Nutrition Tweak

On Our Way to Beijing and Airport Eating

2010-08-13T18:51:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting in the Club Room at SeaTac airport in Seattle waiting to catch a flight to Beijing, China. My wife, 12-year old daughter, and I, are adopting a 12-year old girl who resides in an orphanage in Beijing. Besides being rife with excitement to meet our new daughter, I'm having fun exploring the different options for eating in airports.
SeaTac offers a smorgasbord of options, from Wolfgang Puck Gourmet Express with sit-down eating and grab-and-go yogurts, grilled meat salads, and a variety of whole-grain sandwiches, to a Parisian-cafe looking Wendy's. We opted for Maki of Japan whose spicy tofu with vegetables over yaki soba noodles hit the spot.
Because my brother in law works for Delta, we were granted entrance to the Club Room. Good thing. They had free espresso, V-8, Italian olives, almond and cranberry mix,hummus and crackers, and tasty little Biscoff's with Nutella spread. My daughter was hoping for a place to throw the frisbee, but we'll have to wait until tomorrow!
I'll try and blog more about our eating adventures in China. Looking forward to trying some street vendor food!

Linnie's Thai Cuisine - Fantastic Thai Food For Over 20 Years!

2010-04-29T12:26:00.000-07:00

Tacos El Sol Brings Great Food with a Family Soul!

2010-04-16T08:20:00.000-07:00

Why I Became a Nutritionist

2010-04-04T07:18:00.000-07:00

Over the years people have asked me why I became a nutritionist, and two events stand out that affected my decision. While a junior in high school I remember not eating for most of the day so I could take the title of eating the most pizza at Pizza Hut's All-You-Can eat night at the Flour Mill. Unfortunately, while waiting in line to get in the restaurant, my blood sugar dropped so low that I passed out, hit the floor, and lost most of my appetite. The next incident was several years later. I was on an early morning bicycle ride in Stuttgart, Germany when I came upon an outdoor obstacle course. While holding gymnast rings, and suspended off the ground, I suddenly had dirt in my mouth, and was lying on the ground wondering how I got there. I quickly realized that my blood sugar had dropped and I passed out. Fortunately, in both cases I wasn't hurt, but a light did go on in my head that maybe I needed to fuel better to prevent myself from having another accident. Now, I avoid the starve and binge bravado of my high school days, and I make sure I eat before exercising. Besides keeping me on my feet, eating well helps to improve my outlook on life. Having low blood sugar causes me to feel depressed and agitated. A symptom, I've come to learn, that many people experience with low blood sugar. It's no wonder that one of my primary areas of interest in this field is prediabetes - a condition that is strongly linked to controlling blood sugar.
There's more to the story as to why I chose nutrition, but in a way, I feel like this field chose me, and I look forward to sharing what I've learned with other people that want to improve their well-being.

Training Your Inner Dragon

2010-04-02T19:53:00.000-07:00

How to Train Your Dragon is a movie with an inspiring message about how a supposed mental and physical weakness becomes a person's greatest strength. It's a message many people need to embody, especially when it comes to making healthful lifestyle changes. Making any type of life-altering change is difficult, and changes involving your food and exercise can bring out a lot of self-criticism, such as not being perfect with your eating, not exercising enough, and guilty for wanting sweets and desserts. A real-life example of a so-called weakness to strength is obsessive compulsive tendencies helping clients to stay on track with their eating routine. And feeling burned out and not wanting to cook can open opportunities for finding healthful frozen meals that don't require hours of preparation. Like training a dragon, successful lifestyle changes involve allowing yourself a lot of patience and self-acceptance, so you can train your inner dragon - instead of slaying it.

Yard Sales and Golden Corral

2010-03-09T10:11:00.000-08:00

What do yard sales and The Golden Corral buffet have in common? You might answer "not much", but the common threads involve getting a good deal, finding something new, and connecting with people. Yard sales, like all-you-can-eat buffets, are an indelible part of American culture. You can go solo, or with a group of people. You can walk away from a yard sale without spending a dime, but the corral has a latch - you've already paid for your food. It's a gold mine for the variety of foods available, especially ones that you might not prepare at home, like breaded scallops (140 calories for ten), or grilled lemon-pepper fish (180 calories). Yet it's also a caloric land mine, laden with high calorie foods like one slice of innocently-sounding carrot cake (430 calories, 22gm fat). Like the yard sale, you've got to know when to walk away even when everything is a good deal It's human nature to "want" to get your money's worth - but overloading your plate, puts non-productive calories in your body which can have down-the-road costs such as weight gain, diabetes, high cholesterol, and elevated blood pressure. The next time you're at a buffet, use the golden rule of filling up only one plate, half with fibrous vegetables, a quarter with lean protein, and the other quarter of your plate with a starch. And even though some desserts may be sugar-free, they're not calorie free. Consider visiting goldencorral.com to check out the dessert calories ahead of time - so you make a healthful choice and avoid an emotional indulgence. As Americans, we love a good deal, but sometimes a good deal can be too good to be true.

Breaking Fast

2010-02-20T08:37:00.000-08:00

It's Saturday. The sun is melting the frost off the yard, and the structure of the work week is gone for a couple of days. The lack of structure on the weekend can create problems with your eating. A good rule of thumb is to eat your breakfast within an hour from the time you get up in the morning. But it's easy to begin a project that takes your mind off needing to fuel your body. Your body has fasted throughout the night and it's ready to receive fuel in the form of breakfast, otherwise known as "breaking the fast". Even though you may not feel hungry, your body still needs fuel to properly begin your day. Skipping breakfast informs your body that you have not gathered food and your now low blood sugar creates a need for an instant fix, but now from less healthy foods like sugar and/or caffeine. That pastry that you could easily pass up, now becomes irresistable. If you're not a breakfast eater, try having a breakast snack such as a piece of whole grain toast and peanut butter, which is far better fuel than a maple bar. Have a great weekend, and enjoy your breakfast.

Keeping The Lid On The Box

2010-02-18T13:25:00.000-08:00

Dark chocolate is often advertised as a health food, and no wonder, its intense flavors and sweetness make it hard to resist. Some people are able to eat a medicinal amount of dark chocolate, about 50 to 100 calories a day has been shown to lower blood pressure. Unfortunately, those first few bites may open Pandora's box for a dark chocolate binge. If you have difficulty with chocolate portion control, consider trying other forms of chocolate that taste good, but not so good that they "open the box". Some clients have had success using chocolate energy bars such as Fiber-One, Balance, Diabeteze, or South Beach. They may not lower blood pressure like 70-percent dark chocolate, but they're less likely to trigger a binge because of their slower conversion to blood sugar. Allowing yourself some dark chocolate each day has its benefits, as long as you can keep the lid on the box.

My Daily Lesson: Showing Up

2010-02-17T11:49:00.000-08:00

Working in the field of nutrition for the past 16 years has provided me with a unique view of people's lives. People share with me when they get up in the morning, bedtime, what they ate during the day, stresses that affect their food choices, and their aspirations for health and healing. I feel honored to hear each person's story and offer what I know about how to improve their eating and lifestyle habits, or what I refer to as a "nutrition tweak". No person is the same, but we all want to improve how we feel. Each day I gather a pearl of wisdom from meeting with a client. Without breaking confidentiality I plan to share those pearls so other people can benefit from what I am teaching , and more importantly -- learning. Thank you to all the clients that have met with me, and all the health care providers that have referred patients to me. I am grateful for this unique job as a nutrition coach.
Today's Lesson: When a doctor's office calls to schedule a patient, it is rare that the patient actually shows up for their appointment. When the patient takes the initiative to call my office or set their appointment using my online schedule, they are far more likely to follow through in meeting with me, and therefore achieving their goals.