a great way to release oxytocin, there are plenty of G-rated ways to do it, too: cuddle more puppies, hold more children’s hands, hug your loved ones. You deserve to have a year that is full of feelings of being loved, so take responsibility for it by incorporating a little love into each day.    

How to Lose Weight With One Simple Change

I’m going to tell you how to lose weight, but we aren’t gonna talk about what you eat. Well, not yet, anyway. We’re gonna talk about what you drink. Beverage sales are through the roof all over the country. You see a coffee drink in every hand on your commute daily, energy drinks fuel a decent portion of our workforce every afternoon, and a soda with dinner is commonplace in many homes every evening. Not to mention the various bottles and cans than inhabit desks and car cupholders throughout the day. We’re all on something – juice, coffee, soda, sweet tea – so let’s take a minute to really think about what we’re pouring down our throats. I recently asked a client, “Is it acceptable to you to be drinking 4 Diet Cokes in the morning?” Her reply was that she hadn’t thought much about it. She was drinking them for the caffeine and it had just become a habit. It seems that this is common for many of us. Calories aside (yes, I know there are no calories in a Diet Coke), if you really push yourself, you’ll probably agree that it is not human nature to drink Diet Coke (or whatever is in your cup) at all. In fact, humans are the only animals that drink anything other than water or nursing milk in the food chain. Our biology agrees with that line of thinking: in nature, calories are designed to be metabolized through the foods we chew. The process of digesting and processing those calories starts in the mouth but most of the food molecules are broken down in our stomach and small intestine. When you drink your calories, the molecules are already mostly broken down and so they shoot right into your blood and don’t sit in your stomach very long at all. We now know that these calories get stored in fat cells more rapidly than the calories from food, which is why so many of us are trying to figure out how to lose weight. If you are thinking that your beverage doesn’t have calories in it, because it’s artificially sweetened, you’re not off the hook. Is it human nature to be drinking chemicals? Those chemicals are contributing to an increased appetite and cravings, and they may also be messing with your palate by keeping you from being satisfied from naturally sweet foods. How to Lose Weight With One Simple Change: Critical thinking 101: If you are chugging something (other than water) ask yourself  ‘is it reasonable to me to be drinking ____ x ____ times per day?’ Critical thinking always brings me back to human nature and biology — the only thing we should drink like water IS water. Still, we are at the top of the food chain for a reason, and so we should make the most of our critical thinking and large brain capacity. There is still room for delicious drinks in your Nutritious Life. I promise. Choose water, seltzer and tea the majority of the time. Incorporate greens juices and a glass of wine into your healthy eating plan. A glass of wine with a nutritious meal or an all green juice with a handful of nuts for a snack. Leave the juice, sports drinks, novelty drinks and the rest in the rarely to never category. Break your beverage habit. If you start with healthy drinking, it will lead to healthy eating, and you’ll find yourself suddenly with an overall healthy diet. I promise that if you go back to your natural drinking nature, you’ll shed some extra weight and feel like king of the jungle.  

Healthy Breakfasts That You Haven’t Thought Of

Think starting your day with a cup of coffee counts as breakfast? Think again. You’ve heard it before: you should start everyday with a healthy breakfast. But if it’s fallen on deaf ears, let me try and say it a little louder for you: HEALTHY BREAKFASTS ARE A MUST! Eating breakfast is important for revving your metabolism in the morning and curbing hunger later in the day. If cereal and milk isn’t your thing (that’s actually a good thing!), it’s time to think outside the (cereal) box. Healthy Breakfasts That You Haven’t Thought Of Oatmeal that isn’t as boring as, well, oatmeal. Take plain oatmeal from blah mode to vacation mode like Tropical Sunrise Oatmeal or to turbo mode like Supercharged Oatmeal. Both recipes are super easy and way tastier than just adding water like you did in college. You’ve come a long way since your dorm room hot pot, so celebrate over a proper bowl of porridge. Get your brain on grains. Shake up your morning with whole grains you normally reserve for dinner like brown rice, barley, and quinoa. These fiber and protein-rich wheat-free grains taste great simply heated up with milk, such as almond, cow’s, or coconut, or you can add ½ cup fresh berries, ½ tsp honey, 1/8 tsp cinnamon, and ¼ tsp vanilla for extra flavor. Go fish. Fish for breakfast? Yes! If you’ve never tried (or pronounced) taramasalata, now’s your chance to become a breakfast lover. Perhaps the reason you never got into breakfast was because you only stuck to croissants and bagels and never thought of seafood as an option. Here’s a great recipe for lox and toast, and here’s another yummy one for salmon pesto tartine. Griddle me this.  Give the whole flapjack thing another chance. Experiment with Spiced Applesauce Pancakes or shake things up by replacing flour with quick-cooking oats in this easy Oatmeal Pancake recipe. Top your hotcakes with ½ cup Greek yogurt or ¼ mashed mango instead of syrup if you aren’t into sticky fingers and that whiff of maple syrup that lingers through lunchtime. Finally, don’t forget the psychological power that breakfast has when you make healthy choices in the a.m. You somehow just feel better about your whole day, and you’re more likely to make better choices at lunch and dinner when you start the day fueled on healthy foods.  

3 of the Worst Traditional Holiday Dishes

If the holidays were meant to be healthy, you’d eat the gravy every day of the year. Thank the heavens above that holiday dishes are not in your daily rotation, or you’d wind up with mashed potatoes in your veins and stuffing under your skin. Today we’re focusing on three of the worst of the worst of the worst traditional holiday dishes for your waistline. It’s not meant to be a trash your feast sesh, I’m just shedding some light and promise you tips you can really dig in to! 3 of the Worst Traditional Holiday Dishes   Eggnog is made with whipping cream, sugar, eggs and bourbon. What’s not to love? Ummmm the nearly 400 calories in a cup, all that saturated fat and the impending food coma that comes after the third sip. Nobody needs to chase their prime rib feast with a glass full of food porn. If you’re a lover of this thick and decadent holiday treat, why not place it center stage in your holiday repertoire and make a healthful version and meal out of it? I’m loving the idea of a healthy eggnog with all the flavor you love, plus a boost of nutrition with coconut milk and avocado undertones. With a splash of spirits or without, this drink is a total holiday DO.   Green Bean Casserole takes healthful, fiber rich, low calorie, crispy, crunchy and satisfying green beans and ups the calories from 31 calories a cup and no fat to a whopping 230 calories plus 10 grams of fat. I guess that’s what happens when you add a can of creamed mushroom soup and fried onions. Sigh. Try green beans with lemon and garlic and save the creamyliciousness for dessert time. You’ll love the modern take on the classic. So will your abs.   Pecan Pie is full of pecans, corn syrup and butter and then surrounded by a crispy, crumbly crust of flour and butter. Pecans are absolutely healthful and should be in your munching routine, but ten halves are roughly 100 calories, so a little goes a long way. An average piece of pecan pie runs you roughly 500 calories and nearly 30 grams of fat. Rather than all of that fat and sugar surrounding your precious pecans, center stage these nuts with a spiced pecan recipe (swap the walnuts for pecans) that will wow your guests and you’ll feel great about eating. They’re versatile little suckers and work on both your appetizer tray as well as the dessert table. So, there you have it. Tweak your holiday dishes into healthy foods, and sticking to your healthy eating plan during the holidays will be a piece of cake pie.

3 Healthy Holiday Habits You Need To Take Up NOW

Even if the holiday party invites aren’t flooding your mailbox and inbox just yet, you know they’re coming. They do every year. And every year you look forward to the fun but you also sort of dread the exhaustion, deviation from your routine and the fact that time feels like it moves in fast forward. In the name of celebrating with wellness and fun in mind and not letting all those weight loss tips you stockpiled throughout the year go by the wayside, I want to set you up with a few healthy holiday habits in order to make this season of parties and celebration a little less draining and a lot more empowering.   3 Healthy Holiday Habits You Need To Take Up NOW   Don’t be creative with the food that is in your control. I know it sounds crazy, but if you keep your food simple, and stick to what you know works (where you can), then the party fare won’t be as stressful, damaging to your waistline or disruptive to your GI tract. You know how to eat healthy…don’t let the holidays completely push you off track.   If you’re eating all holiday foods all the time, you’re pretty much guaranteed to feel lousy and of course, pack on extra weight. Keep what you can control simple, and balance the holiday foods with your go-to healthy foods. Healthy breakfast: There are usually not many holiday breakfast parties, so keep these in straight forward and consistent. Rotate between two to three choices. Here are my faves. 6 ounces 2% or whole fat Greek yogurt with ½ cup frozen organic berries and 1 tablespoon flax meal 1 slice Ezekiel bread toasted with ⅓ medium avocado and 2 ounces smoked salmon ½ cup oatmeal with 2 teaspoons almond butter and a diced granny smith apple Healthy lunch / healthy dinner ideas: When these meals aren’t part of an actual soiree, keep them clean and don’t do leftovers. Rotate between your favorite lean proteins and choose 2 veggies with each meal and a little fat. More faves: Huge bed of spinach topped with a soy free veggie burger, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and 2 teaspoons tahini Stir fry prepared with peppers, onions, broccoli and chicken sautéed in 2 teaspoons coconut oil and a sprinkle of sesame seeds Fritatta with mushrooms, peppers and tomatoes with a green side salad and a squeeze of lemon   Make your space clutter-free. There is a saying about how horizontal spaces are a magnet for clutter. Clutter has a way of making us feel chaotic, out of control and less happy and productive in our work spaces. And guess what, there’s solid research to support this! Make a habit of clearing your plates and cleaning up the kitchen right away, instead of waiting to do it later. Set up one space for gifts to gift wrap in your home. Organize and strategically arrange your holiday cards to enjoy them without them falling over and getting in the way. Creating a habit of organizing your stuff will make it easier to stick to your wellness goals. {Tweet this}. I promise.   Get your zzzs at all costs. The third healthy holiday habit you need to have down this holiday season is your bedtime routine. Sleep hygiene is a really powerful tool in your wellness kit because the better rested you are, the less likely you will be to eat out of fatigue, stress, grumpiness or grinch-like energy. Choose a few things that you can do each night to make sleeping well a top priority: establish a bedtime, wash your face, brush your teeth, turn off all of your technology, spend a few minutes doing something calming you enjoy (read a book, journal, meditate), then turn off the lights. No staying up late wrapping presents. Your sleep is more important than that pretty bow.

2 Amazingly Simple Thanksgiving Leftovers Recipes

It’s the day after Thanksgiving, and you’ve spent the last 48 hours slaving over a hot stove preparing your turkey day feast. Well, the big day is over and you deserve a much needed cooking break. But, that doesn’t mean you need to spend the next 3 days in a monotonous cycle of heating up a plate of turkey, mashed potatoes, and green beans. Here are a couple healthy and, most importantly, EASY dishes to spice up your post Thanksgiving meals and perhaps even slim down your waist. There is no measuring, cutting, prepping, or stressing required. These are ‘non-recipe’ recipes, and they are meant to make a couple delicious meals out of whatever Thanksgiving leftovers you have in your fridge. Throw a little of this and a little of that together using our guidelines, and you will have the easiest and most unique Thanksgiving leftover dishes to enjoy…before and after hitting the sales, of course. Here’s how to eat healthy on Black Friday through Cyber Monday. 2 Amazingly Simple Thanksgiving Leftovers Recipes Black Friday Frittata A frittata is just a fancy name for a messy omelet. There is no strict recipe for this “eggcellent” creation. You just must have fun and get in those good-for-you ingredients! So, don’t get caught up in nitty gritty cooking techniques, just add all of the roasted vegetables, even those Brussels sprouts, and some lean protein you have leftover. The Brussels sprouts are packed with vitamin C, a powerful antioxidant, which helps support your immune system, and even boost collagen production in your skin. The protein from the eggs and turkey (or whatever protein you choose) will keep you satisfied through an entire department store hunt – there will be no dropping post shopping with this healthy breakfast! Get the recipe.   Thanksgiving Leftovers Pizza Pizza gone Pilgrim-style, with this new twist on an Italian classic. The cranberry sauce takes the place of the tomato base, and the whole wheat pizza crust gives you about 6 more grams of fiber than regular pizza dough, keeping you full long enough to wait out those shopping lines. Bake your creation according to the instructions on your whole wheat pizza dough. Exhausted after a day of shopping? No problem—this recipe is kid-friendly, so let the little ones do all the work! Get the recipe.

Your Thanksgiving Guide to Not Gaining Weight

Thanksgiving is probably the biggest day of eating in the USA. No shocker there, right? With all that ridiculously yummy food on the table, it’s hard to figure out what to do with your hands besides, well, eat. Good thing you’re here now, because I’m sharing 5 tried and true weight loss tips that are sure to get you through Thanksgiving without stuffing yourself like that bird. Tip #1: Feast on good company I always encourage my clients to make the company the focus of the day, rather than the food. For real this time. Be in the moment. Laugh. Really listen to your cousin’s story about his recent trip. Ask your grandma about what Thanksgiving was like 50 years ago. Challenge your nephew to spell cornucopia. Challenge your niece to say it three times fast. Make eye contact, connect and engage with every person who is special to you in the room and make sure that you leave the day full of love, rather than mashed potatoes. You don’t have to treat the meal like your last supper to be satisfied, nourished and giving thanks. Tip #2: Have a plan (and share it with Aunt Millie) I can’t tell you what to eat, how much to eat or what it will take for you to feel successful on Thanksgiving. I customize that work for each and every one of my clients individually (though I do have some go-to Thanksgiving recipes that I recycle each year). I will tell you that going into Thanksgiving with a plan of attack for what goes into your mouth will give you the opportunity to be successful. Without a plan, you cannot set yourself up for success or stay on track with your healthy diet. You can be the Thanksgivophile (just made that word up, permish to use granted) who plans to eat a small serving of all of the offerings. You can be the parade watcher who plans to eat only the healthy snacks, crudites and desserts. You can even be the marathon football watching fan who snacks from morning to night in planned combinations of portion-controlled holiday favorites. Make a plan so you can stick to it. Tell this plan to someone who will be celebrating the holiday with you. It will keep you accountable and on your healthy eating task. Tip #3: Use your hands for something besides eating Eeeeek. Turkey’s resting for 30 minutes. It smells soooooo good. You’re surrounded by snacks: nuts, cheese, something puffy that’s oozing parm and pancetta. Code red. Remember your plan! Rather than eating whatever’s nearby, keep a glass in your dominant hand (preferably seltzer with a few pomegranate seeds tossed in, a little wine spritzer or an herbal tea). It will keep you from munching mindlessly. Other ideas to keep your fingers from putting unwanted items between your lips: take holiday wish lists from your friends and relatives to make your shopping easier; help the host; bring your knitting, a puzzle, craft or an origami activity to do with the kids; pull out old board games; or look at old photographs. Thanksgiving is a good day to go old school here. Tip #4: Fab your gorgeous self out Take a few minutes before the company arrives, or you head out into the world to your turkey soiree and make sure you feel good about how you look. Celebrating your Thanksgiving in sweats and bed head isn’t going to inspire you to feel your best, make good food choices and propel you into anything other than a food coma. Think about someone you admire who exudes health, confidence and positivity (with a little sex appeal thrown in) and take a little inspiration. Why not feel amazing on the outside?! You’re amazing on the inside! Keeping your appearance on the forefront of your brain may help you make good food choices. Tip #5: Take a nap There are many reasons I recommend a little mid-day shut eye on Thanksgiving. Yes, obvi you cannot eat and sleep at the same time. A little siesta also honors that you’re taking a day off for enjoyment, and quiets the stress hormone cortisol, which is linked to holding on to extra belly fat in your bod. Rested bodies are also better able to fight off germs and keep you well as cold and flu season starts knockin’ on the door. You don’t have to be anti-social — a 30 minute break from the festivities should be enough to refresh you (and maybe help get you out of doing some of those dishes). Happy Thanksgiving, friends. You can celebrate this one without a souvenir extra pound or two to remember it with. Cheers to you — you can practice these tips for all of the holidays to come!

Vegan Bacon Will Change Your Life (Even If You Aren’t Vegan)

by Miranda Hammer, RD, NLC Did you say vegan bacon? Yep. The World Health Organization has linked the consumption of processed and red meat with colorectal cancer, which means for all you bacon lovers out there, breakfast might need to start looking a little different. Although there is still gray area in terms of how much is actually safe to eat, limiting the intake of red meat and meat that has been salted, cured, smoked or fermented is recommended. Luckily for many of us, Sunday morning breakfasts tend to offer healthy omelets with a side of greens. But for others, you can hear the gasp when told the Farmer’s Breakfast is no longer on the menu. So what’s a bacon lover to do to get their fix? Make vegan bacon. Seriously! For those moments you just.need.bacon, I want you to look to coconut and mushrooms to satisfy your craving. Here are 3 nutritious, delicious, and healthy bacon alternatives that will leave you healthily and happily satisfied. Oh, and if you do choose to eat real bacon and/or any other red meat, limit your intake and select lean grass-fed, hormone-free options from a sustainable and reliable source. 2 Healthy Recipes with Vegan Bacon, and 1 Turkey Sausage Recipe You’ll Love! Green Salad with Shiitake Bacon Sounds a little weird, but when sliced and baked until crisp, the umami flavor and color of the mushrooms can fool most bacon lovers. Added benefit – mushrooms are one of the few dietary sources of Vitamin D. Get the recipe Coconut Bacon Sandwich: AKA The New BLT Think maple cured bacon, and this is a perfect swap. Sweet and slightly salty with a little chewy texture, coconut bacon is the perfect sub in your new favorite sandwich. Get the recipe Turkey Sausage Patty and Eggs These sausage patties are extremely simple to make and are free of nitrates and preservatives. When selecting your ground meat, make sure that the turkey is pasture-raised and hormone-free. If you can, purchase your meat from the greenmarket and support sustainable agriculture. This recipe makes multiple patties, which is great to have on hand for a quick breakfast, snack, salad, or grain topper. Get the recipe   About Miranda: Miranda Hammer is a registered dietitian, recipe developer, and founder of Crunchy Radish, a clean-eating healthy-living blog. Upon graduating from the clinical nutrition program at New York University, Miranda worked as a dietitian at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. Currently, Miranda primarily focuses on content and recipe development for brands, websites, and magazines, as well as running her private counseling business.

3 Rules to Enjoy Seasonal Foods Without Wrecking Your Waistline

I’m not into the shame game. I know you’ve been looking forward to your _______________ (fill in the blank with candy corn, oktoberfest beer, pumpkin spice latte, cider donuts . . . ), just like you looked forward to the Valentine hearts, peeps and Cadbury creme eggs. And, I know I’m probably not going to convert (completely!) your cult-like desires to get you excited for figs, pomegranates or heavenly sweet potatoes instead. But I don’t want to make you feel bad about that. Let’s be realists. You’re thinking “OMG, (again, your blank) are BACK!!!” and then panicking with feelings that “they’ll only be available for 3 more weeks” only to find that you’re, ahem, pants don’t fit by the end of the month. I’m here to help. If you need to find a way to indulge in the seasonal foods you have mad love for without having to loosen your buckle before the next season hits, you’ve come to the right place. 3 Rules to Enjoying Seasonal Foods Without Wrecking Your Waistline: 1.  Grant yourself permission. I had a client with a self proclaimed addiction to peanut butter cups. She’d hit the vending machine hard around 3 o’clock, indulge her choco-pb habit, then throw away her healthy diet and “hate” herself the rest of the day. The first assignment I gave her was to go out and buy a peanut butter cup, IF, and only if, she truly craved it. She was not allowed to go to the work vending machine and buy it. She had permish to indulge in it if she took the time to assess the craving (was it just work boredom? habit?) and then decide if she would go out and buy it. Know what? As soon as she had permission, she realized she didn’t “need” them as much as she thought she did. Give yourself permission to have your favorite fall treat! Eating foods just for the sake of pleasure, in a conscious and deliberate way, is all part of healthy eating and will not zap your healthy diet. For the record, that client now regularly chooses healthy snacks like hummus and crudites or almonds and yogurt instead of peanut butter cups and has been doing uh-mazing. 2. Plan, plan, plan! Each and every one of us is unique and what works for one of us, may not work for another. But here are a few tips to help you plan your treats. Try to: indulge in your fall goodies twice a week and give up another conscious indulgence to make that happen (meaning you may have to give up your usual serving of fries that you look forward to on the weekend, so you can eat the cider donut). get it out of your system and buy one bag of candy corn and add 5 pieces to the 10 almonds you have between breakfast and lunch until it’s gone. make a date with a friend to enjoy and indulge in (fill in the blank again!) and follow it up with a long walk to catch up. 3. Be mindful and deliberate. Its a sad thing when I hear a client tell me that they indulged in their fave indulgence and “didn’t even taste it” because they were beating themselves for eating the treat before they even finished it. Don’t fall into that trap. Make it a conscious indulgence, eat slowly, enjoy every bite and remember every meal is a Monday morning. Make the next thing to hit your lips uber healthy. Grant yourself permission, plan your treat and ENJOY it! Slow down by using a plate and real napkin. Do not take a nibble while texting, hailing a taxi, watching TV, chatting on the phone or opening up your mail. Be present and in the moment. After all, the seasons change quickly. Bookmark this blog. Refer to it in the winter, when Santa Claus is comin’ to town, in spring when the Easter chocolates are everywhere and again in the summertime when the ice-cream truck is ringing for you!  

How Many Hours of Sleep Do You Really Need?

How many hours of sleep do you get every night? 5? 6? 7? How many pounds do you want to lose? 5? 15? 50? Guess what? These two numbers go hand in hand. So many of my clients are terrible sleepers. They can’t fall asleep because their minds are racing or they fall asleep, but can’t stay asleep. Or they wake to use the bathroom and then wander into the kitchen at 3AM. Or they sleep OK, but wake exhausted. And they eventually end up in my office, asking for diet plans and how to lose weight. This is yet another example where I preach, “It’s not just about the food!” “Sleep deep” is a Nutritious Life pillar because how many hours of sleep you get affects your wellness and waistline as much as the healthy foods you eat, the exercise you practice and the stress you manage does. See, sleep deprivation messes up the hormones that regulate hunger, causing an increase in appetite and specific cravings for calorie-dense, high-carbohydrate foods. So after a long night, there is indeed a reason you are reaching for the bagel and cream cheese at 7am instead of your normal healthy breakfast of hard boiled eggs and berries. Research shows that sleeping only 4 hours per night for 2 nights causes leptin — the hormone that tells your body to stop eating — to drop 18%. And levels of ghrelin — the hormone that says “eat more”– jump 28 percent. Again, there is a reason you can’t stop chowing after pulling an all-nighter. Buh-bye healthy eating, so long balanced diet. Now keep in mind this happened after just 2 nights of sleep deprivation…just imagine what happens after weeks and weeks of missing sleep! No wonder your pants are tight, right?! So, how many hours of sleep do you need to be the healthiest you possible? Adults are supposed to get about 7-9 hours of sleep, according to the National Sleep Foundation. If you only get 6 hours, your risk of developing obesity rises 23%, if you only get 5, it increases 50%, and if you only get 4, it increases a whopping 73%! The thing is, if you want to improve your sleep, you’ve gotta work on your nighttime behaviors, just like you practice brushing and flossing or washing and cutting fruits and veggies right when you get home from the grocery store. What can you work on to better up your shut eye? If you wake up to pee, stop drinking 2 hours before bedtime and try to go right before you turn in for the night. If you fall asleep, but wake up a few hours later, give up all alcohol for a few days and see if it helps, or jot down your biggest stressors in a journal immediately before you turn in to quiet your mind. If you’re sleeping, but not feeling rested, flip your mattress, adjust the temperature in your bedroom, buy yourself new pillows or invest in snore-strips for your wake-the-dead, apnea challenged spouse. If you’ve flipped the mattress and that isn’t working, I’ll let you in on a secret – invest in an Essentia mattress. They are the only organic memory foam mattress available and I’m telling you, you’ll sleep like a babe. Can’t fall asleep? Ditch the caffeine after noontime and exercise in the morning, rather than the evening. Tonight, I want you to stare at the inside of your eyelids with the curtains drawn, in your favorite jammies, with your iPhone silenced, no matter what. Stop making lists in your mind or preparing for tomorrow’s presentation or folding the laundry. Tonight is about sleep. That’s it. If you sleep well, you’ll eat a better breakfast tomorrow morning, which might motivate you to eat a better lunch, which might motivate you to hit the gym, which might make you sleep better tomorrow night, which might help you drop those pounds you’ve been struggling with. Done and done.