POWER UP! How to Avoid the Second-Half Slump

Feeling lethargic sometime after your main meal is common. Often called the “mid-afternoon slump”, this lull can hinder your work performance. Whether your shift is late or early, you will benefit from avoiding a crash. The key is to keeping your blood sugar stable to feed your mind and body consistently.

Here’s how to do it –

 

• Begin your day with a decent meal. It takes more than a glass of orange juice to start the day! A little nutrition goes a long way, and a whole meal lasts even longer. Include complex carbohydrates and lean proteins, such as shredded wheat and low fat ham, or oats and egg whites. Breakfast is an opportune time to include a calcium-rich food like milk or yogurt, too.

• Skip the buzz. Caffeine and high-sugar foods might perk you up temporarily but could leave you feeling flat later. Like riding a roller-coaster — the greater the rise, the faster the decline. The fall from a high feels like a slump, whereas if you maintain natural momentum there is less fluctuation in energy. Instead of short-term stimulants, opt for fresh, crisp produce for refreshment, or carbonated water for an effervescence lift.

• Be sure to include a little protein with COMPLEX carbohydrates (usually those with more fiber) to keep your energy levels stable. Digestion takes longer so the supply of sugar into the blood is gradual. Snack examples are peanut butter on Wasa crackers, or hummus and whole grain pita chips.

• Avoid large volumes of food. You know that feeling after a mega holiday meal? Yes, that’s your gut working hard on processing all that food means less blood for your brain to function, not to mention the boost in serotonin causing sleepiness. Keeping portions small-to-moderate means no “food coma” and better alertness.

• And, of course, get adequate sleep and exercise!

Debbie James, MS, RD

Halloween Treats!

Yes, you CAN have these fright-free treats this year

Feeling guilty about the chocolate goodies and sugary treats that you’ll be serving and eating this Halloween?  Instead of Halloween marking the beginning of a losing battle with holiday temptation and indulgence lasting October through January 1^st, choose a few new treats that add a fun and healthy flair to your event.  Try this themed treats are great for all ages!

Snack-o’-Lantern Fruit Cups

Ingredients

Navel Oranges

Assorted fruit, diced

Directions

Slice the top off of the navel orange.  Run a knife around its interior to hollow it out.  Scoop out the orange segments and reserve for filling.  Carve a Jack-o’-Lantern face on one side of the orange. Use a paper towel to gently soak up any remaining juice inside the oranges.  Fill each orange with the diced fruit, including the remaining orange segments and set the lid back on top.

Calorie count—each ½ cup of fruit comes in at a whopping 80 calories!  Plus you get the vitamins, minerals, and fiber from the fruits you include.

Written By: Emily Haynes, RD

Image and Recipe reprinted with permission from: http://thewaytohisheart.wordpress.com and http://www.healthyaperture.com/

Start Your Year Off Right

Too Many Holiday Parties…one too Many Christmas cookies…a glass too many of Eggnog?  Is your New Year’s resolution to make healthier choices or too lose weight?  Here are some helpful hints for your New Year’s goals.

1. Start Small: Don’t dive and change everything you eat.  Make small changes that are manageable and you can live with.
2. Eat breakfast: Start every morning breaking your overnight fast with a breakfast that has protein and fiber to keep you going.  Try oatmeal with fruit and nuts, whole wheat toast with peanut butter or hardboiled egg and whole wheat English muffin.
3. Plan ahead: Plan your meals and snacks before you are caught starving and start heading to the vending machine or drive through.  Pack your lunch. Keep healthy snacks handy in your purse or desk drawer.  Go to the grocery store and plan dinner for the week.
4. Pre-pack portion controlled snacks:  Snacks like trail mix and nuts are healthy, but consuming hefty portion sizes could be sabotaging your calorie intake.
5. Don’t drink your calories: Soda, juice, fruit beverages and alcohol all contain calories, but your body does not become satiated from liquid calories.  Best bet is to drink water or carbonated water such as seltzer water.  Add lemon, orange slices, cucumber or berries to make water have a sweeter taste.
6. Be mindful: Be mindful of what you are eating, when you are eating and how you feel when you are eating.  Pay attention to hunger cues.  Don’t wait until you are starving to eat because you will have tendency to over eat.  Stop eating before you are so stuffed you can’t move.
7. Don’t forget to get moving!  You must be physically active to be healthy and to lose weight.  Start small such as a walk around the block.
8. Every food can fit: Don’t beat yourself up if you ate a cupcake from a birthday party or ordered a side of fries.  All food can fit into a healthy diet.  Just remember moderation and portion control.

Follow these hints and you will be on the right track to a healthier lifestyle and losing weight.

Written By: Meghan Norton, RD

 

Snack Anyone?

1. Provides continuous energy. Snacking keeps your metabolism revved up by providing a steady flow of balanced carbohydrates to your muscles, brain, and nervous system. When you have energy throughout the day, this will not only help you be able to concentrate, but also can improve your performance and efficiency of daily tasks.
2. Prevents overeating at meals. When you only eat a few large meals as opposed to medium meals and medium snacks, you can slow down your metabolism and get overly hungry. This can lead to putting more food into your body than your metabolism has energy to burn, possibly causing more fat to be stored on your body.
3. Easy to pack up and pack in. Packing a bag of balanced snacks is easy (if you’ve done your grocery shopping) and you can it keep it with you all day. Use a insulated lunch bag with a cold pack to keep refrigerated items cold until you get to them.
4. Better way to meet daily requirement for important nutrients. Such as fruits, vegetables, dairy/calcium and whole grains. The more opportunities you have to eat different foods, the more diversity in nutrients you are putting in your body. Often calcium-rich foods (dairy or fortified soy products) can get left out, and more the majority of Americans are not getting enough. Calcium is needed to help increase bone density for those under age 25 and to help maintain bone density for those over 25.
5. Prevents mood swings. With a continuous intake of food, especially carbohydrates, your brain stays happy and when your brain stays happy- so do those around you- including your co-workers!
6. Helps with muscle gain. When trying to build muscle to increase metabolism, the most important factor is that you are getting enough calories (or fuel as I like to think of it) to be able to have an anabolic reaction in your body (the ability to build). This means eating throughout the day to get enough food without the feeling of being overloaded or overwhelmed.
7. Pre and Post Fuel. Eating 1-2 hours before and 30-60 minutes after workouts is the recommendation to keep you body at its highest fitness levels. This is because after using your muscles, they are primed to absorb the nutrients from a balanced snack (protein and carbohydrates) and replace what was just lost. After an intense physical and mental exertion, it is not likely that you have the capacity or desire to prepare and eat a large balanced meal- but having a snack is just enough to re-fuel so you can shower, calm down, and cook without getting too hungry or missing that post-workout window that your body thrives in.
8. Keeps you Hydrated: When you stop to eat, that provides a great opportunity to hydrate. Humans are already at a disadvantage when it comes to staying hydrated because we were made with a delayed indicator- thirst. We only feel thirsty at the point where we already may be dehydrated. So the more reminders to drink up the better.
9. Be in tune with your body. As an athlete, having in sync communication between your brain and your body is what makes you a great performer, and to get this you have to be attuned to how your body is feeling. This includes hunger. Your body naturally get hungry every 2-4 hours, and if you are not aware of this, or worse, ignoring it, then that can lead to poor performance, injury or illness.

Balanced Carbohydrates means pairing a carbohydrate-rich food with a protein-rich food to provide optimum release of energy to the body.

Perfect Pairings: Match a carbohydrate with a protein for a Balanced Snack
Carbohydrate	Protein
Fresh or dried fruit	Whole nuts and seeds (almonds, walnuts, soy nuts, pumpkin seeds)
Whole grain crackers	Nut and seed butters (peanut butter, almond butter)
Pretzels	Sliced or string cheese
Whole grain tortilla or pita bread	Hummus
Cereal	Greek or regular yogurt or cottage cheese
Granola bar	Beef or turkey jerky

Hydrating Snacks: Include snacks that will help you get the fluids in that you need

Regular milk or soymilk

Smoothies with fruit and milk or yogurt

Fresh fruit, like grapes or oranges

What is the difference between a snack and a meal? Not a whole lot, just the size. A snack should be enough food to make you feel lightly full and provide energy for 1-2 hours. A meal should leave you feeling more full and satisfied and provide energy for 3-4 hours. Try including 3 meals and 3 snacks in your day and experiment to see what combination of foods and timing works best for you.

By: Kate Machado, MS, RD, CSSD, Past President