FitSugar

12 Healthy Habits of the Daily Fix by Alexa Fishback

FitSugar — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 03:30:00 -0800

Nutritionist Alexa Fishback, author of The Daily Fix, has created a list of 12 healthy habits to make healthy living easier. The habits are organized to guide you through out the day from your morning caffeine fix to bedtime, with a few general habits that are important for any time of day. Here they are:

1. Guiltless and Enjoyable Morning Drink	2. Breakfast on Protein and Fiber	3. Don't Forget to Snack Twice a Day
4. Lunch on High Fiber and Lean Protein	5. Indulge Your Sweet Tooth Daily	6. Enjoy Your One Daily Alcoholic Drink

To see the final six healthy habits, read more.

7. Use Meals Out as a Chance to Eat Fish	8. Make Dinner at Home Once a Week	9. Get a Good Night's Sleep
10. Move Everyday: Walk and Exercise	11. Drink Plenty of Water	12. Stay Healthy on the Road

Alexa expands on these ideas and offers so many other pieces of helpful and healthful advice in her book The Daily Fix: Your Guide to Healthy Habits For Good Nutrition. I found her book, not only fun to read, but easy to put to use. Don't forget to enter our giveaway, Get Fit for 2009, for a chance to win a personalized nutrition plan from Alexa, since the contest ends tonight, Feb. 8, at the stroke of midnight.

So, which of these new healthy habits will you adopt?

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Weekend Reading: The Daily Fix by Alexa L. Fishback

FitSugar — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 04:55:49 -0800

Alexa L. Fishback is my kind of nutritionist: one who understands that nutrition isn't always easy for young working women on the go. Her book The Daily Fix: Your Guide to Healthy Habits For Good Nutrition, released last week, acknowledges that work happy hours can tempt us from working out and that lunch meetings are a necessary but often unhealthy obligation.

To these modern-day challenges, The Daily Fix offers all kinds of solutions, depending on your lifestyle. Fishback recommends everything from keeping a food journal to setting BlackBerry reminders for your workouts and healthy snack times. She explains how to deconstruct those catered-lunch sandwiches to make them healthier and explores how one chai latte a day can really add up in terms of calories. For all the tasty details, read more.

The book is an easy, breezy, and fun read that's also packed with pointers from how to shop smart for groceries to dealing with dining out. She illustrates her lessons with real-life case studies where she solves individual women's nutritional needs. Fishback even has a chapter called "Things We Don't Like to Discuss" that deals with health issues like IBS, PMS, and other "girly" maladies. I particularly love the Savvy Girl Tips scattered throughout, such as "Make a pact with yourself not to purchase food unless you are in a grocery store or a restaurant," to avoid impulse buys at places like Blockbuster and Walgreens.

If you're into a healthy (but realistic) lifestyle, I highly recommend picking up this surprisingly hearty book.

Healthy Habit: Keep Healthy When Traveling For Business

FitSugar — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 03:00:00 -0800

Traveling for work doesn't mean you get to slack off on your health. Alexa Fishback, author of The Daily Fix, reminds us all that a workday is a workday no matter where you are. In fact, this is the last of her healthy habits, but Alexa will be sharing so much more, like a personalized nutrition plan for a year, for the lucky winner of our Get Fit For 2009 giveaway, which includes many other amazing goodies like a $1,000 gift card for Nike gear.

Here is what Alexa has to say about business travel:
The Daily Fix focuses on the eating and physical activity habits you practice five days in a row, during the week, rather than your behaviors on the weekend, and further, what you do 50 weeks of the year, not during the two weeks you are on vacation. So when in Rome, enjoy pizza without guilt! But . . . if and when you are traveling for work, during a typical workweek, and especially if you have a job that requires a ton of traveling, you need to make a pact to practice your typical, routine, healthy habits, even when you are away from your typical work surroundings. You have my sympathies - this may not always be easy - but it is important to get into the mindset that workdays are healthy days and weekends or vacation are to be enjoyed without guilt. Strategies included in The Daily Fix.

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Healthy Habit: Guiltless and Enjoyable Morning Drink

FitSugar — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 16:00:09 -0800

The 12 days of Christmas are over, so it's time to replace them with a dozen healthy habits. Nutritionist Alexa Fishback, author of The Daily Fix, has come up with 12 habits for a healthy lifestyle that sticks. Today, she takes on your morning caffeine fix. Stay tuned for 11 more tips, and be sure to enter our Get Fit For 2009 giveaway for a chance to win a personalized nutrition plan created by Alexa, along with many other amazing goodies.

Now, for Alexa's first healthy habit:
When it comes to long-term health and weight management, your everyday habits matter most! Chances are you have a favorite a.m. caffeine routine - but is it a healthy habit or a noxious fix? Feel free to imbibe any of the following every day:

Regular or flavored brewed coffee (black)
Espresso
Americano (espresso topped with hot water)
Misto or cafe au lait with skim or lowfat milk (half regular coffee, half steamed milk)

Learn your other options when you read more.

Latte with skim or lowfat milk (a shot or two of espresso that has been poured into a cup filled with steamed milk and then topped off with foamed milk)
Cappuccino with skim or lowfat milk (usually one-third espresso, one-third steamed milk, and one-third foamed milk - more foam than a latte)
Macchiato with skim or lowfat milk (an espresso with a small amount of milk on top)
Tea (plain black, green, white, and herbal teas; hot and iced)

The goal is to avoid sweetening your drink, but if you have to, try using just one teaspoon of real sugar (it only has 20 calories) and forget the chemicals that come with artificial sweeteners. Also, try sprinkling your drink with spices available at many coffee joints. Cinnamon and nutmeg add sweetness and flavor to your favorite brew without any calories.

If your drink is not on this list, enjoy it every now and then . . . on a snowy Saturday morning or as a special treat when chatting with a friend, just not every day.

For more tips, keep reading FitSugar, or check out Alexa Fishback's book, the The Daily Fix.

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Healthy Habit: Indulge Your Sweet Tooth Daily

FitSugar — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 03:30:00 -0800

For many of us, the new year marked our recommitment to healthy eating. Nutritionist Alexa Fishback, author of The Daily Fix, feels indulging in a "sweet nothing" daily is a healthy habit. If that sounds like an adoptable habit to you, stay tuned for upcoming nutrition tips from Alexa and be sure to enter our Get Fit For 2009 giveaway for a chance to win a personalized nutrition plan created by Alexa, along with many other amazing goodies.

Here's what Alexa has to say about satisfying your sweet tooth:
"Sweet nothings" are your everyday zero to 150 calorie dessert "do." I have found that women who allow themselves a sweet indulgence every day do not have the cravings that lead to binge eating and don't feel deprived.

For some ideas of sweet snacks that are OK to enjoy every day, on top of your three meals and two snacks read more:

A skim cappuccino sprinkled with cinnamon and a small biscotti
Hot chocolate: try the 25-35 calorie packets mixed with hot water
One ounce dark chocolate or a mini-sized peppermint patty
Dressed up fruit: frozen grapes, a baked apple sprinkled with cinnamon, or a fresh peach diced into ½ cup of nonfat vanilla yogurt

Make sure to partake in the sweet life every day, and without sacrificing your figure or your health!

For more tips, check out all of Alexa’s Healthy Habits or pick up her book, The Daily Fix.

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Healthy Habit: Breakfast of Fiber and Protein

FitSugar — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 05:30:00 -0800

Eating healthier topped almost everyone's list of goals for 2009 and nutritionist Alexa Fishback, author of The Daily Fix, has 12 habits to help your goal stick. Today, she takes on your breakfast needs. Stay tuned for more tips, and be sure to enter our Get Fit For 2009 giveaway for a chance to win a personalized nutrition plan created by Alexa, along with many other amazing goodies.

Now, for Alexa's breakfast advice:
While there is no one "best" breakfast, starting your day with a little bit of fiber (to get your bowels moving) and a little bit of protein (for sustained energy and appetite control) improves the overall quality of your diet. So, is cereal a healthy breakfast option? The way that I think about America's most popular breakfast food is that it provides us with energy to start the day (calories), some of our daily fiber requirement (try for at least 4 grams of fiber per serving), a multivitamin shot due to mandatory fortification of conventional (not organic) cereal grains, calcium, vitamin D, and protein from milk (preferably in the nonfat and lowfat varieties), and yes, a whole lot of sweet stuff.

To see what Alexa recommends eating, read more.

I'm not too worried about the added sweet stuff in general, as long as you stay away from children's cereals. Some no-brainer options include: Quaker Oatmeal, Cheerios, Fiber One, Total, Grape-Nuts, All-Bran, and the Kashi line of high-fiber cereals. Sprinkle your bowl with any fresh fruit or a tablespoon of dried fruit or nuts. Slurp up your milk to get your max nutrients - and you are good to go until your midmorning snack.

For more tips, check out all of Alexa’s Healthy Habits or pick up her book, The Daily Fix.

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Healthy Habit: Make Exercise a Priority

FitSugar — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 03:00:00 -0800

I love when nutritionists stress the importance of daily exercise, and that is exactly what nutritionist Alexa Fishback, author of The Daily Fix, does. Making exercise a priority is one of her twelve healthy habits that we should all adopt as we work toward our goal of healthy living for 2009. Along with sharing many of her healthy habits, Alexa will be creating a personalized nutrition plan for the lucky winner of our Get Fit For 2009 giveaway, which includes many other amazing goodies like a $1000 gift card for Nike gear.

Here's how Alexa suggests fitting exercise into your hectic life:
Fitting exercise into our busy lives can be a challenge, but you should walk at least 30 minutes almost everyday and workout at least four times a week at a higher intensity for at least 20 minutes. My advice on how to do this is twofold:

First: Build-in habitual walking to your life, such as a daily walk to work, can be a crucial way to maintain your weight. Thirty minutes a day can mean either a straight 30-minute power walk or it can be a 10-minute walk to work, a 10 minute walk around the corner for mid-morning coffee, and a 10 minute dog walk at night. However you attain it - 30 minutes of walking everyday is key to healthy living.

To learn the second half of her advice, read more.

Secondly: Plan ahead for more intense exercise, as if it were a mandatory meeting on your schedule, four to five days a week. This means you don't skip your workout if something else comes up; exercise needs to be a priority. Take it a step further and make plans to meet a friend for yoga or a trainer for a workout. Not only will you be letting yourself down if you bail, you will also be letting someone else down.

How do you fit exercise into your daily life? Tell me in the comments section below.

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Healthy Habit: Make Dinner at Home Once a Week

FitSugar — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 10:00:00 -0800

Did the new year motivate you to create some healthy habits? Nutritionist Alexa Fishback, author of The Daily Fix, suggests making one simple resolution this year: make dinner at home at least once a week. Cooking for yourself sets you on the right course for healthy eating. Along with sharing many of her healthy habits, Alexa will be creating a personalized nutrition plan for the lucky winner of our Get Fit For 2009 giveaway, along with many other amazing goodies.

Now here's Alexa's proposed dinner resolution:

A recent study of the eating habits of young adults, ages 18-23, revealed that those who purchased and prepared their own foods were more likely to meet dietary guidelines for fat, calcium, fruits, vegetables, and whole grain intake. Those who didn't prepare their own food had markedly inferior diets. I know many of you are busy with a capital B - so I am only asking you to try cooking once a week. Keep some staples on hand like diced tomatoes, brown rice, and canned beans, so you should have ingredients on hand so you can whip up a quick, tasty, and healthy meal. The Daily Fix has a very complete list of grocery items, from staples to frozen items, to help you along. If grocery shopping just doesn't fit into your life, try it online. I believe you can learn how to broil, bake, roast, and stir fry without a cooking degree.

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Healthy Habit: Get Fishy When Dining Out

FitSugar — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 08:00:00 -0800

Eating dinner out does not have to be a diet debacle. Nutritionist Alexa Fishback, author of The Daily Fix, believes dining out is an opportunity to eat fish without making your own kitchen smell fishy. Sounds reasonable right? Stay tuned for more tips from Alexa, and be sure to enter our Get Fit For 2009 giveaway for a chance to win a personalized nutrition plan created by Ms. Fishback, along with many other amazing goodies.

Now here's what she has to say on using dining out as an opportunity to eat fish:
The latest recommendation is for all women to enjoy at least 12 ounces, or 2-3 servings, of fish per week. The only caveat is that women of childbearing age avoid shark, swordfish, tilefish, and king mackerel as these large fish contain the highest levels of mercury. Otherwise - the beneficial qualities reaped from eating fish far outweigh mercury risks. It is a main source of heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids.

Some of us are weary about preparing fish in our homes, so to see some good options to order when you eat out, just read more:

At a steak house, forgo the meat and go for the nice selection of grilled or broiled fish or lobster.
Try sushi. Go for one roll and several pieces of sushi or sashimi.
At a French bistro, try a white fish, filleted and covered with lemon juice - it is delicious. Or, order the mussels in white wine or tomato sauce.
At Italian, go for the warm seafood salad - trust me, it is as tasty as any of the pasta dishes with less calories and more nutrition.

For more tips, check out all of Alexa’s Healthy Habits or pick up her book, The Daily Fix.

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Healthy Habit: Enjoy Your One Daily Alcoholic Drink

FitSugar — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 12:00:00 -0800

Eating healthier topped almost everyone's list of goals for 2009 and nutritionist Alexa Fishback, author of The Daily Fix, has 12 habits to help your goal stick. Just in time for the weekend. She's taking on cocktail hour. Stay tuned for more tips, and be sure to enter our Get Fit For 2009 giveaway for a chance to win a personalized nutrition plan created by Alexa, along with many other amazing goodies.

Here's Alexa's advice on negotiating happy hour:
Most of us hardly need an excuse to order a cocktail at the end of a long workday. The recommendation for women who are not pregnant is to only drink up to one alcoholic beverage per day. This is based on years of research that indicates that risk of disease, including certain cancers, increases when we consume more than one alcoholic drink a day. Furthermore, most cocktails contain at least 100 calories per serving, so moderate drinking (one drink per day) is crucial if you are trying to stay within your calorie budget. To see some strategies to keep from overdoing it when you are out on the town and susceptible to overindulging read more.

Dilute your white wine by ordering a spritzer (wine with a splash of seltzer - increases the portion of your drink and decreases the alcohol and calorie content.
Order a club soda with a splash of vodka. This is extra light on alcohol and calories, but you still feel like you are drinking something with some oomph.
Order a sparkling seltzer with lemon and lime sans any alcohol. No one has to know there isn't any alcohol in the glass - this is a good option to try after you have finished your one drink of the day!
Opt for a high-end version of your favorite spirit (tequila is a good option), and drink it on the rocks with a twist of lemon or lime. This is a drink that takes a long time to sip!

For more tips, check out all of Alexa’s Healthy Habits or pick up her book, The Daily Fix.

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