This chapter is designed to address the role that nutrition has on our health and daily functioning.
The purpose of this video is to learn daily choices that you can make to help support your own health goals.
Because each person has unique factors that influence specific dietary recommendations
such as how many grams of protein are recommended or the number of calories to aim for in a day,
we are not going to focus on that information.
If you are interested in that kind of education,
there are other resources through dietary and nutrition services you can talk to your health care team about.
Instead, we are going to focus on practical tips in order to help you to make small
sustainable changes to meet the goals that you have set for yourself related to your nutrition and eating habits.
Please keep in mind, that your personal health situation
may result in recommendations that are different from what is recommended to the general public.
If anything in this video is different from what you have heard from your team,
please be sure to talk with them prior to making any changes to your habits.
One of the first things that we want to remember is that in order to make lasting change
it is important to be thoughtful and strategic about how we go about that change.
For instance, we want to avoid all or nothing patterns-
thought and behavior patterns which are black and white with no middle ground.
When we think that way we may “throw” away healthy eating for the remainder of the day because we had a doughnut for breakfast
or we feel defeated and feel like we should just give up because we had a single slip up.
When we think and act this way,
we make it very hard to be successful over time because we do not give ourselves the opportunity to have struggles
and to learn from them to do better next time.
Unless you have been recommended to do so by your healthcare team due to a health condition,
it is generally not a good idea to try to make extreme changes to your diet all at once.
These may work for a short time but rarely are we able to be maintain these long-term.
By expecting ourselves to make such large changes in a short period of time we set ourselves up to feel overwhelmed.
Some people find it helpful to focus on the healthy foods they are adding into their diet
vs. the unhealthy foods they are working to limit.
This allows us to focus on things we want to add
and allows us to feel successful and feel like we are providing our body the nutrients that it needs
instead of focusing on the foods that we feel we cannot have.
For example, try eating a salad and drinking a glass of water prior to eating a pasta dinner.
By adding that healthy food in at the start of the meal,
we are adding nutrients and filling our stomach so that we eat less of the carbohydrates in the pasta you may be working to limit.
We can then focus our energy on adding the salad rather than on feeling we are missing out on the pasta.
Another strategy is to look at grocery shopping as the first line of defense in our efforts to eat healthier.
If you have goals about decreasing your sugar intake but then you purchase a large box of cookies at the grocery store,
you are setting yourself up to struggle
because each time you go in the kitchen you need to make a choice-
“am I going to eat a cookie or not?”.
Even if you resist the first 5 times, most people eventually give into the temptation.
If you make the choice 1 time to buy healthy foods at the store,
you set yourself up to have options for healthy choices each time you go in the kitchen and you are more likely to be successful.
Another trick is to buy most of our foods on the outside of the grocery store
as that is where the fresh items such as produce, dairy, and fresh lean meats are kept.
The middle of the store is where the processed foods are stocked which typically have more sodium and more preservatives.
We want to try to eat food in the most natural form possible.
Try reading the ingredients on the label.
If you can read and understand the ingredients in your food it is more likely to be more natural and healthier.
Learning to read a label can provide us with the power to make better choices.
We recognize, however, that many people need to find a balance as fresh food can be more expensive
and we have to be more thoughtful about what we buy so that the food does not go to waste.
When choosing fruits and vegetables you do not need to be a dietician to make healthy choices.
It is not your job to know all the vitamins and nutrients that are in all the produce you eat,
but what we do know is that various nutrients provide the fruits and vegetables with their colors.
By eating a variety of colors –or “eating the rainbow”-
we are more likely to be giving our body the building blocks it needs to be healthy.
Not only is important to focus on WHAT we eat,
it is also important to be aware of how MUCH we are eating.
There are many reasons that we may eat more than our body needs.
Sometimes this is related to our enjoyment of food or short-term emotional benefits that can come from eating,
but sometimes over-eating is simply a result of not paying attention to our eating.
When we eat because of boredom or we eat while we are distracted by television we are more likely to overeat.
Most people can relate to the experience of reaching into the bottom of a bag of popcorn or potato chips
only to realize that the bag is empty.
This can happen when we eat from a large container without anything to provide us with feedback.
If instead, we pour ourselves a small bowl of popcorn, when that bowl is empty we can then make a choice
to either fill our bowl up again to eat more or we can choose to stop.
The key here is that we are providing our self with a choice
rather than eating more than we intended because we were simply not paying attention.
The same goes for the glasses and plates we use
If we select a large glass but then only pour a serving of juice we feel like we are somehow being cheated.
If we put that same amount in a small juice glass we feel more satisfied.
The same thing happens with plates
if we fill up a smaller plate we feel like the portion size is larger,
we can trick our brain into being more fulfilled.
That same amount of food on a large plate may seem like less food
and we are more likely to over serve ourselves and eat more.
We can use other tricks like eating ice cream with a small spoon,
as one scoop can go a long way and we can better regulate our portions.
It is important to note that food is more than just fuel for our bodies.
There are a lot of emotional connections to food.
For instance chicken soup may make you think of someone who took care of you as a child when we were sick
or you may have a “comfort food” you like to eat when you are sad.
There are also a lot of family and ethnic patterns that influence our eating.
Holidays also have a large connection with food.
This is not necessarily a bad thing,
but it can be helpful to be aware of our past patterns when they do no support our current goals.
This allows us to plan more effectively
and will make it more likely that we can stick to our goals despite environmental triggers or stressors in our lives.
While it is not healthy to obsess over every bite we take,
by using some of these strategies and building other healthy routines such as eating dinner at the table and eating at consistent times during the day,
we can help ourselves to use nutrition as a tool in our efforts to be healthier.
Some people have questions about how certain foods may be contributing to their health conditions.
Whether it is concerns about certain foods triggering migraines or inflammation,
the role of gluten in digestive health, or how other foods may support or hinder our health,
this is a hot topic in medicine.
Some people have discovered connections for themselves and there are a lot of research studies out there,
but there is no universal rule that applies to everyone.
If we try on our own to look up foods that can trigger health issues we will find a lot of information.
Some books or websites will even list all of the food that could potentially impact your health condition.
If we cut out all those foods at once we will not know which of them may have been affecting us.
In addition, we will likely feel overwhelmed and not be able to sustain such a major change to our eating.
It is also hard sometimes to know what information to trust.
You want to be cautious of information you see that recommends making extreme changes
or that promises that a certain change in your eating habits will solve all of your health issues.
Keep an eye out and question what their motives are,
often you will find they are just trying to sell you something.
What we want to do instead is to talk to your health care team and/or meet with a dietician to identify a plan that may work for you.
With their help you may be able to explore ways to limit certain foods for a period of time
to determine any possible effects that specific food choices may be having on your health.
One last important part of nutrition is hydration.
Drinking plenty of water is one of the most important choices we can make each day for our health.
It is important for all of us to stay hydrated in order to keep all of our systems working properly.
To increase the amount of water we drink we can start by carrying a water bottle around with us.
When water is readily available and visible, we are more likely to drink it.
Other strategies include using a filter to get good quality water without the added cost,
adding ice to other beverages you drink,
as well as adding natural flavors from cucumber or fruit to help make the water more appealing.
There are also a few sugar free, calorie free flavoring options that are available that can help increase how much you are drinking.
Keep in mind that there are other factors such as the foods we eat, medication we are taking,
exercise, and hot weather that can impact how much water we need to drink to stay properly hydrated.