October Nutrition Tip of Week: 2. Eat baked apples for dessert

It’s apple season so why not bake some up for dessert? Nothing could be simpler than coring an apple, adding a little water, a sweetener and maybe some raisins and chopped pecans or walnuts and baking in a hot oven. The best “baking apples” are: Rome Beauty, Golden delicious, Honeycrisp and Jonagold.  

Go organic when possible!  

Click it- Go local and pick some of your own! 

Stuffed Baked Apples Recipe

October Recipe 2

September Nutrition Tip of Week 4: Try a new leafy green-Swiss chard

Did you know that alongside spinach, Swiss chard is one of the most nutritious leafy greens on the planet? Swiss chard is related to the beet, and is an excellent source of vitamins A, K, C and potassium. Easy to make, buy it fresh and simply remove the stalks, chop up the leaves and sauté with extra virgin olive oil and garlic.


http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/swiss_chard/

October Nutrition Tip of Week 4: Eat the Halloween pumpkin!

Pumpkin should double as a seasonal decoration and a fall food staple. Pumpkin is loaded with fiber as well as the powerful antioxidant pro-vitamin, beta-carotene. Plus, one entire cup contains a mere 30 calories!  

One of the best parts of the pumpkin is its seeds- aka pepitas! Pepitas are great to add to salads, muffins, or eat by themselves!

Read more in our Nutrient Brief: Pumpkin Power with link to lighter pumpkin pie

Go for Healthy Factor over Convenience Factor: Pack your kids healthy lunches

Pack your kids healthy lunches

A lot of times parents go for the convenience factor instead of the health factor.  Throwing in a juice pouch that claims to be healthy because it has vitamin C or calcium does eliminate the fact that it has additives and sugar.  Besides, you're spending a lot of money on what is primarily water.  So, perhaps you can just give them a water bottle.  Better yet, a reusable BPA free bottle and add lime, lemon, or a small amount of O.J. to give it flavor.

As to food, give them fruit, carrots, and a turkey sandwich on whole wheat bread or a potato roll (if you're going gluten free try Rudi's).  Don't tell me that the only thing your kid will eat is junk.  Just a little over 50 years ago, the only option they would've had would be to eat is real food.  On occasion, maybe once a week, you can throw in some chips and a cookie.  But these should not be your staples.

Once again, if you eat healthy lunches, they are more likely to eat what is given to them as well.

In health,
Kelly Huggins

Understand your Hunger Level!

One of the most common mistakes people make is waiting to eat until you’re starving.  When you’re in this state, your judgment is going to be significantly impaired.  As the saying goes, “ready to eat a horse.”

Most likely though, you’re going to reach for something sweet like chocolate or ice-cream, or something salty like chips or crackers.  You don’t eat a little.  You eat a lot.

One key to preventing this is to eat while you’re moderately hungry.  Don’t wait till you’re starving.  The scale on the right gives you an idea of when you should eat.  You should stay between 3-7.  When you eat this way, you stay between 3-7.  However, if you allow yourself to go all the way to 1-2, you over do it and wind up at 8-9.  This causes a vicious cycle.  Remember, it’s okay to eat.  The more often you eat, the wiser choices you tend to make. 

Here are a few tips on hunger:

• Eat regularly-  Starting with breakfast, shoot for 3 meals with healthy snacks in between. 
• Have ready available, nutrient dense snacks-  Snacks should be nuts, trail mixes, fruit, dried fruit, carrots, protein bars, etc.
• Never buy groceries while hungry-  When you go to the grocery store on an empty stomach, rest assured, you’re more likely to buy on impulse.  When you buy on impulse, you usually buy comfort foods.
• Drink water-  Drinking water may not take away the craving you have at the moment, however, drinking water regularly throughout the day keeps you hydrated.  This decreases some of the physiological stresses you may incur, which in turn causes emotional/mental stress.

written by:

Kelly Huggins, NASM CPT CES, A-CPT

Exercise Science, Georgia State University

Fitness/Nutrition Coach

Teach your kids to eat breakfast by Eating with them!

As a nutrition coach for over a decade, I have discovered that many parents do not eat breakfast with their children.  Though they tell them to eat breakfast, they often find it challenging for them to eat it.  Even worse, for the kids who do, parents will often throw a granola bar at them and have them eat it on the way to school.  This is a dangerous pattern that will lead to unhealthy eating behaviors.

If you want your child to eat a healthy breakfast, eat breakfast with them.  I'm usually out of the house before my kids are out of bed, but my wife prepares and has breakfast with our children.  She doesn't give them Pop-tarts and calls it breakfast.  Instead, she cuts up bananas, gives them blueberries, whole grain waffles, and eggs with a glass of water (not juice).  You know, healthy stuff.  By the way, they love it!  Why, because it's what we eat too.

This is just one more thing we can do to stop childhood obesity.

Kelly Huggins

September Nutrition Tip of Week 1: Eat an apple every day

It’s fall, a new season, time to be greeted by the crisp early morning fall weather. Fall also means apple season! Apples are packed with fiber, healthful plant chemicals, vitamins and minerals. They are portable, perfect on-the-go snacks and incredibly low in calories. Sweet, juicy and crisp—eat one every day!

Take a trip with the family or friend and pick you own- http://www.pickyourown.org/GA.htm

September Recipe of the Month- Steel Cut Oats with Fresh Fruit and Walnuts